' Y.aLE«¥]MH¥E]^Sflir¥«'

THE

annals of tift englifi) MUt

IN TWO VOLUMES

VOL. I.

M D XXV— MD XXXVII.

" I CAN fcarce think any pains milTpent that bring me in folid evi
dences of that great truth, that the Scripture is the wrord of God,
which is indeed the Grand fundamental — And I ufe the Scripture,
not as an arfenal, to be reforted to only for arms and weapons to de
fend this, or that, party, or to defeat its enemies ; but as a matchlefs
Temple, where I delight to be, to contemplate the beauty, the fym-
metry, and the magnificence of the ftrufture, and to increafe my
awe, and excite my devotion to the Deity there preached and
adored."
The Hon. Robert Boyle.

TirmmAiL:

Crn.jA'x,i>€<^ -^y ' 'ff'^-ci.pnA.ft,

ZondoR,. WJ^Wc^-ut^JH-f.^

THE ANNALS OF

Cfte Cnglifl) mUt

BY

CHRISTOPHER ANDERSON

VOL. L

HonDon
V7ILLIAM PICKERING
1845.

PREFACE.

|HE work which is now offered to public attention,
has been drawn from authentic and unpublished
manuscripts, from the original printed authorities in
succession, and the editions of the Scriptures them
selves. It will be found to contain the historic Annals of the
English Bible, viewed in contrast or connexion with national
affairs ; including Memoirs of Tyndale, his contemporaries
and successors ; the first introduction of the Sacred Volume,
as printed in the native language, into England, Scotland,
and America ; the earliest triumphs of Divine Truth, and its
progress down to the present day ; the imperative obligations
of British Christians in such 'extraordinary possession of the
Word of aod.
In the literature of this country, although it has been so
often felt and regretted, a more observable deficiency does
not exist, than that of there being no history of the English
Bible. It may have been imagined, that such a narrative
could embrace no heart-stirring incidents, or incidents laid as
the foundation of a great design, no frequent peril of life, no
hair-breadth escapes, nor, especially, any of those transac
tions in which the vital interests of this nation have been in
volved. No mistake could have been greater, but whatever
has been the cause, the defect is notorious. The people of
every city alike, have never been informed, at what time, and
in what a singular manner, their ancestors first received the
oracles of God, as printed on the continent for their benefit.
As for their subsequent prevalence and effects, these form a
vein of British history which has never been explored.
VOL. r. b

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

PREFACE.

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

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

PREFACE. ii
turea would be demanded in the English tongue alone, than
in that of all other nations put together ! And, more espe
cially, as the number of versions now called for, and as con
templated by Britain, is above one hundred and fifty ! At
the outset, had any individual suggested the propriety of
printing twenty millions of English Bibles and Testaments,
what would every other man have thought or said ? The
proposal would have been fatal to the design. The general
result which so many have concurred in producing, was fore
seen by no one. Thus it is, that, by the agency of man, the
intentions of Providence are wrought out, in the guidance of
a nation, or the government of the world. In all our move
ments, or combinations. His hand and power appear at last,
conspicuously ; and if any seek for evidence, that, with all
our supposed shrewdness, we are still a governed race, he may
find it here. Like some of those great operations in nature,
which proceed unnoticed, amidst all the turmoil of this ever
shifting scene, this work has gone on, and arrived at a height,
which in the light of an event, is sufficient to arrest the atten
tion of every intelligent mind, exciting, as it ought, to deeper
inquiry and reflection.
But if the English Bible be so distinguished for the num
ber of its copies, it is equally, or rather more so, by the ex
tent to which it is now being read. With the movement of
the press, we have another movement, not less worthy of
notice, and one which renders the subject doubly interesting,
or rather momentous. It is about nineteen years ago, since it
was remarked by an acute living writer, Mr. Douglas — " The
world has not witnessed an emigration like that taking place,
from this kingdom to America, so extensive in its range, so
immeasurable in its consequences, since the dispersion of
mankind." He compared it to the principle of attraction in
the material world — " an influence which like that of Nature,
was universal without pause or relaxation ; and hordes of
emigrants were continually swarming off, as ceaseless in their
passage, and crowded, and unreturning as the passengers to
eternity." Since then, however, and especially with every re
turning spring, has come as certainly the season of migra
tion ; and from many seaports, our countrymen have been
sailing far and wide as the winds and waves could carry them.
In short, with the exception of the most remarkable of all

PREFACE.

people, the Jews, the English-speaking population has become
the most widely diffused of any branch of the family of man ;
and for years past this one kingdom has been in the act of
colonizing America, Africa, and Asia, nay, and Australia, or
New Holland, New Zealand, and the bosom of the Pacific.
A vast improvement also has taken place, in the character of
this emigration, rising, as it now does, to the more reputable
classes, and the higher ranks in British society, including
many a benevolent, humane, and Christian mind. Safely
may we anticipate that, at no distant day, " the wilderness
and the solitary place will be glad for them ;" but so far
as the Scriptures in our own English are concerned, we have
not to wait for an event, which has already taken place.
Emigration from one's native land, in almost every aspect,
is a subject which, it is granted, must awaken sombre feeling,
whether in those who depart never to return, or in those who
remain behind; yet in rising above our " Native nook of Earth,"
held so dear, there is one point of view, perhaps only one,
which can soothe the mind into perfect acquiescence. " Not
one hour of the twenty-four," it has been remarked, " not one
round of the minute hand of the dial is allowed to pass, in
which, on some portion of the surface of the globe, the air is
not filled with accents that are ours. They are heard in the or
dinary transactions of life ; or in the administration of law ;
in the deliberations of the senate-house, or council-chamber ;
in the offices of private devotion, or in the public observance
of the rites and duties of a common faith."* Has such a re
flection cheered on, in his toilsome path, the patient lexico
grapher ? How much more deeply ought every one, who speaks
this far-spread language, to be moved, when, in our day, he
casts his eye over the Sacred Volume. Adieus and farewells
at last die away in the contemplation of this great movement.
The Divine hand becomes apparent, not merely in guiding so
many thousands safely across the deep, and to the ends of the
earth, but in the numbers who carry with them the Sacred
Volume, in a language common to them all.
To many, no doubt, it might seem too bold, were we at once
to affirm that the English Bible is at present in the act of
being perused /ro?» the rising to the setting sun. The assertion

* Richardson's English Diet. Prcfa(

PREFACE. xi
might appear little else than a figure of speech, or an event to
be anticipated ; and yet this is no more than the half of the
truth. The fact, the singular and unprecedented fact, de
mands deliberate reflection from every British Christian,
whether at home or abroad. His Bible, at this moment, is
the only version in existence on which the sun never sets. We
know full well that it is actually in use on the banks of the
Ottawa and St. Lawrence, as well as at Sidney, Port Philip,
and Hobart Town ; but before his evening rays have left the
spires of Quebec or Montreal, his morning beams have already
shone for hours upon the shores of Australia and New Zealand.
And if it be reading by so many of our language in Canada,
while the sun is sinking on Lake Ontario ; in the eastern
world, where he has risen in his glory on the banks of the
Ganges, to the self-same Sacred Volume, many, who are no
less our countrymen, have already turned. Yet are all these
but as branches from one parent stock, under whose shade this
version, corrected and recorrected, has been reading by myriads
for three hundred years.
People talk of sublime spectacles, but what favour conferred
upon any other nation is once to be compared to this ? To an
enlightened English mind, no consideration as to this earth
can rise above it. Here, unquestionably, is the most elevated
point of view in which Britain can be viewed — the only true
summit of her greatness. How extraordinary that it has never
been distinctly, and with leisure, contemplated, nor with due
regard to its national importance ! Have we been so engrossed
by the local, or limited and inferior distinctions among our
selves, as to slight the grand one ? What, in ancient times
was the pre-eminence of the Jews ? Did it not consist in this,
that to them were entrusted the oracles of God ? But were
these ever committed to them as they have been to us ?
Jehovah had not so dealt with any nation ; but had he dealt
with even that nation, as he hath done with this ? If Divine
Revelation be regarded, in its proper light, as the voice of God,
to what people in existence has he ever spoken so long, so un
interruptedly, and now, above all others, so extensively ? It
was said of old, that " the mighty God, even Jehovah, hath
spoken, and called the earth, from the rising of the sun, to his
going down ;" and is it nothing, that in our language, by way
of eminence, this should have been first so singularly and lite-

PREFACE.

rally verified ? Such, at all events, is the present high and
momentous position of Britain and her sons.
If, from this moral elevation, we could once look down to
the valley below, and, guided only by impartial history, ob
serve the singular path by which the nation has been led up
to such an eminence, we should better understand what, and
how much, is involved in the history of Divine Revelation in
our native tongue ; to say nothing of many reflections which
could never before have occurred to any mind. The following
pages form an attempt to furnish the reader with such a his
tory, from the first sheets thrown off at the press, down to the
millions now dispersed and in use, whether at home or abroad.
But, even here, and before we descend — before we begin,
where the Almighty, in a manner so peculiar, began with this
nation — if, from this summit, we now look round, is there any
parallel case to be discerned ? — any nation upon ground so
high 1 No, not one, nor by many degrees : not even Ger
many, with all her Bibles. Yet is there nothing on which
the eye may and should rest, in the way of comparative con
trast ? Assuredly there is, for there is one other European
language upon which the sun also never sets. It is the Spanish,
and the contrast may be soon expressed. The Bible in Spain !
The Bible in Britain ! Two languages on which the sun
shines with no intermission, yet, in point of supply, are they
wide as the poles asunder I What a contrast is presented here,
whether we look to Spain herself, or to her offspring in those
colonies once all her own ! In the history of Europe at this
moment, no two facts of similar magnitude can be placed in
opposition before the human mind. One is almost reminded
of the sun, in comparison with a star of the smallest magni
tude. Let the contrast, the indescribable contrast, at once
humble and inspirit a people whom God has so distinguished.
To all those, therefore, who regard the Scriptures, printed
in our native tongue, to be infinitely the highest boon ever be
stowed on Britain ; or to the English Christian, whether he
be at home or abroad — in Britain, Ireland, or America — in In
dia, China, Australia, or New Zealand — the providential origin
of that Sacred Volume to which he daily turns his eye, cannot
be a subject void of interest. Its progress to completion he will
find to have involved a struggle, with which there is no other
to be compared— its history since, one that bears directly and

PREFACE. xiii
with great power on the present day ; and, once aware of cir
cumstances, when he himself sits down to the perusal of the
sacred page, whether in the temperate, the torrid, or the frigid
zone, he will be better able to regard the favour, as one of the
innumerable happy consequences of its original triumph over
all the enmity and rage displayed of old, and the barriers which
were raised in vain, against its reception into his native coun
try or fatherland.
With respect to the commencement of the following history,
the first half of the sixteenth century, embracing one of the
most eventful periods in the annals of Europe, is familiarly
known to have produced, in this country, a number of conspi
cuous characters, and the lives of almost every one of them,
have been given to the world again and again. One, however,
— and, in the proper sense of the term, as it regards his influ
ence on posterity — by far the most eminent, has been hitherto
all but overlooked. Often confounded or linked with other
men of very inferior consequence, there has been no reader of
English history who could possibly estimate the amount of his
obligations, to the modest and immortal William Tyndale.
Independently of his ability as one of the most powerful writers
of the age, when his name is connected with the Sacred Vo
lume, which he first translated from the original text into
English, which he first put to press, and then sent into his
native land, we have no other man to be compared with him at
the time ; and when to this is added, his unspotted personal
Christianity, his uncompromising spirit, and genuine patriot
ism, it is altogether unaccountable that every incident in his
valuable life has not been gleaned, and arranged into a distinct
memoir, long before the present day. Such a work, including
his noble convert and young companion, John Fryth, ought
to have been a household book for many generations back.
But in neglecting Tyndale personally, an object infinitely
above him has been neglected. In the course of her varied and
sino'ular history, there is no favour, we must repeat, bestowed
upon Britain, that is ever to be compared with the Bible in
her vulgar or vernacular tongue ; to say nothing of this being
now her most distinguished and distinguishable feature. But
for its free and unfettered perusal, the eminence to which she
has attained among the European nations, or confessedly above
them, had never been reached. Her rise and progress, in all

xiv PREFACE.
that is worthy of possession, can never be separated from this
heavenly gift or deposit. Yet, if this be granted, and the best
of her sons with one voice will do so, then, in the introduc
tion, or first importation of the Sacred Scriptures in type, at
siMth a period, and by such means, there must have been certain
paths, certain footsteps, in divine Providence, corresponding
to the greatness of the boon bestowed. In other words, though
the cause itself, in the morning of its origin, might seem only
like " smoking flax or a bruised reed," one might expect to
witness even national affairs, or the Crown itself, and the
movements of Government, treated, in many instances, as al
together subordinate. As far, then, as men in power and place
were concerned, the reader must now be left to judge whether
he does not observe the cause, emphatically in its commence
ment, and upon all necessary occasions ever after, like the star
in Joseph''s dream, to which " the sun and the moon, and the
eleven stars, made obeisance." These, and other singular oc
currences, it is true, ought to have been marked and recorded
long before three centuries had passed away ; but though they
have required to be sought out in the pages of original manu
script, and of rare books, and to be traced with scrupulous
caution, they are not the less worthy of observation now, and
more especially in the existing state of our country. Perhaps
some unknown benefit may be involved in so many important
incidents having been left for disclosure to the present hour.
The Scriptures in English manuscript, the revival of Letters,
as well as the Invention of Printing, preceded, by many years,
any application of that noble art to our English version. But
the entire period may be, or rather ought to be, regarded as
containing a series of events, preliminary to that memorable
occurrence, and, therefore, though but slightly sketched, they
require to be noticed in the light of a deliberate, yet appro
priate introduction. This, accordingly, has been attempted,
as due to the history following.
It is, however, the English Scriptures in print, and their
first introduction, especially into England and Scotland, with
their subsequent introduction to North America, which are
about to claim particular attention ; and as the path has never
been trodden before, some explanation becomes necessary, with
regard to the sources whence materials have been derived.
Having looked into the histories already named, as well as

PREFACE.

other kindred works, and observing not only the paucity of
facts, but various discrepancies among all these authors, the
writer's first resort was to that unrivalled store of original ma
nuscript in the British Museum. It was impossible to enter
tain any previous theory. Various details were expected,
though not the slightest hope was then indulged that any very
connected series of events could ever be drawn out. On dis
covering, however, to what extent these manuscript pages had
been permitted to remain in oblivion, he persevered. Im
portant original documents, both in the Chapter House of
Westminster, and in the State Paper Office, have also been
consulted ; and, of course, the State Papers, or Correspond
ence, in five volumes quarto, relating to England, Scotland,
and Ireland, printed since 1830, by the Government Commis
sion. After having gone over the entire surface of Tyndale's
age, the writer was highly obliged by the perusal and use of
various extracts of correspondence, collected by the indefatiga
ble industry of the Rev. Thomas Russell, A.M., the editor of
the works of Tyndale and Fryth. It was no trifling corrobo
ration when the author found himself not only unmoved from
a single position he had taken, but confirmed in his statements
by several incidental circumstances, some of which might have
escaped notice.
With reference to rare printed works, as well as scarce edi
tions of the Scriptures, besides the British Museum ; the Bod
leian at Oxford ; the University Library, that of St. John's
College, and others, at Cambridge; the Baptist Museum of Bris
tol ; the Althorp Library of Earl Spencer ; that of his Royal
Highness the Duke of Sussex, while yet entire, with those of
Lambeth and St. Paul's, have been consulted in succession ;
but to no other collection of Bibles and Testaments has the
author been so much indebted as to that of his friend Lea Wil
son, Esq. of Norwood Hill. In early days an English merchant
of Antwerp, will be found to occupy a conspicuous and honour
able place at the commencement of this history ; and it is in
perfect keeping with the entire narrative, that a collection so
rich, and in such a perfect state, should now be in the pos
session of a London merchant. Without his assistance as to
various minute particulars, the list at the close of this work
could not have been so complete. It will be found to contain
many authentic editions, which, altogether unknown, have

xvi PREFACE.
never been inserted in any account previously published. To
the polite kindness of the Right Honourable Thomas Gren-
ville, the author has been indebted, not only for access to that
distinguished library, but for the perusal of the frst edition of
Fox's Acts and Monuments, a folio of which it has been said
the inspection " non cuivis homini contingit." For the very
accurate sketches of Little Sodbury Manor House, under whose
roof the resolution of Tyndale was formed, and which may
therefore be regarded as the starting point in this vast inter-
prise, the writer has been obliged to his friend George Joseph
Bompas, M.D., of Fishponds, Bristol ; and certain particu
lars relating to the unique fragment of Tyndale's first New Tes
tament, have been kindly furnished by Mr. Thomas Rodd, of
Great Newport Street, London. The portrait of Tyndale is an
exact copy from a rare volume, namely, "Holland's Herwologia
Anglica." No. 89. This is considered to be the best likeness.
With regard to Scotland, living in Edinburgh, it need
scarcely be added, that satisfaction on certain points could
not have been obtained, without access to the invaluable Li
brary of the Faculty of Advocates, so freely granted ; and as
to books, among others, my special thanks are due to David
Laing, Esq. for the use of several rare pieces, unknown to the
English reader, by an illustrious Scotsman, who has been all
along better known in Germany than in his own country,
Alexander Ales or Aless (Alesius) of Edinburgh. Other ac
knowledgments will occur throughout these volumes, where
every authority, whether in manuscript or in print, has been
distinctly noted.'
' While these sheets were passing through the press the author has
enjoyed the advantage of a second journey on the Continent. Taking
occasion to visit the principal places ahout to be mentioned, not only
Antwerp and Mechlin, Vilvorde and Brussels, but other cities on both
banks of the Rhine, from Cologne to Strasburg, as well as Basil, Berne,
Zurich, and Geneva, he has only been more confirmed in the general cor
rectness of the history now given. Some discrepancies may be d&tected
in a work now first taken from the writer's manuscript, in which there
are so many references to authority ; but the general stream of the nar
rative, it is presumed, can never be disturbed.
The well known collection of Bibles and Testaments in the possession
of the King of Wirtemberg, time did not admit of his examining. But
though it be the only eminent collection which has not been explored

PREFACE.

The following pages, it is presumed, will be found to pos
sess one recommendation to many readers. They are re
moved, as far as it is possible to be, from what have been
styled polemics. Jaded as the human mind has often been
tor the last three hundred years, and especially in Britain,
with controversial divinity, it may be grateful to not a few.

it is believed that there is no English edition at Stuttgard which is not
to be found in the libraries of our native land. The Royal Library at
Paris is not at all remarkable for editions of the English Scriptures.
Into the once imperial city of Worms, where our first English New
Testaments appear to have been finished, and where a printing press
was first set up, three hundred and thirty years ago, any man may now
enter, and either reflect on the marriage of Charlemagne, or look on the
few remaining fragments of the ancient imperial palace ; he may visit
the Cathedral or Dom Kirche, standing as it did ; look into the little
Jewish Synagogue, above eight hundred years old ; or within a church at
the market place, the site of the venerable Rathhaus, stand upon the
ground which Luther trode when he appeared before the Emperor ; but
in reference to the printing office to which, only four years after, Tyndale
had repaired, it was in vain to inquire for the street or the corner where
Peter Schoeffer, or any other brother of the trade had once been so
busy. Not one solitary printer was to be found at work throughout
the city !
Cologne, on the contrary, where Tyndale had commenced his New
Testament at the press, exhibited a difi'erent aspect. Lately declared
to be a free port, and now also to be reached by railway, it promises to
rise to greater importance than ever before. It was indeed equally in
vain to inquire for the quarter where Ulric Zell, Henry and Peter
Quentel, or any other ancient printer, once plied their occupation, but
their works were to be found there. In one repository was a catalogue
of Bibles and Testaments (1843) such as is scarcely ever to be found
with any bookseUer in this country. Besides Polyglots, there were Bibles,
or parts of the Scriptures, in twenty-seven different languages. In He
brew, Greek, Latin, (in 240 articles,) Bthiopic, Arabic, Syriac, Persic,
Armenian, and even Tamulian or Malabar. And of European languages,
in Gothic,' Finnish, Danish, Russ, Slavonic, Turkish, Polish, German, (in
236 articles,) Wendish, Hungarian, Bohemian, Swiss, Italian, French,
Spanish, Portuguese, Belgian, and English. These, however, in general,
were ancient, not modem, editions, but amounting to more than 800
articles of sale, in the Bihliotheca of J. M. Hebbble. Here, also, the
verv rare tracts of Alexander Ales had been recently sold for a trifle,
which altogether in this country have fetched above four guineas.

PREFACE.

if they can find another walk, in past times down to the pre
sent, of such a character as lies at the root of all that has
ever existed under the name of Christianity within the king
dom ; and so important as in vital connexion with its progress
throughout the earth. If with the changing scenes through
which the history will be found to pass, it had ever forfeited
its original cast or character, there it might have terminated,
and there it ought. But, on the contrary, as the continuation
so singularly corresponds with the commencement, there was
to be found no halting-place before the present day.
In point of time, the history of our English Scriptures, from
the date of their first appearing in print, will be found to take
precedence of all the Institutions, Establishments, or local in
terests, within our shores. The noble contest, so singularly
commenced and conducted, was nearly decided before their
origin ; at least, the first brunt of the battle was over, and
Divine truth had been so effectually sown and rooted in our
native soil, that, from that early period, all the power of the
enemy has been in vain. This, of itself, gives the story a
preference, or a prior claim to consideration, before any other
narrative in the form, or under the name, of religious history.
Nor is this its only peculiarity. Ever since, the continuation
will be found maintaining a higher place, describing a larger,
and therefore a loftier circle, than that of any mere class or
denomination whatever ; embracing, without any interruption,
the Christian community of Britain in its widest sense. It
will continue throughout as independent of all local interests,
as it was before they had existence. That the history of the
English Bible has never before been viewed in this light, is
freely granted ; nor had the author himself the slightest idea of
this, its marked or distinguishing peculiarity, before he began.
It is now the more worthy of notice, and may prove of some
service, in different ways, beside that of promoting modesty
of statement by any single community in Britain. No sec
tion of Christians, it will be seen, of whatever name, can pos
sess any title to rank itself as having been essential, either to
the progress or to the general prevalence of the English Scrip
tures, much less to their original introduction. This is an
undertaking which has been uniformly conducted above their
sphere of judgment. Should this general prevalence turn out
to have been almost equally independent of the civil power,

PREFACE

from Henry the Eighth down to Charles the Second, or rather
to the present hour, it will form altogether by far the most
singular fact, as such, in the annals of the kingdom. It is a
feature in the history of our Bible, claiming supreme atten
tion from the existing age.
Upon the whole, the present forms a department in past
history, with which every Minister of the truth, in English,
ought to have been familiar long ago, nay, and every Parent
throughout the kingdom. As it regards instruction, as well
as ground for new reflections, it will be found to occupy a
course or channel peculiar to itself. Perhaps the fifth book in
our New Testament Scriptures, may in part explain its cha
racter. Men, indeed, have entitled that book " the Acts of
the Apostles ;" but it is in reality a history of the way and
manner in which " the Word of the Lord grew and multiplied,''''
— the Apostles themselves, whether as individuals or as a body,
being treated in perfect subordination to the grand or leading
design. In some faint resemblance to this manner, so ought
the history of the Divine Word, in our native tongue, to have
been attempted long since ; leaving men and things, whether
great characters or national events, in the subordinate places
which have actually belonged to them. At the same time,
such men and such events, viewed as they have now been,
sometimes in contrast, and at other times in connexion with
the progress of Divine Revelation itself, lend a peculiar zest
or life to the entire narrative. Upon the characters of Henry
VIII. and Wolsey, of Warham, Tunstal, or Sir Thomas
More, of Cranmer and Lord Crumwell, with many other men
well known under all the subsequent reigns, certainly no such
additional light could have been thrown, till they were brought
into immediate contact or contrast with the printing or circu
lation of the Scriptures in our native tongue.
Should the reader, therefore, at any time, wish to view
only the progress of that unequalled conflict in our national
history, which ended in the English Bible being given to
Britain, and extends to the close of the first volume, he may
do so, by following throughout the largest letter of the text ;
but if to understand also the existing state of the nation at
the moment, or those circumstances which render that pro
gress doubly striking, the smaller type must not be omitted.
While thus proceeding from year to year, he will see how

XX PREFACE.
unavailing were all the efforts of human malignity ; and how
feeble a thing is human nature, though armed with power
and pride, when striving to stem the progress of divine truth.
In the midst of enemies, from the throne downwards, all along
shewn to be so contemptible in themselves, when the moment
fixed for victory has come, the reader will share in the
triumphs of a conquest as perfect, as it seemed improbable.
But even from the commencement, and down to our own
times, or the close of the second volume, some such his
tory has become positively essential to a just estimate of
our present peculiar condition as a Nation, now by far the
most responsible under heaven. It may, and it will fur
nish motives to action, such as can be drawn from no
other retrospect. It forms a key, if not the only one, to
our highest imperative obligations ; and it may well be pon
dered, as the path by which Jehovah led our forefathers, in a
way of his own devising, with more than " the pillar of a cloud
by day, and a pillar of fire by night." In this view, the his
tory, though never written before, and therefore not under
stood, can never be out of date. It involves the commence
ment and continuance of a Cause, which is but pursuing its
course in our own day, not only to a wider extent, but with
greater energy than ever before, and yet to be pursued with
greater still.
In conclusion, the author, it will be evident, is far from
placing any reliance on the mere dispersion of Bibles, even by
the million ; but although no man can measure the conse
quences of the immutable standard of divine truth having
been exhibited to the eye of this nation, the spirit of the age
loudly demands, that the history of that exhibition should
now be more accurately known. Once understood, it must be
left to the judgment of every discerning reader, whether, at
the present crisis, in such unparalleled possession of the
Sacred Volume, British Christians can close their eyes with
impunity on the existing state of other nations — the condi
tion of a world.

Edinburgh,
I9th February 1845.

CONTENTS

THE FIRST VOLUME.

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

Page

THE ANNALS OK
HISTORY OF THE ENGLISH BIBLE.
BOOK I.— ENGLAND.
ffilie Eetfln af Henrs tf)e eis'bi't).

SECTION I.— 1484 M509-1523.
From the birth of Tyndale, the original translator, to his embarka
tion for the Continent, in pursuit of his design, .
SECTION II.— 1524-1525.
The New Testament in English preparing by Tyndale, for circu
lation in his native land ; and in two editions from the press by
the close of 1525— State of England immediately before the
reception of either edition, . • ...
VOL. 1. '''

44

xxn CONTENTS.

Page

SECTION III.— 1526.
Meniorable introduction of the New Testament into England — ^the
first two editions — the first alarm in London, Oxford, Cambridge
— the first burning of books — New Testament denounced by the
King and Wolsey— then by Tunstal and Warham— The Third
Edition — Violent contention respecting it — Burning the Sacred
Volume, abroad and at home — ^but all this fury is ineffectual, 87
SECTION IV.— 1527.
The Translator's progress — His earliest compositions — Agitation of
Europe — Sack of Rome — Consequences — Persecution in England
— Virulent Opposition to the New Testament — Warham and
the Bishops buying it up — Fresh importations — The Fourth
Edition — Scriptures singularly introduced once more, . . 134
SECTION v.— 1528.
Tyndale and Fryth — England and Spain — England and Italy — Re
trospect — Present persecution in England — Arrested by pre
vailing disease — Persecution in Antwerp — Nobly withstood,
and the English Envoy defeated — Wolsey's pursuit after Tyn
dale and others — His efforts are all in vain, . . .166
SECTION VI.— 1529.
Tyndale's progress in the Old Testament — Persecution in Eng
land — Thwarted once more — Tunstal at Antwerp — Wolsey's
career — Tyndale's influence in the Palace — Cranmer first em
ployed — Wolsey's fall — Lord Chancellor More — Rise of Crum
well — Parliament assembled — Commotion there — More, the
Bishops, and the King, in league against the Scriptures— Cov-
erdale sent to Hamburgh — Another or fifth edition of the
New Testament, so dreaded by the authorities, . . . 208
SECTION VII.— 1530.
Tyndale's progress in the Old Testament — Practice of prelates —
State of England — Wolsey's final ruin, sickness, death — Perse
cution goes on — King and prelates denounce the Scriptures —
Latimer's bold remonstrance — ^New Testaments burnt by Tun
stal — Another, the sixth edition — Vigorous importation going
forward — Death of S. Fyshe, ...... 241
SECTION VIII.— 1531.
Formidable opposition — Pursuit after Tyndale by the King and
Crumwell — Still in vain — Tyndale's answer to Sir T. More —
Epistle of John expounded — Jonah, with a prologue — Critical

CONTENTS. xxiii Paso
state of England — Renewed persecution — Brother of Tyndale .
— Bilney — 'Bayfield — Many books importing — Constantyne
caught — Escapes — Persecution abroad — Powerful remonstrance
from Antwerp, by Vaughan the English ambassador, with
Crumwell, including the King and the Lord Chancellor More, 266
SECTION IX.— 1532.
Tyndale's progress — Exposition in Matthew — His sentiments
under persecution — The King not appeased — Renewed pursuit
of Tyndale — Now by Sir Thomas Elyot — Still in vain — State
of England — Parliament — The Bishops fined — The King's af
fairs — Persecution goes on — Bainham — Latimer — More against
Tyndale — Fryth arrives in England — In peril — In the Tower
— Writing there in defence of the truth, and addressing the
Christians in England,  315
SECTION X.— 1533.
One distinguishing feature of Tyndale's course and character as
compared with <dl his contemporaries — His answer to Sir T. More
— His letter to Fryth in prison — State of England — Fryth's
voice from the Tower — Strange condition of England — The King
married — Cranmer's procedure — Gardiner roused — Fryth's ex
amination before the Bishops assembled — His triumph in argu
ment — Martyrdom — England and the Continent — One effect
of Fryth's death — Sir T. More writing still — One powerful op
ponent at home — More, considered as a controversialist — His
prodigious exertions — Other qualities — Finally overcome — The
prospect is rather brightening, ...... 350
SECTION XI.— 1534.
Tyndale all alone after Fryth's death — Genesis, second edition —
Fresh issue of the Pentateuch — Surreptitious edition of the
New Testament by Joye — The corrected and improved edition
by Tyndale — Joye's interference explained — State of England
 Parliament assembled — Separation from Rome — Constructive
treason — More and Fisher in trouble — The Pontiff's supremacy
at an end — The import of that event equally misunderstood in
England, by sovereign and subject — Divine truth in progress —
Richard Harman, an early importer of New Testaments, is now
in London — Restored to favour by the Queen — Glance at the
past and present— The New Testament importing in several edi
tions, in forcible contrast with the idle dreams of the Convocation, 391

XXIV CONTENTS.

Page

SECTION XII.— 1535.
Tyndale's apprehension at Antwerp — Imprisonment in the Castle
of Vilvorde — Distinct information conveyed to Crumwell and
Cranmer — The strenuous exertions of Thomas Poyntz — Risking
his own life for Tyndale's sake — Tyndale's progress in prison —
State of England — Key to its commotion — Henry's supremacy —
Fisher and More fall before it — The odium ensuing — The visita
tion of Monasteries — Cranmer and the Bishops — Cranmer and
Gardiner in collision — The latter offending — His dexterity or
address — He is translating Luke and John ! — Gardiner and Pole
— Spain — France — German States, and Barnes as envoy — The
Bishops applied to for a translation of the New Testament — A
fruitless attempt — And in contrast once more, with fresh edi
tions of Tyndale's translation, printed and importing this year, 416
SECTION XIII.— 1536.
Last year of Tyndale — State of England — Monasteries — The two
Queens — Anne Boleyn — Mock trial — Queen executed — Scene
succeeding — The new or unprecedented Parliament — Queen
Anne's treatment reviewed — Her character — The new or un
precedented Convocation — Latimer preaching before it — State
of parties there — Old and new learning — Proceedings in Con
vocation — The first articles — Crumwell's first injunctions — No
Bible mentioned —
Tyndale's latter days — Phillips once more — Cold indifference of
England — The Court of Brussels — Home and abroad now deeply
implicated — The martyrdom of Tyndale — His benevolent cha
racter — His reward — Poyntz, the friend of Tyndale — Future
history of the miserable betrayers — State of the Continent at
the time of Tyndale's death — State of England and her King
— The only prosperous cause, or the year which excelled all
the preceding — Nine or ten editions of Tyndale's Testament, 457
SECTION XIV.— 1537.
Memorable introduction of the entire Sacred Volume — Myles Oo-
verdale — His circumstances compared with Tyndale's  Cover-
dale's temporary success — The remarkably sudden change—
Tyndale's Bible — State of England before its introduction 
Cranmer's previous engagements — Tyndale's Bible arrived  ¦
Immediately received — Must be bought and read  The King
agrees— This at first seems to be incredible— Grafton the pro
prietor—All parties most memorably overruled— Distinction
between the Bible rejected and the Bible received  Conclusion
of the first year of triumph, ... ___

INTRODUCTION.

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

xxvi INTRODUCTION.
It was not, however, till after a long and profound sleep through
out the dreams and visions of the middle ages, that the human mind
was at last effectually roused to action ; and in none of the countries
throughout Europe more decidedly than in Italy and England.
But still, for some great moral purpose, worthy of infinite wisdom,
and to be afterwards disclosed, that mind, throughout all these
western kingdoms, was first to be permitted to discover what was
the utmost vigour of its native strength.
First came the age of the chisel, and the painter's pencil, and the
pen, not to say of the music of the human voice. Those stupendous
fabrics, which began to be erected from the tenth to the twelfth
centuries, in which the massive dullness of the Lombards, was giv
ing way to the influence of the Saracens of Spain, still stand out in
proof, that many hands were already busy, under the guidance of
some presiding ingenious mind. Literature and the fine arts, more
especially classical learning, painting, and sculpture, were then
to enjoy that triumph, the spoils of which now adorn the walls
of every palace, as well as the cabinets and libraries, the gal
leries and public rooms of every city in Europe. This triumph,
too, must take place in Italy, or in the very seat of that ex
traordinary power which had ruled for ages, with unmeasured
sway, over all the west ; for, throughout the long preceding night, it
could never be said that Rome herself had been either asleep or in
active. The Eternal City, as it was styled, the Lady of Kingdoms,
like the Assyrian of old, having " found out as a nest the riches of
the people ; as one gathereth eggs that are left, so had she gathered
all the earth ;" and, generally speaking, it was only here and there
that some solitary individual " moved the wing, or opened the
mouth, or peeped."
There vvas, however, one singular peculiarity belonging to this
power. Ruling over the mind, its vigour seemed to increase with its
remoteness from the seat of government ; and the thunders of the
Vatican, unlike those of nature, often struck terror in proportion to
the distance at which they were heard. This much at least is cer
tain, that though Great Britain and Ireland formed the utmost con
fines of that power on the west, there was no country between these
islands and Italy where the Roman Pontiff felt such confidence of his
strength, nor one which was more harassed and oppressed by his pe
cuniary exactions. The western states of Europe, even the most re
mote, had, indeed, all couched down under their burdens, and that
for ages,^ before the full claims of the Rota, or pontifical conclave,
were admitted upon Italian ground. Nor is this mystery inexpli
cable. Kings, however despotic, had by degrees been moulded to
subjection ; but the stern Republics of Italy, composed of a metal

VENICE, IN ITS ORIGIN. xxvii
least of all malleable, long remained hard, unbending, and most vex
atious neighbours. To say nothing of Florence, Pisa, or Genoa, it is
well known that even in the diocese of Italy, properly so called, the
Milanese had resisted the claims of the Pontiff down to the eleventh
century; and during the twelfth, the country was covered with
cities still fighting for liberty; but that, so very near to Rome,
there should have been such a power or form of government as that
of Venice, at once arrests attention as by far the most extraordinary
point in European history. As this remarkable State, less than two
hundred and fifty miles distant from Rome itself, " arose before the
old empire of Rome was swept away, endured through the barbarism
of the northern irruptions, as well as through all the darkness ensu
ing, and was only extinguished by Napoleon within our own times,
its history forms a connecting chain, if not the only one that can
now be traced, between the Europe of the Romans, of the middle
ages, and of modern history."' With its internal feuds we do not
interfere ; but no survey, however brief, can be complete where Ve
nice is overlooked.^
An insignificant band of fugitives, in the fifth century, took pos
session of the rocks and little islands on the north-west shores of the
Adriatic sea. Cut off from all possessions on the mainland, not pos
sessing one foot of land there for eight hundred years, but surround
ed by their own marshes, they were at first ruled by magistrates
sent down from Padua. This people, resolved to provide for their
own security, form a government for themselves. " Detestation of
the despotic authority or government of one man, and an inflexible
determination to remain a separate and distinct people, were the two
principles by which the Venetians were guided, and upon which
they continued to act with the steadiness and success of a natural
principle." At the close of the seventh century, indeed, they elect
ed a chief magistrate, (the Doge, Dux, or Duke,) whose ofiiee was
to continue for life, and the people to choose his successor ; but his
powers, though vast, were rendered next to nominal by those of the
Council and the other magistrates. Without his Council the Doge
durst not open an ofiicial letter, and much less do any thing ofiicial.
Yet here, and at a moment when every prince in Europe was a vas
sal to the Emperor, either of the East or West, the Venetians, un
subdued, were rising to greater opulence and strength. Though
Pepin fought against them with all his strength, they conquered, and
• As early aa the year 1268, a law passed in Venice, enjoining the Ambassadors of the Re
public to note down and communicate whatever they could observe, and these curious as well
as valuable reports, well known as the Venetian ll£lanom, referring to all the courts of Eu
rope, continued from time to time for above five hundred years. The last, full of striking and
accurate information, relates to the commencement of the French Revolution in 1792.—Eanke.
2 For most of these facts as to Venice we are indebted to Daru or Siamondi, and an able ar
ticle on' the Venetian constitution in the Edinburgh Review, vol. xlvi.

xxviii INTRODUCTION. [xill. CENT.
put an end to all claims on their allegiance ; Charlemagne had no
choice left except to declare them independent.
At a much later period when we turn to Rome under successive
Pontiffs, and their insatiable thirst for power ; while the Doge of
Venice convoked the people, whether from the different islands or
the districts of the capital, for the purpose of choosing their own
pastors and bishops ; not one of whom, by fixed and original laws,
could hold any civil office, whether of honour or emolument ; to
him belonged the power of installing these Bishops, as well as of
awarding all ecclesiastical punishments. The assertion of such
rights, of course, could not be easily maintained, and more espe
cially in the neighbourhood of a power which had determined to
overshadow all the earth : but as the beginning of the thirteenth
century may be truly regarded as the twilight of a better day,
Venice, amidst her own rocks in the sea, will serve as a contrast to
the entire surface of Europe, and prove the extent to which she had
still secured her independence. THE THIRTEENTH CENTURY.
In our own country, at the commencement of this century, poor
King John was actually promising to make his kingdom tributary
to the Pontiff, with a proffer of not less than a thousand merks, or
a sum equal to £20,000 now, over and above the old tribute : and
although the Barons soon after wrested Magna Charta from him, to
shew how low the kingdom had sunk, we find the Pontiff, at this
same John's request, annulling the proceedings. The great char
ters, it is true, were confirmed by his successor, Henry III. ; but
the power of Rome was growing every day during his fifty-six
years reign. It was then that the Pontiff was exclaiming — " Truly,
England is our garden of delight ! It is an unexhausted well ! and
where so much abounds, much may be acquired." No wonder that
he thus exulted, when his income from England was three times as
much as that of the King on the throne. "^ But, above all, in proof
of the Pontiff's power towards the west, this was the era of that
detestable persecution of the Albigenses, pursued with such hideous
cruelty. The execrable measure, in which plunder was the grand
object, was counselled, planned, and commanded by Rome.
Now, if we seek for any relieving contrast throughout the entire
century, it is to Italy itself that we must turn our eye. Even in
the neighbouring Republic of Florence, it is true, amidst the sur
rounding gloom, Dante had begun to sing, in his own style, about

3 Under Innocent IV. his revenue from England was 70,000 merks, that of the Crown was
not 30,000.— Gcojstefc. After this it went on increasing.— JIf. Paris, Flora Histor.

THE REPUBLIC OF VENICE. xxix
paradise and the infernal regions, not forgetting to intermingle cer
tain severe allusions with his poem ; and, besides this, there was his
treatise " Monarchia," distinctly hostile to the claims of Rome : but
for the bolder contrast to the sentiments of all Europe, we must
look to Venice. It is admitted that in the commencement of this cen
tury the Venetians had chosen to apply to Rome for an indulgence,
but this was merely to facilitate a treaty with the Caliphs of Egypt.
Eager to retain their commerce with the East Indies, they wished to
open a communication between the Nile and the Red Sea ; and had
they succeeded, perhaps the trade might never have passed from their
hands. Still, this application betrayed no disposition to bow alle
giance. On the contrary, this ancient Republic had reigned, for
more than two centuries, as Lords-paramount of the Adriatic : and
although that gulf washed the shores of various States, those of the
Roman Church among the number, not one of them dared to navi
gate it, or even fish in its waters, without a license from Venice, for
which they paid a heavy tribute. When one sovereign Pontiff pre
sumed to inquire, by what right they pretended to domineer there,
the brief reply given was — " That sea is ours."
But the sea would not suffice any longer as the bounds of their
sovereignty ; and, therefore, about the middle of this century, they
began to acquire land. Arvi in Romagna was taken under their
special protection, much in the same style as the provinces of India
have since been taken under that of Britain. This place belonged
to the Church, and that in the opinion of the Emperor ; but even he
said not a word. It so happened, too, that the Venetians did not
approve of any ecclesiastic engaging in war, and if he did, at their
hands he must abide the consequences. The Captains-General of
the Pontiff's troops, were dignitaries of his Church. Such a pri
soner being taken, with his crosier, sceptre, and sword ; the Vene
tians condemned him to ride, sitting backwards, on a mule, and pre
ceded by the common crier, proclaiming — " Behold the wicked
priest, who displeased God in his life, and was taken in iniquity."
Such a proceeding, in the year 1274, had no parallel in any other
part of Europe.
It was little more than seven years after this when the Pontiff,
Martin IV., having, in his customary style, given the sovereignty
of Naples to Charles of Anjou, and proclaimed a crusade against the
lawful heir, chose also to excommunicate the Venetians because they
would not unite in the outrage. But was the result similar to that
which ensued, in all other nations ? On the contrary, for three long
years, no priests officiated, no prayers were offered in their churches,
and without yielding, they allowed the Pontiff to die ! His
successor, Honorius IV,, at last succeeded, and removed the inter-

XXX INTRODUCTION. [xill. CENT.
diet. There had indeed been one condition, and that was no other
than that the Inquisition should be admitted. But here, again, the
terms were unprecedented, triumphantly sufficient to destroy its
character, and point out Venice as an exception, if not a signal, to
all other countries. The negotiation for this end, had, in all cases,
no other than political objects in view, and the Court of Rome had
persevered with Venice throughout the successive reigns of ten Pon
tiffs ; but the termination only shewed the superior sagacity and
continued power of the Republic. Thus — if three ecclesiastics were
to take cognizance of heresy there, then they must be subject to the
control of magistrates chosen by the Great Council ; and if there
were to be three such judges, one of them must be a natural subject
of the Republic, the Bishop of Venice. But again, if these three
men were to derive authority from the Pontiff, then they could not
sit down on their tribunal, without a commission in writing from
the Doge. If they were to convict of heresy in any instance, then
every Jew and even Turk must be free, as not belonging to the
Pontiff's community ; nay, and every member of the Greek Church,
as their controversy with Rome was still undecided. Moreover, no
usurer was to be seized by them, though one of the most desirable
of all characters ; because, though violating the precepts of religion,
he did not dispute its dogmas ; no blasphemer, because though guilty
of irreverence, he was not of schism or innovation ; nor even any
bigamist, because the second marriage was a violation of a civil
bond. In short, at a period distinguished for general blindness or
pusillanimity, here was one exception to both. The Venetians ne
gotiated with their eyes open, and were not to be outwitted. The
interests of commerce were with them superior to every other con
sideration, and to preserve it from all injury or vexatious interrup
tion, the sovereign Pontiff himself must still keep his distance.
The century closed at Venice by a marked alteration in this
singular Government, or the exchange of the Republican form for
that hereditary and severe Aristocracy, which became the diploma
tic model of its day. But it is unnecessary to pursue the subject
farther. We have come to the commencement of another century
and our assertion thus far is proved. The Pontiff and his fellows,
had been all along more potent at a distance, than at home under
their native sky ; and the one great lesson afforded by the Italian
Republics, and especially Venice, was this, that the power of
Rome, when at its height, was resistible. This too becomes still
more worthy of notice, inasmuch as the freedom enjoyed in these
commercial states was not that which we now understand by the
term — far from it. In numerous instances, the lives, the property
and even the honour of the citizens were not secured ; but in ages

THE ITALIAN SCHOOL OP LETTERS. xxxi
when the reason of mankind had been subdued, and their rulers
were reduced to vassals, these lesser communities, under an Italian
sky, had proved what reason and the power of resistance could do.
Two hundred years before Henry the Eighth was born, Venice had
shewn that Rome's loudest thunder might fall innocuous to the
ground. Immovable and unshaken, and though uniting some of
the most odious practices of despotism with the name of liberty, yet
bent upon securing certain rights, and prosperity to commerce, a
mere handful of people in the adjoining sea had continued to testify
to the millions of Europe, that the power they so much dreaded
might be braved with impunity.
Thus terminated the thirteenth century, but we are still more
than two hundred years distant from the period when the Sacred
Scriptures were first printed in the vernacular tongue ; and yet
both centuries may now be viewed with considerable advantage as
an approach or gradual introduction to that important event.
THE FOURTEENTH CENTURY.
In the course of the fourteenth century, whether we look to Ger
many, to Italy, or our own country, the events are equally interest
ing, and fuU of promise. Within the first of these, the influence of
that singular confederation, called the " Hanse Towns," had begun
to be felt. The league, by this time, included more than sixty
cities. These had commerce for their common object or bond of
union ; but they were the germs of future freedom, and ultimately
contributed, in no inferior degree, to the protection of individual
rights. Thus early was Divine Providence in operation with a
view to a better day. At the same time, nothing can be more
natural than that an Italian author should claim for his country the
precedence of all other nations, whether as to the science of govern
ment, or the revival of learning. He is well entitled to speak out ;
and on account of the result, he ought to be first heard, not only in
this, but more especially in the next, or the fifteenth century.
" The science of governing men for their advantage," says one of
the ablest native authorities, " of developing their individual facul
ties, intellectual and moral, for their greater happiness — that politi
cal philosophy, began in Europe only with the Italian Republics of
the middle ages, and from thence diffused itself over other nations."
Again, " The Italians, in the fourteenth century, discovered, as it
were anew the ancient world : they felt an affinity of thoughts,
hopes, and tastes with the best Latin writers, which inspired them
with the highest admiration. Petrarch, and particularly Boccaccio,
passed from this study to that of Grecian antiquity ; and on the
solicitation of the latter, the Republic of Florence in 1360 founded

xxxii INTRODUCTION. [xiv. CENT.
a chair of Grecian literature, the first in the west.* A passion for
erudition spread from one end of Italy to the other, with an ardour
proportionable to the dark ignorance of the preceding centuries. It
was imagined that all knowledge consisted in knowing and imitating
the ancient masters. The highest glory was attached to classical
learning; and Petrarch and Boccaccio attained a degree of cele
brity, credit, and power, unequalled by any other men in the mid
dle ages — not by reason of those merits which we feel at the present
day, but as the pontiffs and interpreters of antiquity."
" We owe to the learned of the fourteenth century, and to their
school, a deep sentiment of gratitude. They discovered and rendered
intelligible to us all the chefs d'ceuvre of antiquity. Fragments only
of classic works remained, scattered throughout Europe, and on the
point of being lost. These learned men of Italy collected, collated, and
explained them ; without their antiquarian zeal, all the experience
of past ages, all the models of taste, all the great works of genius,
would never have reached us, and probably, without such guides, we
should never have attained the point on which we now stand." ^
In thus writing, the author, of course, had in his eye, not only
the close of the fourteenth, but the greater part of the fifteenth cen
tury, when Italy, in truth, became the garden of literature and the
arts, the wonder and delightful resort of the learned throughout Eu
rope. As a fact, it is of importance, not only to concede, but observe
this, and let the precedence be fully understood as holding a place in
the course of events about to transpire. The learning and refine
ment of Italy, about to assume that position in history which the
wisdom of Greece had done in the days of old, must enjoy her long
reign of a hundred and fifty years without any superior. Now that
the human mind is waking up, let the Italian " imagine that all know
ledge consisted in knowing and imitating the ancient masters," and
let " the highest glory be attached to classical learning ; " let the

4 The first lecturer was Leo, or Leontius Piiatus, who filled the chair, however, only three
years. In returning to Italy by sea, after revisiting Greece, the ship was caught in a tempest.
Leo had lashed himself to the mast, but was killed by lightning.— ^mn^^on's Middle Ages.
6 SiSMONDi. Such is the exultation of the Italian author. At the same time it must be borne
in mind, that certain learned men, far to the west, had not been left ignorant at least of thofacls
recorded in Greek authors. The Arabic translations, and Latin from the Arabic, in the twelfth
century, however barbarous in style, might have compensated as to the scientific facts, though
the Greek classics had been lost. At least so Scaliger insisted. These were being read and
discover a thirst after Greek science, even in Spain, There the Jew as well as the Saracen
had been striving to excel, and it has been remarked by Forstcr, that as Isaac and Ishmael
met together as brethren, at the praue of Abraham, their common father, so, after many ages,
the posterity of both had met, not to destroy each other, but to display the full extent of their
intellectual power. Under the Caliphs, instead of the canonical policy of proselyting by the
sword, both Saracen and Jew were permitted to try the efficacy of the pen. Their career, how
ever, was soon run, and whatever may be said of architecture, as to literature, certainly little
or no decided progress was made till the Italians had studied and translated the Greek ori
ginals. Then, whatever had been dark or mysterious throughout the middle ages, became
clear and defined.

THE RISING CLAIMS OF ENGLAND. xxxiii
" chief works of antiquity be rendered intelligible," and the men of
Italy " collect, collate, and explain them." In short, as Greece is
coming to the assistance of Rome, and " the great masters" must
first rise to show the extent of their powers ; since the former, at
the commencement of the Christian era, had stood in a peculiar
relation to the surrounding nations — so, let Italy now stand in the
same relation to Europe. Distinguished for classical learning, and
first in the arts, if not the sciences, she claims to be the well-spring
of all the less civilized nations in the west. Minute criticism may
here be dispensed with, nor does any admirer of the Sacred Volume
need to object to the fullest concession. Let Dante and Petrarch
for the moment, and Boccaccio and Poggio Bracciolini lead the way.
In all this, however, it must now be granted in return, there was
literally nothing of Divine light, properly so called — no reverent,
distinct approach to the Sacred Volume ; and this becomes the more
observable, as the only country in Europe to which we can look for
this, was that which, of all others, was held in greatest contempt by
Italy; to say nothing of its being at once the most distant from Rome,
if not also the most oppressed by that power. This was no other
than our native land. Bracciolini, the last of these Italian scholars,
had actually visited it, and viewed this country with chagrin, if not
disdain, when compared with the enthusiastic love of classical litera
ture which polished and adorned his country.^
Yes, so far as the revival of learning was concerned, it is worthy
of particular notice that, in England, it was associated, even from
this early period, with a special leaning towards the Oracles of God,
and that on the part of several eminent men, all alike well known,
not only at home, but as distant as Italy. Of these, in proof, we can
not omit to notice four — Rohert Grossteste, Richard Aungerville,
Richard Fiiaralph, and, above all, our own Wickliffe.
The 'first of these, indeed, Grossteste, died as early as the year 1263, and,
three years before that event, made no scruple, when preaching at Lyon before
Innocent IV., to arraign his clergy, in the boldest terms, for their ignorance,
and arrogance, and^flagitious conduct. Now this was above an hundred years
before the erection of Boccaccio's chair for Greek in Florence ; and yet cer
tainly Grossteste was not unacquainted with either Greek or Hebrew. He had
translated Bionysius the Areopagite 7 and Damascenus into Latin—had facili
tated the knowledge of Greek by a translation of Suidas's Lexicon — had pro
moted John of Basingstoke because he was a Greek scholar, and possessed of
Greek manuscripts, which he is said to have brought from Athens. Nicholas,
surnamed Grsecus, resided with Grossteste, to help him in translating from the
Greek ; nor should it be forgotten that, however humble might be the claims

6 Shepherd's Life of Poggio, 1802.
7 A spurious book, it is true, and one upon which Grocyn lectured at St. Paul's as genuine,
till, examining its authenticity, he discovered his mistake, and then, with becoming candour,
openly explained that he had been in error.

Xxxiv INTRODUCTION. [XIV. CENT.
of this eminent man to the character of a Grecian, all this happened above a cen
tury before that Boccaccio himself had positively asserted of the Italian scholars,
that they did not know so much as the Greek alphabet. Nor was Grossteste
unacquainted with Hebrew, though we cannot assert, with Wharton, that he was
profoundly skilled in it. The number of Jews then in England, as well as of
Hebrew manuscripts, fully accounts for what might seem incredible to those who
have not looked into the times.8 At this early period, however, the chief
eminence of Grossteste arose from his being a decided friend to vernacular
translations of the Scriptures. " It is the will of God," said he, " that the
Holy Scriptures should be translated by many translators, and that there should
be dififerent translations in the Church, so that what is obscurely expressed by
one, may be more perspicuously rendered by another. "9 _ Was there any other
country in Europe where as much had been expressed by any man, before the
middle of the fourteenth century ? If not, then let Grossteste or Greathead
be allowed to have sounded, if not the first, one of the earliest feeble notes of
preparation ; though more than a hundred years must pass away before the
subject be taken up in good earnest, and though England, confessedly, will
first sink into greater barbarism.
Richard of Buby, (son of Sir Richard Aungerville) the Chancellor of
England and Bishop of Diu'ham, who died before the middle of the fourteenth
century, was a man more to the Italian taste, so far as a passion for literature
was concerned. If we allow him to express his own feelings, he was " carried
away and even beside himself with immoderate love of books, and desire of
reading -"^^ though there was one fault, too much akin to the rest of his order,
a desire to monopolize every book to themselves." This man employed col
lectors not only in England, but in France, Italy, and Germany. Perfectly
familiar with French from his residence in that country, at one period he re
garded Paris, on account of its literature, as the " paradise of the world ;'' at
another, he laments over its decline. But he visited Italy also, and there met
with Petrarch. The celebrated Italian, indeed, mentions Aungerville in one
of his epistles — Virum ardentis ingenii.'^^
But there was yet another Richard, well known to the last, of a superior
character, and far more diffusive spirit. This was Fitzralph, an Irishman,
too, and the energetic precursor of Wickliffe, in opposition to the Friars. Born,
8 From the time of William the Conqueror numbers of Jews had come into England. In the
beginning of the twelfth century there were as many as 1500 at York. At Bury, in Suffolk, their
synagogue. was large. In addition to London, they are mentioned as living at Lincoln, Northamp
ton, and Norwich, at Ramsey, Stamford, and Marlborough, Andover, Derby, and Oxford. Often
had they been exposed to wanton cruelty, till at last, in 1290, they were unwisely, as well as
barbarously banished by Edward I., when their number amounted to above 16,000. Their resi
dence had been of advantage to the country, if we may judge by a period oi oialj eight years, from
December 1265, to February 1274, as given by Sir E. Coke. They bad paid to the Crown
£420,000, an immense sum in those days. They were branded, indeed, as usurers ; but they
were not more so than the Italians, who remained here under protection. This banishment
however, we have noticed, because it was favourable to the difTusion of Hebrew manuscripts,
many of which fell into the hands of Roger Bacon and other friars. The Abbey of Ramsey was
distinguished as a depository. The Hebrew Lexicon, compiled by Holbeach, one of its inmates,
was preserved from destruction, in 1536, by Robert Wakefield, the first Professor of Hebrew at
Oxford. See Warton, Rapin, and Townley's Biblical Literature.
9 " Deus voluit, ut plures interpretes S. Scripturam transferrent, et diversje Translationes in
ecclesia essent ; idcirco ut quodunus ohscuritis dixerat, alter manifestius redderit." — fVhartoni
Auct. Hist. Dogmat, c. 2, pp. 416-418. See also Townley's Biblical Literature, and Warton's
Dissertation, 2.
10 '* Exstatico quodam libroruni amore potenter se abreptum."
1 1 " Laicii omnium librorum communione sunt indigni!"
'2 Petrarch says, that he once had a conversation with him respecting the " Ultima Thule "
of the ancients, as if he had come from near the end of the earth.

PREDECESSORS OF WICKLIFFE. xxxv
l! ''r.i''j^" ^^'^' '^^ ^"'"^^''' ^'^^' at a" events, certainly there interred, though
ne had died at Avignon, Fitzralph, then Primate of Ireland, after preacliing
indelatigably in that country and in London, had gone to face Innocent VI
Himself, on the subject of those exactions and abuses which had become p'ast
au endurance. If Aungerville was bent upon collecting and engrossing all
books ; still farther to the west than even the " Thule" of the Ancients, at the
utmost verge of the Pontiif's authority, even in Ireland itself, there was then a
thirst after knowledge which could not be satisfied. Fitzralph complained aloud,
and told Innocent that « no book could stir, whether in divinity, law, or physic,
but these Friars were able and ready to buy it up,"— « that he himself had'
sent four of his secular chaplains from Armagh to Oxford, who sent him word
again that they could neither find the Bible, nor any other good profitable
book in divinity, meet for their study, and therefore were minded to retm-n
home to their own country."
As for the Primate himself, by his own account, " the Lord had taught him,
and brought him out of the" profomid vanities of Aristotle's philosophy, to the'
Scriptures of God." « To thee be praise," says he, at the commencement of
his life, written by himself, once in the possession of Foxe, and which he meant
to have printed,—" To thee be praise, to thee be glory, to thee be thanksgiv
ing, O Jesus most holy, Jesus most powerful, Jesus most amiable  who hast
said, ' I am the way, the truth, and the life,' —a way without deviation, truth
without a cloud, and life without end. For thou the way hast shewn me, thou
the truth hast taught me, and thou the life hast promised me. A way thou
wast to me, in exile, the truth thou wast to me, in counsel, and life thou wilt be
to me, in reward.l3
Could the assertion which has been often repeated, only be confirmed, that
Fitzralph translated the New Testament into the Irish language, or that such
a translation existed in his time, it would form one of the most curious facts in
the history of modern literature ; pointing out Ireland as that country in Eu
rope which had been the first pitied, as it has been the last. '* But, at all
events, in the very same year, or 1360, in which Fitzralph expired at Avignon,
John Wickliff'e, at the age of thu7ty-six, was allured from his hitherto retired
life ; and when he came to write his " Trialogue," he speaks of Fitzralph as
having preceded him, in terms of high commendation.!*
We have now, however, arrived at a point in history fraught with
the deepest interest, and bearing so directly on the subject of the
following pages, that it becomes necessary to pause a few moments,
and look round. Let Grecian literature, by all means, revive in
Italy, for this will be drawn upon, as soon as the proper time arrives ;
but, in the meanwhile, something else must be accomplished and very

IB " Tibi laus, tibi gloria, tibi gratiarum actio, Jesu piissime, Jesu potentissime, Jesu dulcis-
sime ; qui dixiste, ' Ego sum via, Veritas et vita.' Via sine devio ; Veritas sine nubilo, et vita
sine termino. Quod tute viam mihi ostendisti; tute veritatem me docuisti ; et tute vitam mihi
promisisti. Via eras mihi in exilio ; Veritas eras in consilio ; et vita oris mihi in pramio."
J4 Archbishop Ussher speaks of certain fragments of such a translation being in existence
even in his own time. For various other particulars respecting Fitzralph, the author may refer
to his " Historical Sketches of the Native Irish," or to the third edition of that work, entitled,
" The Native Irish and their Descendants."
'5 " Ab Anglorum episcopis conductus Armachanus novem in Avlnione conclusiones coram
Innocentio 6. et suorum cardinalium cffilu, contra fratrum mendicitatem, audacter publicavit
Verboque ; ac scriptis ad mortem usque defendit.' — Wickliffe's Trialogus, 4to, 1525.

XXXvi INTRODUCTION. [XIV. CENT.
far to the west. The event which took place was not only a marked
and powerful one, in relation to England, but it formed the first of
a series in Europe, although more than an entire century passed
away before the precedent was followed by other countries. We
refer to the translation of the entire Sacred Volume into the lan
guage spoken by the people. Fragments there had been in several
languages, but the present work being complete from Genesis to Re
velation, intelligible to the common people of that day, and intended
for their express perusal, may be regarded as the first positive in
stance of its kind in modern Europe. It is, at least, the only one
in the fourteenth century upon which we can now lay our hand, no
continental nation having any thing similar to produce.
John Wickliffe, a native of Yorkshire, was born in the year
1324, and, in 1360, at the age of thirty-six, first came into public
view, where he conspicuously remained to the day of his death, or
the 31st of December 1384. For his life and opinions we refer to
other sources, and must here confine our attention to that work
which will ever give the chief distinction to his name.
Before the commencement of such a design, the position of
Wicklifie should be contemplated. To say nothing of the Maho
metan and Pagan worlds, two other communities had extended their
infiuence over the nations. Alike opposed to the right of private judg
ment, and the rising freedom of the human mind, and now equally
sunk into a state of unutterable depravity, both had fixed a malig
nant eye on that very book which WickliflTe had determined to give
to his country. These two, it is well known, were the Eastern and
Western, or the Greek and Latin Churches. Both had not only, and
long since, utterly neglected and contemned the Sacred Writings, but
both had interdicted their translation into any vernacular tongue.
That it was not only unlawful, but injurious, for the people at large
to read the Scriptures, had, indeed, for ages, been regarded as an
axiom, by all these nations. Nor was this idea left to pass current
merely as a received opinion. Not to mention other proofs, more
than an hundred and fifty years before Wicklifie had finished his
determined purpose, or in the year 1229, at the Council of Toulouse,
when forty-five canons were passed and issued for the extinction of
heresy and the re-establishment of peace, what were two of those
canons ? One involved the frst court of inquisition, and another
the frst canon, which forbade the Scriptures to the laity, or the
translation of any portion of them into the vulgar tongue. The lat
ter was expressed in very pointed terms.
" We also forbid the laity to possess any of the books of the Old
of New Testament, except, perhaps, the Psalter or Breviary for the
Divine Offices, or the Hours of the Blessed Virgin, which some, out

THE TIMES OF WICKLIFFE.

xxxvu

of devotion wish to have ; but having any of these books translated
into the vulgar tongue, we strictly forhid.^^
^ w' M-r^ ^^^ *''''' ^""^ ^" """^^ t^^a^ "^^ °o^ be explained,
must Wickhfi-e commence his heartfelt task ; and so he did, with his
eyes open to the prejudices of a world. His translation, which was
finished m the year 1380, is supposed to have occupied him, amidst
vanous interruptions, for many years. Some have imagined that
this great work employed the translator for ten years only, but Mr
Baber, with far greater probability, has said, " From an eariy
period of his life he had devoted his various learning, and all the
powerful energies of his mind, to eflfect this, and, at length, by in
tense application on his own part, and with some assistance from
a few of the most learned of his followers, he had the glory to com
plete a book, which, alone, would have been sufficient (or at least
ought) to have procured him the veneration of his own age, and the
commendations of posterity."
In accounting for such a movement as this, it has been but too
common to inquire after something similar which had happened in
the earth, and loosely supposing some connexion betsveen them, as
cause and efieot, thus leave the extraordinary event, without the
slightest reference to the finger of God. Any infiuential connexion,
however, between the Waldenses or Vaudois and Wicklifie has
never been clearly proved, and probably never will. At all events,
before he could be stimulated by their example, he seems to have
.  icn his ground, as it is only in his latest compositions that a few
slight references to them are to be found, as to a people with whose
suflferings he sympathized. He was on the Continent, at Bruges, it
is true, from 1374 to 1376, but he had commenced, and must have
been far advanced in his undertaking, long before then. In short,
as far as the term can be applied to any human being, the claims of
Wicklifie to originality have now come to be better understood, and
every Christian will recognise the " secret mover ;" while, in refer
ence to the times following, when tracing the history or influence of
Divine Truth throughout Europe, the habit of ascending no higher
than Germany is past, or passing away.
Down to the period of about two years before Wickliff'e had com
pleted his translation, the only ideas or incidents which had any
powerful influence upon mankind generally, were such as stood
connected with the Pontiff', and his peculiar system of rule or govern
ment ; but, in reference to this subject, by the year 1 378, among the
16 " Prohibemus etiam, ne libroa Veteris Testament!," &c. Labbei Sacro-Sancta Concilia ii.,
p. 1., p. 430. The profane mixture of human composition with the Divine Word is sufficiently
characteristic ; and it is of importance to observe that the prohibition oxpressly referred to the
Latin Bible itself It seems to have been a step taken to prevent translation.
VOL. I. d

xxxviii INTRODUCTION. ' I^XIV. CENT.
European nations, there had sprung up a marked diff'erence of opi
nion. One question engrossed them all, and it was nothing less
than this— Who was Pontiff? In the year 1805, through the in
fluence of France, the Court of Rome had been translated into that
Kingdom, and there it remained for seventy-four years, to the great
damage of Rome as a city, but without any rent or division in the
system. Edward the Third had expired on the 21st of June 1377,
after a reign of above half a century, and about that very moment
Gregory XI. had ordered Wickliff'e to be seized and imprisoned, till
farther orders. Early in the following year, although our translator
of the Scriptures had not only stood high in favour with the late
King, but still did so with many in Parliament, and was powerfully
protected by John of Gaunt, Duke of Lancaster, he was summoned
by the Bishops to answer for himself at St. Paul's. Thus did this
body of men first come out, appearing as a distinct interest in the
kingdom, and thus they will remain for above five generations to
come ; proving ever and anon, upon all occasions of alarm, that they
were the determined opponents of Divine Truth. As a body, they
will oppose its being conveyed to the people, and at every successive
step of progress. Their malice at this time, however, was over
ruled, as it will so often and conspicuously be, a century and a half
later ; but, in the meanwhile, nothing must prevent Wickliffe from
finishing his translation.'^
The year 1378 was in truth an important one as it regarded our
translator's design. On the 27th of March the reigning Pontiff had
died; an event which not only put an end to the bulls against
Wickliffe, but gave rise to what was called " the great schism ;'
so that soon after there were two Pontiffs — one beyond the moun
tains, as the Italians said, and one at Rome — consigning each other
to perdition. Of this state of things Wickliffe did not fail to avail
himself. " He saw the head of the body cloven in twain, and the
two parts made to fight with each other ;" and he immediately sent
forth two tracts, one upon " the schism " itself, and the other upon
" the truth of Scripture." Every city and state became agitated,
and as the question soon divided the nations throughout, it so hap
pened that England and Scotland were of opposite opinions : the
former holding fast by Urban VI. of Rome, who had been first
chosen ; the latter followed Clement VII. of Avignon. England
and France indeed became the most ardent supporters of the oppo
site parties, while such was the extent to which the controversy had

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

.^WICKLIFFE'S TRANSLATION OP THE BIBLE. xxxix
gone, that some men of the University of Paris had begun to think
of a plurality of Pontiffs, and the appointment of one to every
kingdom. The idea of one power exercising authority over all na
tions had seemed to them untenable, if not injurious.
Soon after this, in the year 1379, Wickliffe, as divinity professor,
had gone to fulfil his accustomed annual duty at Oxford, but there
he was seized \y^ith an alarming illness. The friars, imagining that
his course was now near an end, contrived to visit him. Four of
their ablest men had been selected, or a friar from each of the men
dicant orders, and they were admitted to a patient hearing. After
reminding him of the great injury he had done to their order — for
Wickliff'e was a determined enemy to all idleness and all extortion —
they exhorted him, as one near to death, that he would now, as a
true penitent, bewail and revoke in their presence, whatever he had
said to their disparagement. As soon as they had done, Wickliffe
calling for his servant, desired to be raised up on his pillow ; when
collecting all his strength, with a severe and expressive countenance,
and in a tone of voice not to be misunderstood, he exclaimed, " /
shall not die, but live, to declare the evil deeds of the friars." Con
fused, if not confounded, little expecting such a reply, they imme
diately left him ; and Wickliffe recovered, to finish in the year fol
lowing his translation of the entire Bible.
Extraordinary, however, as the character of Wickliffe was, — a
man confessedly far above all his contemporaries, it may still be
inquired, whether he was qualified for the task of translating the
Sacred Volume ? The Scriptures had been originally given in He
brew and Greek ; but so far from the nations of the West furnish
ing men sufficiently acquainted with either, England at least had
sunk into greater ignorance even since the days of Grossteste ;
nay, an hundred and fifty years later, when Tyndale had translated
from the original tongues, some of the priests of the day were try
ing to persuade the people that Greek and Hebrew were languages
newly invented. Here, it is true, was Wickliffe, an able and acute,
a zealous and determined man, and withal an excellent Latin scho
lar, but of Greek or Hebrew he knew nothing. Nor was it at all
necessary that he should possess such erudition, since a translation
from either Gkeek ob Hebrew would not have harmonised with
the first, or the present, intention of Divine Providence. A reason
there was, and one worthy of infinite wisdom, why not only the
English translation, but most of the first European versions must
be made from the Latin. These nations, including our own, had
nothing in common with the Greek community, but for ages they
had been overrun by the Latin. This language, long since dead,
even in Italy, had been the refuge and stronghold of their oppressor.

xl INTRODUCTION. [xiv. CENT.
from generation to generation ; and upon looking back, no spectacle
presented to the eye is so remarkable, as that of so many difi'erent
nations, equally spell-bound by the same expedient. There was a
Latin service, and there was a Latin Bible, professedly received,
but the possession of even this had been forbidden to the people at
large ; very much in the same spirit as the Shasters of India are
forbidden by the Brahmins to be looked upon, or even heard, by
the people. It was the Latin Bible, therefore, long buried in clois
ters, or covered with the dust of ages, which must now be brought
forth to view. Confessedly imperfect, it was of importance first to
prove that it had all along contained enough for mortal man to
know, in order to his eternal salvation ; and once translated into
any native tongue, not only will the language touch the heart, but
the people at last know what that mysterious book was, from which
they had been debarred, so wickedly and so long. Although, there
fore, the nation was yet an hundred and fifty years distant from the
English Bible, properly so called, the present should be regarded as
the first preliminary step. An all-disposing foresight, far above
that of any human agent, is now distinctly visible in drawing first
upon that very language which had been employed for ages as the
instrument of mental bondage. It shall now be made to contribute
to the emancipation of the human mind. Latin, it is true, had been
the conventional language of the priests and students of difi'erent
countries ; but still, so long as this language remained untouched by
a translation of the Scriptures into any vernacular tongue, it is a
historical canon that no nation was ever greatly moved. This holds
true of our own country, in the age of manuscript, but it will become
far more emphatically so, even seventy years after the invention of
printing, when the Scriptures, once translated from the original
tongues, come to be printed in the language then spoken, and spoken
still. At such a period as this the translation of Wickliffe could only be
diffused, of course, by the laborious process of transcription ; but
transcribed it was diligently, both entire and in parts, and as eagerly
read. There were those who, at every hazard, sought wisdom from
the Book of God, and their number could not be few. A contempo
rary writer has affirmed that " a man could not meet two people on
the road, but one of them was a disciple of Wickliffe." This was the
testimony of an enemy, and not improbably the language of hatred
and fear combined, uttered with a wish to damage the cause ; it was
the testimony of an ecclesiastic, a Canon of Leicester, in reference to
an era hailed by the people ; and although the Word of Truth had
not " free course," there can be no question that it was glorified in
the reception given to it by many. " The soldiers," he says, " with

WICKLIFFE'S VERSION AND ITS EFFECTS. xli
the dukes and earls, were the chief adherents of this sect — they were
their most strenuous promoters and boldest combatants — their most
powerful defenders and their invincible protectors." A very remark
able admission, as it accounts for the great progress made, in spite
of opposition. All this and much more is uttered in the tone of
lamentation ; and what was the occasion, as expressed by the Canon
himself? " This Master John Wickliffe," says he, " hath translated
the Gospel out of Latin into English, which Christ had intrusted
with tlie clergy and doctors of the Church, that they might minister
it to the laity and weaker sort, according to the state of the times
and the wants of men. So that by this means the Gospel is made
vulgar, and laid more open to the laity, and even to women who can
read, than it used to be to the most learned of the clergy and those of
the best understanding ! And what was before the chief gift of the
clergy and doctors of the Church, is made for ever common to the
laity!"" It was in the same spirit that another contemporary writer urged
that " 'the prelates ought not to suffer that every one at his pleasure
should read the Scripture, translated even into Latin ; because, as is
plain from experience, this has been many ways the occasion of fall
ing into heresies and errors. It is not, therefore, politic that any
one, wheresoever and whensoever he will, should give himself to the
frequent study of the Scriptures."
These men specially referred to a period which lasted for about
twenty years, or from 1380 to 1400, and it was one, though but too
short, which distinguished this country from every other in Europe.
However transient, or but like an handful of corn for all England,
in any sketch of the times it should never pass unnoticed.
Vf hile the nations generally were discussing the respective claims
of two rival Pontiffs, amidst all the confusion of the times, and al
though there were many adversaries, for the last twenty years of the
fourteenth century in England, no authoritative stop must be put to
the perusal of the Divine record. The Bishops, it is true, with the
Primate of Canterbury at their head, may rage and remonstrate, may
write to Rome and receive replies, but in vain. The entire Sacred
Volume had been translated, the people were transcribing and read
ing, and the translator had frequently expressed himself in the
boldest terms. " The authority of the Holy Scriptures," said he,
" infinitely surpasses any writing, how authentic soever it may
appear, because the authority of Jesus Christ is infinitely above that
of all mankind."—" The .authority of the Scriptures is independent
on any other authority, and is preferable to every other writing, but

la Henry de Knyghton, " Deevmlis Anglice." '» William Butler, a Franciscan friar.

xlii INTRODUCTION. [xiV. CENT.
especially to the books of the Church of Rome."—" I am certain,
indeed, from the Scriptures, that neither Antichrist, nor all his dis
ciples, nay, nor all fiends, may really impugn any part of that vo
lume as it regards the excellence of its doctrine. But in all these
things it appears to me that the believing man should use this rule
—If he soundly understands the Sacred Scripture, let him bless God ;
if he be deficient in such perception, let him labour for soundness of
mind. Let him also dwell as a grammarian upon the letter, but be
fully aware of imposing a sense upon Scripture which he doubts the
Holy Spirit does not demand." ^"^
Many other passages, in terms as strong, might be quoted from his
writings ; and " among his latest acts," says Vaughan, " was a defence
in Parliament of the translation of the Scriptures into English. These
he declared to be the property of the people, and one which no party
.should be allowed to wrest from them.''
Now that the cause of such a man, as well as that he himself should
have been so befriended, was one of the distinguishing features of the
present period. The Duke of Lancaster continued to be his shield
for years ; and although, when Wickliffe, in addition to grievances
felt, went on to Christian doctrines, the Duke faltered in his support,
yet nearly six years after the translator was in his grave, the same
voice was heard in favour of the translation. In the thirteenth of
Richard II., or 1390, a bill was proposed to be brought into the
House of Lords for suppressing it, when Lancaster, in boldly oppos
ing this, told them, " That he would maintain our having this law in
our own tongue, whoever they should be that brought in the bill ;"
and once introduced, it was immediately thrown out. But Lancas
ter was not the only friend : to his brother, the Duke of Gloucester,
Wickliffe dedicated at Jeast one of his pieces ; and on one important
occasion, when the former gave way, the Queen-Mother, or widow of
the Black Prince, put a stop to persecution. Lord Percy, Earl- Mar
shal, was also friendly; but perhaps, above all, much was owing
to the reigning Queen, and that for ten years after Wickliffe's
death. Ann of Luxemburg, the sister of the Emperor Wenceslaus,
and of the King of Bohemia, as consort of Richard II., had arrived
in this country in December 1381 ; an event of great importance in
connexion with Wickliffe's exertions. If he had so far enlightened
England, his writings were also to electrify Bohemia, so that Ann
had " come to the kingdom for such a time as this." This lady
already acquainted with three languages, Bohemian, German, and
Latin, soon acquired that of this country, and for years was distin
guished for her diligent perusal of the Scriptures in English. This
20 Trialogus, Jib. lU.

WICKLIFFE'S VERSION AND ITS EFFECTS. xliii
much was testified of her by a very notable witness— the Lord
Chancellor Arundel, then Archbishop of York, when he came to
preach at her interment. « Although she was a stranger," he said,
" yet she constantly studied the four gospels in English ; and in the
study of these, and reading of godly books, she was more diligent
than the prelates, though their office and business require this of
them." The gospels in English, he added, the Queen had sent to
himself to peruse, and he had replied that they were " good and
true.'"^^ Queen Ann's course of reading was even well known to
Wickliffe, before he expired in 1384, so that she must have served
as a powerful example to others, for at least ten years. The trans
lator had thus early inquired, whether " to hereticate" her on ac
count of her practice, " would not be Luciferian folly."
The Queen, says Rapin, was a great favourer of Wickliffe's doc
trine, and had she lived longer would have saved his followers; but
the illustrious foreigner once interred, and thus so remarkably eulo
gized, a different scene immediately opened to view.^^
After his Queen's death, Richard II., the grandchild of Edward
III., had gone to Ireland, there to prolong the misgovernment of
that country ; and only four months had elapsed, when this very
man, Arundel, who afterwards was the main instrument in dethron
ing the King, and one of the bitterest enemies of Divine Truth in
the next century, was in great alarm. In deep hypocrisy, at West
minster, he might choose to twit the prelates with their ignorance
of Scripture, in comparison with a Queen who had to acquire the
language, and thus please the ear of his Majesty, as well as seem
to lament his loss ; but he had no intention that the people should
take the hint, or advance, and shew him, as well as his brethren,
the way. The remarkable though transient period, however, to
which we now refer, was as distinguished for boldness of sentiment,
as for the protection providentially afforded to those who were
searching the Scriptures for themselves.
On the 29th of January 1395, a Parliament was held at West
minster, and the time had come to speak out. The sentiments were
not those of a feeble band, whispered in secret. They were ex
pressed in the shape of a remonstrance, and presented to the House
of Commons. They were posted at St. Paul's, and also at West

s' This testimony of Arundel is given by Foxe, from an original MS. in Worcester Library.
22 This illustrious Princess, long remembered as *' the good Queen Ann," died at the early
age of twenty-seven, to the deep grief of her devoted husband, who then lost his best and only
true friend and adviser. She expired on Whitsunday 7th June 1394, and was not interred till
Monday the 3d of August. On the tomb at Westminster, the day of her death is stated to be
" July^s seventh day," an unaccountable mistake, since the letters of invitation to his Queen's
funeral on the 3d of August, by the King himself, are still in existence — " Given at West
minster 10th June 1394," and a similar one to the citizens of London, dated the 14th of the same
month. — See Bymer's Foedera, vol. vii., p. 776.

^j;y INTRODUCTION. [xiV. CENT.
minster. This, let it be observed, was above a hundred and twenty
years before Luther's voice was heard; and, taken all in all, the
argument throughout may be compared to an arrow, shot from a
bow as strong as the intrepid German afterwards ever bent.^a
Richard, still in Ireland, was preparing to take the field again,
when Arundel, our preacher at Westminster in August last, had
reached him in May, and accompanied by Braybrook, the Bishop
of London. Six or seven years before this the disciples of Wick
liffe had been congregating in different places, and actually appoint
ing ministers among themselves to perform Divine service, after
their own sentiments : while his " poor priests," as they were
styled, had been travelling and preaching, barefooted, through the
country; but this pointed and posted remonstrance had filled
Arundel, Braybrook, and their brethren, with dread. They en
treated the King, in name of the clergy, to return, intimating that
the least delay might occasion irreparable damage. The followers
of Wickliffe, they said, had made instance to set on foot a reforma
tion  they had many friends in the kingdom, nay, in the Par
liament itself, and the clergy were afraid they would proceed to
action. Richard listened, immediately left the management of his
war to the Earl of March, and returned. He took certain measures,
it is true, to check the rising tide of sentiment, but still the Scrip
tures were not suppressed, nor was there one drop of blood shed for
what " they called heresy," till the commencement of the next cen
tury, under Henry the Fourth.^*
Under a monarch so weak and ill-advised as Richard II., a man
who minded only trifles, and thought of nothing save his own plea
sures, that the close of the fourteenth century should have been thus
distinguished, must appear strange, but it is not unaccountable.
This was only the commencement of a series of striking proofs, that,
in first conveying to the people of this country the Word of Life,
Divine Providence would dispense with what has been called " royal
sanction." Certain individuals near the throne, and more enlightened,
had been permitted to act, and Richard must have allowed his Queen
23 After stating that when the Church in this land " began first to dote in temporalities,"
then " faith, hope, and love, began to vanish and fly away ;" they added,—" Our usual priest
hood is not tliat which Christ ordained to his disciples. The celibacy of the priesthood induceth
infamy into the Church. The feigned miracle of the sacrament of bread induceth all men
into idolatry, except a very few. Exorcism and hallowings are the very practices of necro-
mancy. A king and bishop, a prelate and justice, a curate and officer, in one person or worldly
office, doth make every kingdom out of good order. Prayer for the dead is a false foundation
of alms, so that all the houses of alms in England are falsely founded. Pilgrimages and obla
tions to images of wood and stone are very near of kin to idolatry, and they are not more to be
honoured than Judas* lips. Auricular confession, the minister of lust, only gives occasion to
scandalous intrigue. Manslaughter, either by war, or by any pretended law of justice, for any
temporal cause or spiritual revelation, is expressly contrary unto the New Testament. The vow
of chastity is the cause of horrible vicea."~-Ex Archivis E£gtis. All these positions were en
forced by solid arguments at length, as given by Foxe, from the original. 24 See Rapin.

ITALY AND ENGLAND IN CONTRAST. xiv
to have had considerable influence, and so gratify her wishes ; but,
independently of these parties, the King himself, bent upon increas
ing the royal prerogative, was no friend to any control from
abroad. For a hundred years past, under the three first Edwards,
the power of the Crown, and the influence of the Commons, as a
branch of the legislature, had been increasing by slow degrees, and,
more especially, three memorable statutes had been passed, viz. those
of Mortmain, Provisors, and Prsemunire.^* Now, these, even under
this present monarch, had been not merely recognised, but the power
of the last two generally strengthened. Some, parties having ven
tured abroad, to solicit their repeal, Richard, by a proclamation,
ordered their return to England, on pain of death and forfeiture of
estate. Nor could these statutes ever be repealed. Why they
lay inoperative or dormant for an hundred and thirty years will be
afterwards explained ; but there they were, as powerful instruments,
to be wielded another day, by Henry the Eighth, upon the fall of
Cardinal Wolsey. As for Richard II., he drove on, till the power
which he sought rather to reduce than promote, at last, and through
Arundel, artfully secured his deposition, in September 1399.^
At the conclusion, therefore, of the fourteenth century, we con
cede to Petrarch, or Boccaccio and his fellows, all that is demanded
as to the revival of learning in Italy ; nor has England any occa
sion to be ashamed of the contrast or distinction between the two
countries. The pursuits of both were but in their infancy. In the
foi-mer, " imagining that all knowledge was to be found in the
ancient Masters," they were beginning to seek after Mount Par
nassus and their old Romans ; but in the latter they were in search
of Mount Zion and the fishermen of Galilee. The Italian had be
come eager after the wisdom of Greece, and the nervous oratory of
his forefathers ; the Englishman, after the wisdom of God, and the
course pursued by the first planters of Christianity. If any of our
countrymen were looking to Greece at all, it might be only to such
as had proved to " be the first-fcuits of Achaia unto God," and if to
Rome, it was only to those in the imperial city, once so beloved,
" whose faith was spoken of throughout the whole world."
25 Statute of MouTMAiN.— By Magna Charta no person was to alienate their lands to the
church. This had been disregarded ; and as the clergy alone, by themselves, formed a body
called the Church, which never died, and therefore never alienated any property, it was demon
strated to the King, Edward I., that all the land of the kingdom might be transferred to this
body. To prevent estates, therefore, from falling into dead hands, that is, hands of no service
to the King or the community, hence the statute of Mortmain. Provisobs.— If the Pontiff
presented any benefice contrary to the rights of the King or Patrons, the gift came to the King
for that turn. But Kome used to be full of suitors for livings in England. If any now sued for
such provisions they were to be imprisoned and fined at the King's will. Frjemvn ire. — If any
one carried any cause, belonging to the King's courts, into any other or foreign court, they were
to be imprisoned at the King's pleasure, and their lands, goods, and chattels, were forfeited to
the Crown.
28 His escape into Scotland, or his death in 1400, has been a historical puzzle ever since.—
Seo Tytler's History of Scotland.

xlvi INTRODUCTION. [xiV. CENT.
The manuscripts of Wickliffe's version complete, are numerous
still ; and perhaps not much less so than those of the New Testament
separately, not to mention different pieces, or entire books of the
translation. In examining some of these, whether in the Bodleian
Library at Oxford, in the British Museum, or in private collections,
we have been struck with their legibility and beauty. They have
all, indiscriminately, been called Wickliffe's version, but variations
of expression are to be found in a few ; and it is not so generally
known that we possess two distinct versions, one under Wickliffe's
own eye, and another a recension of the entire sacred text.^
It is certainly a singular circumstance that this translation of
Wickliffe has never been printed ! The New Testament, it is true,
was published by Mr. Lewis, in the year 1731, or three hundred
and fifty years after it was finished, and once more by Mr. Baber, in
1810 ; but the Bible entire, now four hundred and sixty-four years
old, has never yet been published. By the time that Tyndale was
born, indeed, it would not have been intelligible to the people at
large ; moreover, it was from the Latin Vulgate, and the period
had arrived when the translation must be drawn from the original
tongues. But still, even as a most interesting literary production,one
could never have imagined that above twenty sovereigns would have
sat on the throne of England since the invention of printing, before
such a work had issued from the press. By Fabricius, a foreigner,
as well as others, this has been often referred to as a national dis
grace, but happily, the reproach, at last, is in the course of being
wiped away. Both these versions to which we have alluded are
now in the press, printing in parallel columns, at the Oxford Uni
versity press, and under the eye of Sir Frederick Madden and the
Rev. J. Forshall, of the British Museuni.^^
Thus then, whatever darkness reigned, or enmity was shewn in
this country, throughout the whole of the next century, these pre
cious volumes were preserved, and the surviving copies remain,

27 Upon examining one large folio manuscript Bible, in the Bodleian, (Fairfax, 2,) we find
these words at the close. " Ye eer of ye lord mccc viri yis book was ended." But there can
be no doubt, on inspection, that one c has been erased ; and the prohibition of Wickliffe's
translation by Arundel, in that very year, 1408, is sufficient to account for the erasure. That
it is not so ancient as the version of 1380, is evident, from certain notes on the margin of that
date having here crept into the text. In turning over the leaves of this manuscript Bible, a pecu
liar sort of interest is felt, if it actually be the very book once possessed by one of the worst
of men, as explained by Lewis, viz. Edmund Bonner, who stood so unrivalled in the sixteenth
century for his hypocrisy and brutal cruelty. Upon inquiring for another MS. {Fairfax, 3901,
21,) entitled, in the Catalogue, " an ancient manuscript concerning the translation of tlie SS. into
English," it was found to be a very pretty copy of the New Testament, all but the Four Gospels.
These belong to the old MSS. and Collections, above 120 volumes, bequeathed by Thomas Lord
Fairfax to the Bodleian, at his death, in 1671. This last is in quarto, but there are manuscripts
of a smaller size, fit for the pocket, e.g. Hatton, 111, «kc.
28 The first, or earliest text, is from a manuscript of the late Francis Douce, Esq., now belong
ing to the Bodleian, at Oxford ; the second is from MS. Reg. i., c. viii., in the British Museum.

ITALY AND ENGLAND IN CONTRAST. xlvii
like so many veritable torch-bearers for the time being. They
may, and indeed must have shone often in secret, or at the midnight
hour, and certainly not without effects, to be disclosed another
day : but at all events, here is one palpable existing distinction be
tween this country, and every other, at the moment. It is one
which stands in the finest keeping with all that took place in the
days of Tyndale. The favour of God, even at this early period, had
already begun to place this Island in that conspicuous position
which it was afterwards to occupy among the nations of Europe,
with regard to the possession and the diffusion of his blessed Word.
Let this ever be regarded as the grand distinction of Britain.
And while the Italian historian, down to the present hour, continues
to rejoice in the triumph of literature and the arts upon his na^
tive soil, nearly five hundred years ago; let not the British Chris
tian fall behind him in joy and gratitude over that contemporaneous
triumph which at last led his country to a better hope and a brighter
day. Let him rather compare the two countries now, and observe
the too-much-neglected, but all-sufiicient reason, for the prodigious
distinction between the two.
No storm, however, arose in Italy, nor any cloud, to obscure the
rising sun of her classical literature. On the contrary, though Rome
itself may still be troubled, that sun is only about to burst upon the
country in all its splendour, and the men of Italy are to be allowed
ample scope still, for above an hundred years, to do their utmost.
Very different was the reception given by our forefathers, as a na
tion or as a government, to the voice of God. Here at home, in
some resemblance to the visit paid by the Almighty to Elijah, there
must it seems be first the wind, and then the earthquake, and then
the fire, before ever the " still small voice " is heard with effect.
Nay, and when once it comes through Tyndale's version, and is
heard by the people, we shall find, however strange, that no official
man in England will be able to divine from whence it came, or by
what mysterious conveyance it had reached their ears !
THE FIFTEENTH CENTURY.
Although, strictly speaking, only a century of preparation, still the
fifteenth must ever be esteemed more important than any that had
preceded it, and, in one point of view, more influential than any that
has followed since. When it is observed that an art, then flrst
appliedj though nearly four hundred years old, is only now rising to
greater power in this country every day, and is evidently destined to
be employed by all nations, no wonder that it should be so regarded.
It is true, that " in the wisdom of God, it pleased God by the fool
ishness of preaching," nay, and the preaching of what was deemed

xlviii INTRODUCTION. [xv. cent.
foolishness, " to save them that believe." This sovereign appoint
ment remains unrepealed— it is but awaiting its mightiest triumphs
— God will be his own interpreter, and make his purpose good. The
power of the press, great as it is, will yet be demonstrated to be far
inferior to the power of the tongue. The enlightening of the world
depends not upon the ingenuity of man, upon the march of intellect,
or the school of arts, but upon the fixed appointment of Heaven. Yet
after this is granted, it is evident that to this new influence, as far as
it goes, flrst employed in the fifteenth century, there can be no limits,
short of the earth which we inhabit. In connexion, therefore, with
the Divine assurances in Scripture, which of themselves are all-suf
ficient, it may be viewed as an additional indication, a providential
hint, that the knowledge of the true God is to be universal. Of
course we refer to the invention of printing.
This deeply interesting century throughout must ever be viewed in
two very different lights. First, as an ever-shifting scene of agitation
among all the nations of Europe, in their connexion with Italy ; and
then as the era so distinguished for the revival of learning and the
invention of printing. How all this, so far as Britain was concerned,
is to be regarded as only an introduction to the printing of the Sacred
Volume in our vernacular tongue, will appear when the century has
passed away.
Generally speaking, it has been said, that this was the period when
" the relations of governments with each other began to be more fre
quent, regular, and permanent." It was the season for great combina
tions, whether for peace or war, in which the Pontiff must now come
down, and form merely one of the parties on either side. This course
operated powerfully in favour of civil states, while no other authority
in Europe exhibited such occasional marks of impotence, or waning
political infiuence, as that of Rome.
The fifteenth century, however, still requires to be considered half
and half, as there was a material difference between the first and the
second. During the first, we see the continuance of the great Western
schism, the union of the Eastern and Western Churches before they
were shaken to the ground, closing with the noted licentious jubilee,
under Nicholas V., at Rome in 1450. During the second, we are en
grossed by other affairs. The fall of the Greek Empire, the rapid
progress of literature in Italy, and the invention of printing in Ger
many. All these were so many preparatives for the emancipation
of the human mind, or that war of opinion by which the sixteenth
century was to be so distinguished.^

23 The discovery of America by Columbus in 1492, and of the passage to India by Vaseo de
Gama in 1497, only fix the eye with deeper interest on the century to come.

THE GREAT SCHISM. xlix
But to return, and commence with the great schism. It continued
without interruption for fifty-one years, from 1378 to 1429, though
the consequences were deeply felt by the Pontiff for twenty years
longer. This could not fail to operate powerfully on the whole of
Europe. It was the first " shaking " of the nations, before the
coming of Him, to whom all nations should turn. This noted
schism has been called great, to distinguish it from all those which
had preceded.^" It at last suggested the necessity for a General
Council, so that, during the first half of the fifteenth century. Coun
cils became the order of the day. The first, held at Pisa in 1409,
tried to heal the breach by deposing both Pontiffs, (Gregory XII.
and Benedict XIII.,) and choosing a third, or Alexander V., in
which decision England acquiesced, but Scotland still dissented.^'
Alexander, a feeble character, was succeeded in 1410, or next year,
by Balthasar Cossa, or John XXIIL, a man as distinguished for
violence of temper as licentiousness of morals. Three years after he
summoned a Council to meet at Rome, but so far from this city being
attractive at that time, only a few attended to the call. The conse
quence was, that, although his Council sat from the close of 141 2 to
the 11th of June following, no other business was accomplished save
some condemnation of the writings of Wickliffe.
In the year following a far more imposing Council was held at
Constance, where the man who had sat in judgment upon Wickliffe
must be himscK condemned, though not on that account. John was
deposed, however, and Gregory XII., who had stood out for five
years, or ever since his deposition at Pisa, abdicated ; but Peter de
Luna, Benedict XIIL, still held fast by his claim ; and, whoever
withdrew from him, Scotland would not. Thus it curiously happened
that, for two years and four months, from July 1415, the only Pon
tiff in existence was a deposed one, and the only kingdom or province
that adhered to him in the end, was Scotland W It was during
this strange period that the merits of Wickliffe were afresh discussed
and condemned, not by an individual Pontiff, but a General Coun
cil ; and to such an execrable length did they proceed, that though
our translator had now been in his grave full thirty years, they
ordered his bones to be dug up, (if they could be distinguished),
and burnt to ashes. Their spite was not, indeed, immediately gra-
S"! Far from being the first, if the reader chooses to consultthe best original authorities, he will
be able to count, between the year 452 and 1429, not fewer than twenty-eight instances, in which
there were two, and sometimes three or more Pontiffs at the same time ; and as these conflicts
were frequently decided, not by equity, but by the influential power of the successful candidate,
hence all attempts to prove what is called an uninterrupted succession become utterly vain.
That any man should now waste a moment on such an attempt, is humbling to human nature.
3' As well as Spain, i. e. Arragon, both of whom adhered to Benedict, while Germany, Hun
gary, and Naples adhered to Gregory. See also as to Scotland, vol. ii. of this work, p. 396.
32 See the Council of Perth, anno, 1416, or Wilkin's Cone, i., p. 193.

1 INTRODUCTION. [XV. CENT.
tified, for what reason does not appear ; but so mean is the malice
of the wicked, that, thirteen years afterwards, Martin V., whom this
Council was about to elect, sent peremptory orders to have the sen
tence strictly fulfilled. Thus, nearly forty-four years after his dis
solution, they attempted it, burning certain bones presumed to be
Wickliffe's, and throwing the ashes into the Swift, an adjoining
brook, which runs into the Severn.
The bones of the illustrious dead having been solemnly denounced,
the Council then proceeded to the living, or the well known disciple
of Wickliffe, John Huss : and on the 6th of July 1415, they con
demned him to be burnt, as they also did his fellow-countryman,
Jerome of Prague, in May 1416. These men of violence and
blood, having thus covered themselves with never-dying infamy,
were very eager to have rendered their sittings periodical; and the
Council a permanent branch of their church constitution : but at
last having elected Otho Colonna as Pontiff, on the 11th of Novem
ber 1417, he took the name of Martin V., and the Council broke
up in April 1418.
This man, however, still had a rival in Benedict, till November
1424 ; nay, in Clement VIIL, chosen as his successor, who did not
resign till July 1429. Martin dying in 1431, before the close of
the year, another General Council had assembled at Basil, which
did not dissolve for twelve years. To any Pontiff, these were sea
sons of anxiety, and by no means in favour of any claim to infalli
bility, but this Council assumed a tone hitherto unknown. Not
only asserting the supremacy of a Council, but divesting the Pontiff
of several highly- valued and acknowledged rights ; they prohibited
him from creating new cardinals, and suppressed a large portion of
his revenue, arising from the first year's income on all benefices.
Eugenius IV., the successor of Martin, at length feeling this assem
bly so irksome and untoward, tried to hold another Council, first at
Ferrara in 1438, and then at Florence in the following year ; so
that as there had been Pontiff against Pontiff for many years, and
each of them choosing his own cardinals ; the world was now kept
awake by Council against Council, denouncing each other, and each
of them choosing its own Pontiff! The Council of Basil, deposing
Eugenius, chose for their head the retired Duke of Savoy, who
assumed the title of Felix V.
A moment such as had not occurred for nearly seventy years, or
since 1 378 — a moment favourable to the sovereignty of the Pontiff,
now at last arrived. It was the accession of Nicholas V., in March
1447, as the successor of Eugenius. Even after this, indeed, a rival
still remained ; but the Emperor interposed, and in April 1 449,
securing the retirement and renunciation of Felix to all claims, the

CLASSICAL LEARNING AND THE ARTS. Ii
pontifical authority at once rose to a height which it had not en
joyed for many years. The jubilee of 1450, a scene of riot and
licentiousness, to which people from all parts of Europe came,
seemed not only to prove that Rome was an attractive point of
union still, but that the Pontiff might lift up his head once more,
and say, " I sit secure, and shall see no sorrow." Assailed, for
above seventy years, from without and from within — from without
by the infiuence of Wickliffe and Huss, and from within by men of
the Pontiff's own order — still there seemed to be little or nothing
lost. General Councils had wrangled for many years, though, as
such, they had now failed, and there will be no General Council
now, till long after a very different scene has opened on the world.^
But still though they had failed, it was only in one sense. The
principles then and there broached could not die. The principles
maintained, especially at Basil, continued to operate throughout the
rest of this century, and in a way so obnoxious to Rome, as to agi
tate every successive Pontiff. They were these principles, and more
especially the tenet, that the authority of a General Council was supe
rior to that of the Pontiff, which suggested to the Sovereign of France,
Charles VII., what was styled " the pragmatic sanction" in 1438,
while Germany had adopted it in 1439 ; both Sovereigns having
made it the law of their respective kingdoms.^* Germany, indeed,
had bowed allegiance before the jubilee, but France would not.
This " sanction," like the statutes of provisors and praemunire in
England, was meant to operate powerfully in preventing the wealth
of France from flowing into Italy ; a mode of resistance to pontifical
authority, to which that power was ever most tenderly alive. The
King of France might occasionally waver, as did Louis XI., when
Eneas Sylvias, or Pius II., wept for joy ; but then the Parliament
of Paris must now also be acknowledged, and they firmly resisted.
One Pontiff after another might denounce the measure, as they did
also the English statutes, but still there was no change throughout
this century. No change, till one obscure individual was raised up
in this country, and another in Germany, who, under God, were to
accomplish a work, to which neither Kings nor General Councils
were equal or disposed.
But if subjects such as these engrossed or agitated the masses of
men ; there was a movement on the part of individuals, and these
possessing no civil, no ofiicial power whatever; another influence of
a far more powerful, penetrating, and enduring character, by which

33 There was no General Council till that which was held at Tre.vt, from 1545-I5fi;J. That
was the last, and if there ever be another, it will be assembled on the brink of the precipice.
34 « Pragmatic Sanction," a general term for important ordinances, which had been enacted
in public assemblies, with the counsel of Fragmatici, or eminent statesmen and lawyers.

lii INTRODUCTION. [xV. CENT.
this century was distinguished. In the midst of such a thorny
maze, or perpetual convulsion, on the Continent, it might certainly
have been presumed that there was not one moment left for any
thing else ; but there is yet that other view of this century, to
which any reader must now be glad to escape. Forming such a
contrast to these broils, and going forward, not by connivance, but
in open day, it is like another world ; although, before long, both
courses will turn out to have been in perfect harmony with the
great end in view. Ancient prejudices, and certain long-fixed as
sociations of the mind, were shaken to the root, by the events at
which we have already glanced : but for the entrance of new ideas,
and the notable reception of Divine Truth itself, Providence was
preparing at the same time, or throughout the entire century.
The triumph of Classical Learning.
We have already conceded to Italy the precedence which she
claims, as the revivalist of classical learning ; and truly the first
buds of promise in the fourteenth, were as nothing to the full blown
garden of the fifteenth century. In the first years of its com
mencement, individual natives of Greece were flnding their way into
that country, nay, from about the year 1395, their language was
taught in Florence and Venice, in Milan and Genoa, by Emanuel
Chrysoloras. The Pontiff chosen in 1409, Alexander V., was a
Grecian by birth. The whole lives of Italian scholars, we are told,
were now devoted to the recovery of ancient works, and the revival
of philology ; while the discovery of an unknown manuscript, was
regarded, says Tiraboschi, " almost as the conquest of a kingdom."
But " that ardour which animated Italy in the flrst part of the fif
teenth century, was by no means common to the rest of Europe.
Neither England, nor France, nor Germany, seemed aware of the
approaching change." So says Mr. Hallam, in perfect harmony
with Sismondi. Learning, indeed, such as it was, had even begun
to decline at Oxford, but the eastern empire was now hastening to
its end, and in 1453, came the fall of Constantinople. Long, there
fore, before the close of the century, the roads to Italy will be
crowded with many a traveller, and among the number we shall
find that Englishmen, though the most distant, were not the last to
hasten after classical attainments. Native Italians, we are perfectly
aware, have been jealous of our ascribing too much to the event
just hinted, but there can be no question that, in its consequences,
it proved the first powerful summons to Europe to awake. On the
sacking of Constantinople, we know of five vessels at least, that
were loaded with the learned men of Greece, who escaped into

THE INVENTION OF PRINTING. liii
Italy. Of course they brought their most valued treasure, or
their books, with them ; and thus by one and another, as well as
the eager Italian himself, a stock of manuscript was accumulated
on Italian ground, which was just about to be honoured with a re
ception, very different, indeed, from that of being slowly increased
by the pen of the copyist !^ Italy thus became the point of attrac
tion to all Europe. But how singular that the scholars of the west,
as with common consent, should hasten to this one country for that
learning, over the effects of which, the chief authority there, though
so pleased at first, was afterwards to bewail, nay, to mourn for
ages, or to the present hour !
While, however, Italian scholars were thus busy, and leaving the
Pontiff to fight his own battles, they were but little aware of what
was preparing for them elsewhere. They were in fact more igno
rant of this, than the western scholar had been of their thirst for
learning ; and was there no indication here, of but one guiding, one
all-gracious power ? The Invention of Printing.
An obscure German had been revolving in his mind, the first
principles of an art, applicable to any language on the face of
the earth, which was to prove the most important discovery in the
annals of mankind. At the moment when they were storming
Constantinople in the east, he was thus busy ; spending all his sub
stance, in plying his new art with vigour upon a book, and upon
such a BOOK ! Neither Kings, nor Pontiffs, nor Councils had been,
or were to be, consulted here ; nor was he encouraged to proceed
by one smile from his own Emperor, or from any princely patron.
No mechanical invention having proved so powerful in its effects
as that of printing, it is not wonderful that so much research has
been bestowed on the history of its origin and progress. The pre
cise order in which some particular cities first enjoyed its advan
tages, still continues to afford room for minute criticism, but the
progress of inquiry has reduced the field of controversy to a very
narrow compass. A better history of the art, indeed, and more
especially of its curious and rapid progress throughout Europe, may,
and should still, be written ; but the general results already ascer-

36 After the accession of Nicholas V., to which we have alluded, he added 5000 volumes to
the library of the Vatican, many of which were Greek books, or translations from them into
Latin. Here were the versions of Xenophon, Diodorus, Polybius, Thucydides, Herodotus,
Appian of Strabo, the Iliad, the works of Plato, Aristotle, Ptolemy, Theophrastus, and the
Greek fathers. Among others, this was especially imitated, if not preceded, by Cosmo de
Mbdici, the Florentine merchant,ito whom a cargo of Indian spices and Greek books was often
imported in the same vessel. His active agent, Janus Lascaris, returned from the east, with
two hundred Manuscripts, eighty of which were then unknown in the libraries of Europe.
VOL. I. e

liv INTRODUCTION. [xV. CENT.
tained, have now approached to such accuracy, as to suggest and
justify several important and striking reflections. These results
demand our notice at the close of the century, as they will be found
to involve one important bearing on the subsequent history of the
Sacred Volume, when it came to be first printed in the vernacular
tongue. Mbntz, in the Duchy of Hesse (Mayence or Mainz), on the
left bank of the Rhine, and four hundred miles from Vienna,
may be regarded as the mother city of printing ; and although three
individuals shared the honour of perfecting the art on the same
spot, if not under the same roof, the invention itself is due to only
one man. Henne Gsensfleisch, commonly called John Gutenberg,
{Anglice, Goodhill,) the individual referred to, was born in Mentz,
not Strasburg, as sometimes stated, about the year 1400 ; but, in
1 424, he had taken up his abode in the latter city as a merchant.
About ten years after this, or in 1 435, we have positive evidence
that his invention, then a profound secret, engrossed his thoughts ;
and here, in conjunction with one Andrew Dritzehen and two other
citizens, all bound to secrecy, Gutenberg had made some experiments
in printing with metal types before the year 1439. By this time
Dritzehen was dead ; and in six or seven years more, the money
embarked being exhausted, not one fragment survives in proof of
what they had attempted. Gutenberg, returning to his native
city in 1445-6, he found it absolutely necessary to disclose his
progress. More money was demanded, if ever he was to succeed ;
and having once opened his mind fully to a citizen, a goldsmith of
Mentz, John Fust, he engaged to co-operate by affording the need
ful advances. At last, therefore, between the years 1 450 and 1455,
for it has no date, their first great work was finished. This was
no other than the Bible itself ! — the Latin Bible. Altogether un
known to the rest of the world, this was what had been doing at
Mentz, in the West, when Constantinople, in the East, was storming,
and the Italian " brief men," or copyists, were so very busy with
their pens. This Latin Bible, of 641 leaves, formed the first im
portant specimen of printing with metal types. The very first ho
mage was to be paid to that Sacred Volume, which had been sa
crilegiously buried, nay, interdicted so long; as if it had been, with
pointing finger, to mark at once the greatest honour ever to be be
stowed on the art, and infinitely the highest purpose to which it was
ever to be applied. Nor was this all. Had it been a single page,
or even an entire sheet which was then produced, there might have
been less occasion to have noticed it ; but there was something in
the whole character of the affair which, if not unprecedented, ren
dered it singular in the usual current of human events. This Bible

LATIN BIBLE, THE FIRST BOOK PRINTED. Iv
formed two volumes in folio, which have been " justly praised for
the strength and beauty of the paper, the exactness of the register,
the lustre of the ink." It was a work of 1282 pages, finely exe
cuted — a most laborious process, involving not only a considerable
period of time, but no small amount of mental, manual, and mecha
nical labour ; and yet, now that it had been finished, and now offer
ed for sale, not a single human being, save the artists themselves,
knew how it had been accomplished ! The profound secret remain
ed with themselves, while the entire process was probably still con
fined to the bosom of only two or three !
Of this splendid work, in two volumes, at least 1 8 copies are known
to exist, four on vellum, and fourteen on paper. Of the former, two
are in this country, one of which is in the Grenville collection ; the
other two are in the Royal Libraries of Paris and Berlin. Of the
fourteen paper copies there are ten in Britain : three in public
libraries at Oxford, London, and Edinburgh, and seven in the pri
vate collections of different noblemen and gentlemen. The vellum
copy has been sold as low as £260, though in 1827, as high as
£504 sterling. Even the paper Sussex copy lately brought £l90.
Thus, as if it had been to mark the noblest purpose to which the
art would ever be applied, the first Book printed with moveable
metal types, and so beautifully, was the Bible.
Like almost all original inventors, Gutenberg made nothing by
the discovery, at which he had laboured for at least twenty years,
from 1435 to 1455. The expenses had been very great ; and, in
the course of business, after the Bible was finishedj the inventor was
in debt to the goldsmith, who, though opulent, now exhibited a charac
ter certainly not to be admired. He insisted on Gutenberg paying up
his debt ; and, having him in his power, actually instituted a suit
against him, when, in the course of law, the whole printing apparatus
fell into Fust's possession, on the 6th of November 1455. Accord
ing to Trithemius, one of the best authorities, poor Gutenberg had
spent his whole estate in this difiicult discovery ; but still, not dis
couraged, he contrived to print till 1465, though on a humbler scale.
Having been appointed by Adolphus the Elector of Mentz one of
his gentlemen, (inter aulicos,) with an annual pension, he was
less dependent on an art which to him had been a source of trouble,
if not of vexation. He died in the city of his birth in February 1468.
Fust bad, from 1456, pursued his advantage, and with great
vigour, having adopted as his acting partner Peter Schoeffer, {An
glice, Shepherd,) a young man of genius, already trained to the busi
ness, to whom he afterwards gave his daughter in marriage. The
types employed hitherto had been made of brass, cut by the hand.
An advance to the present mode of producing types by letter -found-

Ivi INTRODUCTION. [xV. CENT.
ing was still wanted, and the art of cutting steel punches and casting
matrices has been ascribed to Schoeffer.^^
The first publication of Fust and Schoeft'er was a beautiful edition
of the Psalms, still in Latin, finished on the 14th of August 1457,
and there was a second in 1459 ; but the year 1462 arrived, and
this was a marked and decisive era in the history of this extraordin
ary invention ; not merely for a second edition of the Latin Bible,
in two volumes folio, dated 1462, and now executed according to the
improved state of the art ; but on account of what took place in Mentz
at the same moment.
A change had arrived, far from being anticipated by these the
inventors of printing, and one which they, no doubt, regarded as the
greatest calamity which could have befallen them. Gutenberg
had been the father of printing, and Schoeffer the main improver
of it, while Fust, not only by his ingenuity, but his wealth, had
assisted both ; but all these men were bent upon keeping the art
secret ; and, left to themselves, unquestionably they would have con
fined the printing press to Mentz as long as they lived. Fust and
Schoeffer, however, especially eager to acquire wealth, had resolved
to proceed in a very unhallowed course, by palming off their produc
tions as manuscripts, that so they might obtain a larger price for
each copy. The glory of promoting or extending the art must now,
therefore, be immediately and suddenly taken from them. Invention,
of whatever character, like Nature itself, is but a name for an effect,
whose cause is God. The ingenuity He gives to whomsoever He
will, but He still reigns over the invention, and directs its future
progress. At this crisis, therefore, just as if to make the reference
to Himself more striking, and upon our part more imperative, we
have only to observe what then took place, and the consequences
which immediately followed.
Fust and Schoeffer had completed their first dated Bible, of
1462, but this very year the city of Mentz must be invaded. Like
Constantinople, it was taken by storm, and by a member too of
that body, who in future times so lamented over the effects of
printing. This was the Archbishop, or Adolphus, already mentioned.
The consequences were immediate, and afford an impressive illus
tration of that ease with which Providence accomplishes its mightiest
operations. The mind of Europe was to be roused to action, and
materials sufficient to engage all its activity, must not be wanting.
But this demanded nothing more than the capture of two cities, and
these two, far distant from each other ! If when Constantinople
38 By this mode leaden types were first produced, and then of lead with a mixture of tin or
hammered iron. The invention of type metal, or one pound of regulus of antimony to five of
lead, is of comparatively recent origin.

PRINTING IN ROME. Ivii
fell in the east, the Greeks, with their manuscripts and learning,
rushed into Italy, to join the already awakened Italian scholars :
Mentz also is taken, and the art of printing spreads over Europe,
with a rapidity, which still excites astonishment.
This city, once deprived, by the sword of the conqueror, of those
laws and privileges which belonged to it as a member of the Rhen
ish Commercial Confederation ; all previous ties or obligations be
tween master and servant were loosened, and oaths of secrecy im
posed under a former regime, were at an end. Amidst the confusion
that ensued, the operative printers felt free to accept of invitations
from any quarter. But whither will they bend their steps, or in what
direction will the art proceed ? Where will it meet with its warm
est welcome, and in which capital of Europe will it be first esta
blished ? The reader may anticipate that the welcome came from
Italy, but it is still more observable, that the first capital was
Rome ! Yes, after the capture of Mentz, Rome and its vicinity,
the city of the future Index Expurgatorius, gave most cordial wel
come. The art, while in its cradle in Italy, must be nursed under
the inquisitive and much amused eye of the Pontiff himself !
One might very naturally have presumed, that the enemies of light
and learning, or of all innovation, would have been up in arms ;
and it is certainly not the least extraordinary fact connected with the
memorable invention of printing, that no alarm was expressed, —
neither at its discovery, nor its first application, even though the very
first book was the Bible. The brief-men or copyists, it is true,
were angry in prospect of losing their means of subsistence ; and in
Paris they had talked of necromancy, or the black art, being the
origin of all this ; but there was not a whisper of the kind in Italy.
Indeed, as to an existing establishment of any kind, any where, no
dangerous consequences were apprehended, by a single human being
as far as we know ; but most certainly none by the reigning Pontiff
himself, or even by the conclave with all its wonted foresight. On
the contrary, the invention was hailed with joy, and its first effects
were received with enthusiasm. Not one man appears to have per
ceived its bearing, or once dreamt of its ultimate results. No, the
German invention was to be carried to its perfection on Italian
ground. Residents and official persons in Rome itself, are to be its
first promoters, and that under the immediate eye of Paul II., a
man by no means friendly, either to learning, or to learned men.
This curious incident is rendered much more so, by one or two
others in immediate connexion with it. Even while the art was
yet a secret in Germany, the very first individual of whom we read
as having longed for its being brought to Rome, was a Cardinal,
Nicholas de Cusa ; the first ardent promoter of the press in that

IviJi INTRODUCTION. [^XV. CENT.
city was a Bishop, John Andreas the Bishop of Aleria and Secre
tary to the Vatican Library. He furnished the manuscripts for the
press, prepared the editions, and added the epistles dedicatory. It
had been on the summit of a hill, twenty-eight miles east of Rome
near Subiaco, and close by the villa once occupied by the Emperor
Nero, that the first printing press was set up. In the monastery
there, by Conrad Sweynheim and Arnold Pannartz from Germany,
an edition of Lactantius' Institutions was finished in the year 1465 ;
but next year, they removed, by invitation, into the mansion house
of two knights in Rome itself. They were two brothers, Peter and
Francis de Maximis. Here it was that, aided by the purse of
Andreas, the first fount of types in the Roman character, so called
ever since, was prepared, and all other materials being ready, they
commenced with such spirit and vigour, that the Secretary of the
Vatican " scarcely allowed himself time to sleep." Let him speak
once for himself, in one of his dedications prefixed to Jerome's
Epistles. " It was," says he to the Pontiff, " in your days, that among other divine fa
vours this blessing was bestowed on the Christian world, that every poor scholar
can purchase for himself a library for a small sum — that those volumes which
heretofore could scarce be bought for an hundred crowns may now be procured
for less than twenty, very well printed, and free from those faults with which
manuscripts used to abound — for such is the art of our printers and letter
makers, that no ancient or modern discovery is comparable to it. Surely the Ger
man nation deserves our highest esteem for the invention of the most useful of
arts. The wish of the noble and divine Cardinal Cusa is now, in your time, ac
complished, who earnestly desired that this sacred art, which then seemed rising
in Germany, might be brought to Rome. It is my chief aim in this epistle to
let posterity know that the art of printing and type-making was brought to
Rome under Paul II. Receive, then, the first volume of St. Jerome graci
ously, — and take the excellent masters of the art, Conrad Sweynheim and Arnold
Pannartz, Germans, under your protection."
This Pontiff, named Peter Barbo, and a Venetian by birth, had
no sooner come into office, in 1464, than he immediately suppressed
the College of abbreviators and turned out all the clerks of the
breves, regardless of the sums they had paid for their places. And
although this body was composed of the most distinguished men of
learning and genius in Rome, he chose to say they were of no use,
or unlearned ! Yet now, scarcely two years after, the same man
was sauntering into the printing office, nay, it is affirmed that he
visited it " frequently, and examined with admiration every branch
of this new art !" Would he have done this had he foreseen the
consequences ? And what must future Pontiffs have sometimes
thought or said as to his idle simplicity, or his lack of foresight ?
Meanwhile, so zealous were these men, that in five years only.

PRINTING IN ROME, VENICE, AND ELSEWHERE. lix
or from 1467 to 1472, they had printed not 'fewer then twelve
thousand four hundred and seventy-five volumes, in twenty-eight
editions, some of them of large size, and all beautifully executed.
Among these we find the Latin Bible of 1471- It was the second
edition with a date, the first printed in Rome, and however beauti
ful in execution, well known to be by no means distinguished for
its accuracy ; a circumstance which ought, in common modesty, to
have infused a forbearing or lenient temper with regard to all future
first attempts. It by no means followed, however, although Rome
bad taken the lead, that it was also to furnish a ready market for
the sale of books. On the contrary, the printers now laboured
under such a load of printed folio volumes, that unless relieved,
they must have sunk altogether, as no doubt they suffered. Yet
still, by the year 1476, twelve other works had issued from the
press. Among these were the " Postils," or Notes of Nicholas de
Lyra, the first printed Commentary on the Scriptures. But the
Commentary brought them down ! They had better have never
touched it, as it was by this huge work, in five folio volumes, they
were nearly, if not entirely, ruined in business. Such, however, was
the fruit of only one printing office, and in less than ten years.
Ulric Han, or Gallus, had commenced printing soon after these, the
first two, and at least thirteen other printers followed ; so that, before
the close of the fifteenth century, the different works published in the
Imperial city alone, had amounted to nearly one thousand !
We have been thus particular as to the capital of Italy, not for
getful of the place it then occupied in the world, and especially after
wards, in the sixteenth century. The facts now mentioned place
that power in a point of view not unworthy of observation ever since.
Before long, no invention was to occasion such perplexity to Rome
and her conclave as that oi printing, and yet the art enters Italy, and
the Pontiff himself, as it were, cordially sanctions the insertion of a
wedge which all Italy will drive ; or, in other words, he breaks the
ground, and gives the first onset in a direction which his suc
cessors have toiled in vain to arrest. Little did Peter Barbo,
the Venetian Pontiff, know what he was about, when wandering
into the printing office for his amusement. When examining, with
a mixture of wonder and delight, the different movements of the
printing machine, had he only suspected the mighty and irresistible
consequences, how soon would he have reduced the whole concern
to ashes, and discharged the thunders of the Vatican in every direc
tion ! But no, and in Rome itself, the printers, compositors and
pressmen, shall go on issuing folio after folio, and of works which
still exist and enrich the libraries of Europe.
Independently, however, of all this, what signified Rome, when

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

THE FINAL AMOUNT OF ALL THIS EXERTION. ]xi
exception, indeed, of the Sclavonian or northern nations, all others
in Europe had contributed to the interests of science ; but in Italy,
by way of eminence, the human mind had been permitted to exhaust
its power. The utmost that human ingenuity and patient perseverance
could effect had been accomplished. Works begun in one age, had
been carried on and finished by the next. Man had been allowed
to expend all his energy. The models left for his posterity to
admire, can only be feebly and imperfectly copied, for as yet they
have never been excelled.
But what then, we are now bound to inquire, what had all this
goodly array accomplished for the heartfelt refinement, the best or
true enlargement of the human mind ? To see such intellectual relish,
such sensibility and taste spring up afnidst general ignorance and
barbarity, was the wonder of the age ; but what had all this paint
ing, and statuary, and architecture, nay, this learning and printing,
effected, and more especially for the masses, or the people as such ?
Let a recent intelligent writer answer the question. " In looking
at the history of the Italian Republics, from the eleventh to the fif
teenth century," says Guizot, " we are struck with two facts seem
ingly contradictory, yet still indisputable. We see passing before
us a wonderful display of courage, of activity, and of genius — an
amazing prosperity is the result. We see a movement and a liberty
unknown to the rest of Europe. But if we ask what was the real
state of the inhabitants — how they passed their lives — what was
their real share of happiness — the scene changes. There is, perhaps,
no history so sad, no period, perhaps, during which the lot of man
appears to have been so agitated, subject to so many deplorable
chances, and which so abounds in dissensions, crimes, and misfor
tunes. Another fact strikes us at the same moment ; in the politi
cal life of the greater part of these Republics, liberty was always
growing less and less. The want of security was so great that the
people were unavoidably driven to take shelter in a system less
stormy, less popular than that in which the state existed. Look at
the history of Florence, Venice, Genoa, Milan, or Pisa ; in all of
them we find the course of events, instead of aiding the progress of
liberty, instead of enlarging the circle of institutions, tending to
repress it — tending to concentrate power in the hands of a smaller
number of individuals. In a word, we find in these Rupublics, other
wise so energetic, so brilliant, and so rich, two things wanting —
security of life, and the progress of institutions."
Whether, then, as to Italy or any where else, we need scarcely
again inquire, what had all this learning and refinement done for the
emancipation of the soul from bondage, or its clear escape from
tyrannizing lust ? What, for its way of access unto God, or the only
vol. I. /

Ixii INTRODUCTION. [xV. CENT.
way of acceptance with Him ? Absolutely nothing; nay, to speak cor
rectly, if the uses to which all things had been converted be observed,
far worse than nothing. Those venerated and confessedly beautiful
piles throughout Europe, with all that they contained, and in many in
stances now contain, assume a very grave and sombre aspect, when
ever it is remembered that in them we behold but the ingenious and
laborious efforts of the blind, mistaking their way to " a house not
made with hands, eternal in the heavens." They stand before us as
the professed and united homage of thousands, in their lifetime and
by their dying testaments, to that Being, before whom all external
display, all outward adorning, the magnificence of building or the
melody of sounds — nay the extended hands, the bended knee and the
uplifted eye are as nothing, -without the intelligent exercise of the
inward faculties.
Now, not to speak of other nations, what in Britain had yet been
done with regard to these ? Were the inward faculties cultivated,
or even allowed to be so ? Was there any attention yet paid to a
vernacular literature which could interest or enlarge the general
mind ? So far from it, for any one man to read a fragment of
Scripture in his native tongue, though yet merely in manuscript, was
sure to expose to oppression ; and for the first half of this very cen
tury, whether in England or Scotland, the barbarity of burning to
ashes, and of severe persecution for opinions held, had been practised
by all the authorities. Nor were they, in England, diverted from
such cruelty till engrossed by war with France. Then came those
intestine divisions and heartburnings — the wars of the White and
Red Rose-^those deadly feuds between the Houses of York and
Lancaster, when, as Fuller has expressed it, in reference to any who
thought for themselves, " the storm was their shelter." These wars,
however, so far from affecting the hold which the Pontiff had of this
country, were only so many too evident proofs of the secret but pro
digious infiuence of his votaries, in murdering one man and setting up
another. At the close of the long conflict, therefore, by the down
fall of Richard III. — after thirteen pitched battles — at the expense
of more than an hundred thousand men — Henry the Seventh, or the
first prince of the House of Tudor, most dutifully allied himself with
the paramount power of Rome; and began to educate his second son
as an ecclesiastic, afterwards to be known as Henry the Eighth.
The father had, indeed, humbled the Barons of England, while he
himself remained the devoted vassal of the Pontiff; and, at the end
of the fifteenth century, the capital of Italy was still, in its own
ancient sense, the capital of the world.
At the close, then, of this brief sketch, however imperfect, it
must now be evident that to have overlooked, what have been

THE FINAL AMOUNT OF ALL THIS EXERTION. Ixiii
styled by way of courtesy, the immortal trophies of painting,
music, and song, of sculpture and architecture, nay, and of printing,
for the first seventy years of its existence, would have been doing
great injustice to what was about to follow, in the sixteenth cen
tury. Of all these sources of attraction, that singular power which
held court and council at Rome, had been permitted to take the
fullest advantage ; nor was she slow to perceive the power they pos
sessed, to charm both the eye and the ear. Printing, however, was
the most intellectual of all the arts, and yet it will now be manifest,
that Infinite Wisdom was by no means in any haste to employ it.
The orators of Greece and Rome had been allowed to try their skill
once more in improving mankind. The classics were permitted to
enjoy their second, and more splendid triumph, and appear before
the world in a richer dress than they had ever done ; and since the
colloquial dialect, the tongue spoken by the people, was not the lan
guage of what was called the Church, in any nation of Europe, and
Latin alone was her language everywhere, then let that tongue,
through the press, also enjoy unprecedented scope. Let no Pontiff,
ever after, have any reason to complain that ample justice was not
first done to his system. Let him first have his fill of letters, even
to overflowing. Let him richly enjoy the first fruits, or the highest
place, nay, the monopoly of all the arts, and even the printing press
to boot ; and before the close of the fifteenth century, let there be
issued from the press, above an hundred editions of the Latin Bible,
for such was the fact : and throughout Europe, let there be hourly
spoken still, more than " ten thousand words in an unknown
tongue." After all this, and with an especial reference to our native land,
we now ask, — could there have been a more marked approach
towards the importation of Divine Truth into our Island, in the lan
guage then spoken by the people, and spoken still ? A more impres
sive series of events, as introductory to the printing of the Scriptures
in our vernacular tongue ? The Sacred boon was about to be con
ferred, and, at last, by millions of copies. To the inhabitants of
Britain, by way of eminence, and for three hundred years, were
about to be committed the oracles of God ; at least the translator to
be employed, was now growing up. But before Divine Revelation
is permitted to assume the shape of a printed volume, are we not
now bound to look back, and do justice to the manner of its intro
duction ? If there be certain points in the history of every country
at which the inhabitants would do well to pause ; to us, at least,
and as living apart from the Continent in the adjoining sea, this
was, or rather still is, one of the first importance, as the commence
ment of a new and unprecedented epoch.

Ixiv INTRODUCTION. [xv. CENT.
The mighty movement of the sixteenth century was at hand.
The outward forms of society had undergone a great change, and
this, it is freely granted, had produced a class of less fearful
thinkers. But the tide of human activity having been first per
mitted to rise so high, and accomplish so little, ought never to have
been overlooked. The distinction was about to be drawn, between
mere intellectual culture and mental vigour, or in other words,
between all that man had been able to effect, and what the Saviour
of the world was about to do, by means so simple, and an agency
soon to be so deprecated by human authority ; or rather by only
one selected individual then so generally despised, and since so
unaccountably forgotten !
Thus are we imperatively bound to distinguish between the
oratory of Greece and Rome, or the feeble language of literature,
and the voice of Jehovah in his word, when it once reached the ear
or the eye of our forefathers, in their native tongue; to distin
guish as carefully, between the power of the press, and the power
of what issued from it ; between printing, however splendid to the
eye, and what is printed, when addressed by the Almighty to the
heart ; between all the wisdom of this world, and that which
Cometh down from above ; between printed books without exception,
and " the oracles of God."
Twenty-five years of the sixteenth century have indeed still to pass
away, before the New Testament in English, as translated and com
mitted to the press by Tyndale, will be given to England and Scotland,
but these years will only render the event more striking, — an event
which, even in our own day, and at such a singularly momentous
period as the present, will be found to deserve and reward far more
thoughtful consideration, not in itself merely, but especially in its
consequences, than it has ever yet, for three hundred years, at any
previous point of time, received.

THE HISTORY OF
THE ENGLISH BIBLE.
BOOK I.-ENGLAND.

SECTION I.
J?E0M THE BIETH OF TYNDALE, THE OBIGINAL TKANSLATOE, TO HIS EM
BARKATION EOR THE CONTINENT, IN PURSUIT OF HIS DESIGN.
HE opening of the sixteenth century, a period so
big with interest to all Europe, has been presented
in very different lights, both by British and Con
tinental authors. Some have very carefully brought
into one focus a number of concurrent events, and then rested
in this conclusion ; that if there had never existed such men
as those with whose names we have been long familiar, all
that occurred, must have taken place. These are believers in
what has been styled, the "force of circumstances," and though
there be a power which governs the world independently of
man, they ri^e no higher ; our men of circumstances, can see
nothing great in individual character. Other writers, from too
fond partialityfor their native land, and scarcely looking beyond
it, have assigned exclusive renown to their own great men.
An Italian, on behalf of his own Italy, assumes the undivided
glory of the revival of literature, philosophy, and the fine-
VOL. I. A

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

' Merle D'Aubign6.

1500.31 IN ITS COMMENCEMENT. 3
and Tyndale in England, appear before the world, and to the
eye of man in this order ; they were contemporaries, living in
their respective countries ; Lefevre being by far the oldest
of the four, and Zuipglius the youngest. But then it is no
less evident, that the first impressions of these four men were
altogether independent of each other. They were individually
influenced by a power, though unseen, equally near to them
all. From that moment they were already destined to the
work assigned them, but not one of them had exchanged a
single thought with another. " Germany," says the same
author, " did not communicate the light of truth to Switzer
land, nor Switzerland to France, nor France to England : all
these lands received it from God, just as no one region trans
mits the light to another, but the same orb dispenses it direct
to the earth." We now speak of the origin, or the one great
though secret cause of all.
But the secret and universal Mover being once acknowledg
ed, upon advancing only a single step farther, we instantly
discover that a marked distinction has been drawn, between
our own separate Island, and all other Countries on the ad
joining Continent. In France, but more especially in Switzer
land and Germany, there was the living voice, throughout
life, of the man raised up, calling upon his countrymen to hear
and obey the truth ; and so God had ordered it in England,
a century and a half before, in the case of Wickliffe. But,
now, his procedure is altogether different, and out of the
usual course pursued in other lands. Tyndale had lifted up
his voice, it is true, boldly, and with some effect, but he is
withdrawn from his native land, and never to return. The
island is left behind by him, and left for good. In other
countries the man lives and dies at home. Lefevre, when
above a hundred years old, weeps, because he had not felt and
displayed the courage of a martyr; Zuinglius dies in battle for
his country ; and Luther, after all his noble intrepidity, ex
pires in his sick chamber : but Tyndale is strangled and burnt
to ashes, and in a foreign land. Englishmen, and Scotsmen,
and Germans, are gathered together against him ; yes, against
the man who enjoyed the honour of having never had a Prince
for his patron or protector all his days ; men of three nations
at least concur to confer upon him the crown of martyrdom,
so that, among all his contemporaries, in several points of

4 POSITION OP ENGLAND. [bOOK I.
view, but especially as a translator of the Scriptures, he stands
alone. Whether, therefore, in England or in Scotland, the conse
quence has been, that, at this early period, we have no great
or powerful character to present, as warring upon his native
soil, with the darkness, whether of ignorance or error, and lead
ing on to victory. Our man is abroad, and is pursued, but
cannot be taken, till his work is done ; while the Almighty
himself, appears as so much the more in immediate contact
with this country. The work is, by way of eminence. His
own. Divine truth, it is granted, is but an instrument, yet
as an instrument, it was now shown to be perfect for its pur
pose ; and the design goes on, till men of authority, and
power, and wrath, are baffled, overcome, and overruled. More
over, there has been ever since a providential superintendence
of this work, an uninterrupted care, lest it should be con
founded with any thing else in this Kingdom, all which we
are the more bound both to mark ourselves, and point out to
other nations.
That the eyes of his countrymen have never been turned
towards Tyndale, as they ought to have been long ago, but
more especially to that work which God did by him in the
midst of our land, is one of those mysteries, which, at this
moment, we do not even attempt to explain ; but it will be
the object of the following pages, to trace the footsteps of our
Translator, from his origin to his end ; and especially the
history of that Version which he first gave to his country.
One fourth part of the sixteenth century had passed away before any
portion of the Sacred Scriptures, translated from the original Greek into
the English language, was printed abroad, and first conveyed into Eng
land and Scotland. We have already glanced at foregoing ages as in
troductory to this memorable event, but the political and literary con
dition of England for these twenty-five years, immediately preceding,
renders the event itself much more worthy of consideration.
Henry the Seventh, and the first monarch of the Tudor family, having
attained the crown by his sword, on the field of Bosworth, had ascended
the throne of England in the month of August 1485, and to the close of
his life in April 1509, he had reigned as Lord paramount of all his Barons
though not of his Ecclesiastics. It was left for his son, Henry the Eighth,
to find out, in convenient season, that he was, as Crumwell expressed it,
only half a Sovereign. At the age of eighteen, in 1509, Henry had been

1500-23.] POSITION OF ENGLAND. 5
left by his father, the richest Prince in Europe, and with more preten
sions to learning than any monarch of that day. His wealth, at his ac
cession, is stated to have been at least one million eight hundred thousand
marks, if not pounds ; an amount, at all events, equal to many millions
of the present time. But whatever his wealth may have been, in the
brief space of a few years it was entirely dissipated. This, in its own
way, had signalised him, and more especially as by the second year of
his reign, he had begun to take a more decided part in the politics of
the European Continent, and upon a larger scale than England had ever
before done.
On looking abroad, Italy, it may be supposed, still commanded the first
notice. The reigning Pontiff for ten years, or from 1303 to 1513, was
Julius the Second, a man who, it has been said, " retained in the chill
of age, all the fire of youth," and became distinguished for his violent
and warlike passions. His statue being to be cast in brass, by Michael
Angelo, the artist required to know whether he would have a book in his
left hand, "No,'' replied Julius, " give me a .sicorc?, I am no Scholar."
Literature and the fine arts had triumphed, but above all the arts,
Julius was now absorbed in that of War. Bent upon the deliverance
of Italy from every interference with his authority, he commenced with
Venice, the growing power of which he was the first to curtail. Having
previously applied to Germany, France, and Naples, he had formed the
celebrated league of Cambray, and thus succeeded. But having once so
far humbled this republic, at the solicitation of Henry VIII,, now rising
into rank and influence, he consented to peace. So it has been said ;
but the truth seems to be, that Julius, unwilling that the Venetian state
should fall into the hands of any of his allies, left it still powerful, though
within its ancient limits. By this period, however, both France and
Spain had planted their foot in Italy ; Louis the XII, having the
Sovereignty of Milan, and Ferdinand that of Naples. The former,
jealous at once of his possession, and of the growing ambition of the
Pontiff, had opposed, and at last besieged him in Bologna ; a high of
fence, and not to be forgotten. By Jidius, therefore, in October 1511,
an alliance offensive and defensive, having for its object " the extinction
of schism and defence of the Church," had been accomplished, when
England assumed an unprecedented place in the politics of Europe.
This alliance, styled " the holy league," had been signed by Ferdinand,
by the Venetian State, and ultimately by Maximilian the Emperor of
Germany. But Henry of England had at once assented, Julius having
flattered him with no less a title than that of " Head of the Italian
League." The real object was to crush France, or compel Louis to let
go his hold of Milan. He had hitherto been styled by the court of
Rome, " Most Christian King ; " but now this appellation was actually
promised to the King of England, and no man seemed to be so great a

G POSITION OF ENGLAND. [book I.
favourite as young Henry. It was this same Pontiff, also, who about
four years before, had sent his Legate to James the Fourth of Scotland,
with a Bull of the title " Defender of the Faith ; " accompanied by that
hallowed Sword, which is still exhibited, as a relic, in the castle of
Edinburgh. At this period, certainly, there was no prospect that either
North or South Britain would ever prove unfaithful to the Pontiff's
chair. In the meanwhile, this league against France had embroiled
Henry into war with Scotland, as James the Fourth, though married to
his sister, now took part with his ancient ally. The result is well known
— an expedition to France in 1513, from which Henry returned with but
little credit, either to his wisdom or talents ; while his arms in Scotland,
under Surrey, had proved fatal to his brother-in-law, and the flower of
the Scotish nobility, at Flodden field.
In his expedition to France, Henry had been accompanied by an
ecclesiastic, his Almoner, about to become by far the most conspicuous
man of his day, whether in England or on the Continent. We need
scarcely name Thomas Wolsey. Immediately after their return, several
remarkable changes were crowded into a little space ; thus making way
for an era such as Europe had never witnessed, and one in which Henry
and his prime Minister were to perform no subordinate part. Fired with
ambition, they will stand ready to help each other at convenient season.
While Henry was plunged into war both with Prance and Scotland,
Julius II. died at Rome, and had been succeeded by Leo the Tenth, the
youngest Pontiff, and one of the most celebrated, that had ever reigned.
Louis of France, who had not only propitiated the Roman See, but been
allied in marriage to Mary, Henry's youngest sister, died in 1515, and
was succeeded by Francis the First. In the same year, after much soli
citation, Leo had raised Wolsey to the rank of a Cardinal, when he began
to feel as though he were a second king : and in 1517, by the death of
Ferdinand, King of Spain, Charles V. had succeeded to that throne.
At last, or in January 1619, the Emperor Maximilian expired also ;
when the three young kings, Henry VIII., Francis I., and Charles V.,
became candidates for the Imperial Crown. The truth is, it had been
twice offered by Maximilian himself before his death, to Henry ; and had
he not doubted the sincerity of the Emperor, and not consulted with
Cuthbert Tunstal, he might have accepted the proffer. But " now that
the glittering prize was open to competition, he disclosed his wishes to
his favourite ; and both the King and the Cardinal, reciprocally inflam
ing the ambition of each other, indulged in the most flattering delusions.
In fancy they were already seated, the one on the throne of the Ceesars,
the other in the chair of St. Peter, and beheld the whole Christian world,
laity and clergy, prostrate at their feet. The election of Henry would
secure, it was foretold, the elevation of Wolsey ; and the Bishop of Wor
cester, (an Italian, but residing at Rome, whose diocese was farmed by

1500-23.] POSITION OF ENGLAND. 7
Wolsey,) had been aiming to secure the consent and assistance of the
Pontiff in favour of the King of England."
Such, at least, is the representation of Lingard ; but be this as it may,
Charles, it is well known, was chosen Emperor, to the mortification of
the other candidates, and especially to that of the young King of France,
who had been most treacherously promised support by Henry, while he
himself was striving after the same honour ! At this moment, however,
Francis found it necessary to pocket the affront, and to fortify himself
against the Emperor, he insisted that Henry should fulfil a previous en
gagement, to pay him a visit in France. To this he consented, and
Wolsey, as the consummate master of ceremonies, had the arrangement
of the whole affair : but before they embarked, no sooner had they
reached Canterbury, than, to the surprise of many, though not of the
Cardinal, Charles the Fifth, on board of a squadron said to be bound for
the Netherlands, was announced as approaching, merely to pay a visit
to his Uncle and Aunt, the King and Queen of England.^ In three
days, the Emperor had so far gained upon the good will of Henry ; while
by hints as to the Pontificate, promises and presents, he had secured the
ambition of Wolsey in his favour. The King of England with his Car
dinal then passed on to Francis, and to the performance of a splendid
pageant, in mockery of friendship. The negotiations which afterwards
ensued, only prove, that Henry, once disappointed of the imperial dignity,
had fixed his eye on the crown of France. In short, his Majesty of
England had, in his own estimation, become the arbiter of Europe. With
Wolsey at his right hand, he began to feel as though he held the balance
between the two Continental rivals, Charles and Francis ; while his Prime
Minister, the veritable potentate, was about to be courted at one period,
and dreaded at another, not only by these Sovereigns, but by the Pontiff
himself for the time being.
As proof of the English Cardinal rapidly rising to this dignity, we
have only to mark those successive steps by which he had shown him
self to be so attentive to his personal aggrandisement ; recollecting all
the while, that he is to be viewed as the true index to the rising eccle
siastical power of Italy over England. Having in 1515 obtained the red
hat of a Cardinal, his Royal Master, now so won by his fascinating man
ner and luxurious habits, had, in December of that year, made him Lord
Chancellor, instead of William Warham, Archbishop of Canterbury ; for
the Chancellor in those days had been uniformly a churchman. Then
Leo the Tenth, in July 1518, had in effect transferred to him, within the
limits of England, almost all his powers as Pontiff, by creating him his
Plenipotentiary or Legate a latere. Since the year 1514 he had been

2 This was not an accidental visit. On the 8th of April, (1620), Henry had ordered his Am
bassadors to fix the time and [ilace.

8 POSITION OF ENGLAND. [|b00K I.
Archbishop of York, and after that, farmed the revenues of Worcester
and Salisbury on behalf of two foreigners, Italians, resident at Rome.
He had held, in comm^ndam, the Diocese of Bath and the Abbey of St.
Albans. As early as 1518 he had a settled annuity from the French
King, of twelve thousand livres ; and in 1520, Charles V. and the Pontiff
had granted him an yearly pension of seven thousand five hundred
ducats, as the revenues of Toledo and Placencia, two bishoprics in
Spain. The epistolary correspondence addressed to him, and still in
preservation, proves the height to which he had attained. Louis XII.,
Francis I., and Charles V., addressed him as their "good," or "good and
loyal friend." Maximilian before this, and the Pontiffs, always approach
ed him with marked consideration. The Venetian Republic abroad, had
treated him as a vital portion of the Royal power, and the Oxford Uni
versity at home, had gone so far as to employ in writing the appellation
of " Your Majesty ! " This occurred before the title was in use to Henry
himself ! In short, it actually seemed as if that dominant power which
had reigned so long over all Europe, had been gathering into strength,
and lighting on the head of one man in England, and that one, merely
an ecclesiastic raised from low degree.
In these circumstances, could any event have been more improbable
than that England above all other countries, England under her present
monarch, would ever be separated from Rome ? Independently, however,
of all the past, certain events in the year 1521 seemed to have placed such
a supposition out of all question. Milan had then been rescued from
the yoke of France, and no one was more overjoyed than the reigning
Pontiff, Leo the Tenth ; but in a few days after, whether from joy, or
as has been supposed, by poison, on the 1st of December he breathed his
last. Henry had missed the Imperial crown, but now came his Prime
Minister's opportunity for advancement. No sooner had the intelligence
arrived, than Wolsey became an eager candidate for the papal throne.
His royal master, in pursuit of his own glory, had long and ardently
desired the appointment of his favourite. The Emperor had been
sounded before, and feigned consent. The preceptor of Charles, however,
Florent, Bishop of Tortosa, as Adrian VI., gained the day, and Wolsey
had to content himself for the present, with the prolongation of his
Legantine authority. Another opportunity, indeed, soon presented
itself, by the death of Adrian in 1523. Again Wolsey started, with ex
press orders from Henry as well as himself, that no wealth or substance
should be spared to ensure success. But again he was doomed to bitter
disappointment, and Julio di Medici, once Bishop of Worcester, was
chosen. This was the second time that the Emperor had deceived
Wolsey, — and the effects of his duplicity, at the Cardinal's hands, he
shall feel for years to come. In the meanwhile, Julio, under the name

1500-23.] STATE OF LITERATURE. 0
of Clement the Seventh, was willing to do all in his power to secure the
allegiance and good will of England. To Henry he had sent a conse
crated rose tree of fine gold, with a confirmation of his title " Defender
of the Faith," first obtained from Leo. To Wolsey he sent a ring from
his own finger, with the appointment of Legate a latere, /or life.
These three Sovereigns, therefore, with Clement VII. as Pontiff, and
last, though not least. Cardinal Wolsey, will now engage attention and
occupy their own conspicuous places in the great drama, for years to
come. Such had been the chief political movements up to the year 1523, —
but was there no stir in the world of letters 1 Certainly there was ; and
in England, to a degree hitherto quite unknown. The triumph achieved
on the Continent, had already shed its influence on our detached Island.
The road to Italy had not been unfrequented by our countrymen, influ
enced chiefly by thirst for such learning as could there be best acquired.
Hence the well known names of Grocyn and Linacre, of Colet and Lilly,
of Tunstal, Wakefield, William Latimer, and Sir Thomas More. Wolsey
himself wished to be regarded as a scholar — and so did, above them all in
his own esteem, the King upon the throne ; though neither the one nor
the other had ever beheld an Italian sky. Grocyn, the first Englishman
who taught Greek at Oxford, and Linacre, at once physician and tutor to
Henry VIII., had spent years in Italy under Politian and Chalcondyles,
then the most eminent classical scholars in Europe. Colet, though only
a Latinist, after his return from abroad, became the founder of St. Paul's
school, the first public seminary where Greek was taught ; having chosen
Lilly for the head master, who had studied the language for five years
at Rhodes, under the refugees from Constantinople. Tunstal, an eminent
Latin, as well as a good Greek and Hebrew scholar, had been chosen
Bishop of London in 1522 ; and Sir Thomas More, the pupil of Grocyn,
was now Speaker of the House of Commons. In short, the court of
Henry had become so celebrated for an awakened attention to letters,
as to be eulogised on the Continent ; and the company round the royal
table was regarded as superior to any academy of learning — at least so
said Erasmus, though he was rather too complimentary.
At this crisis, therefore, an important question naturally presents
itself. Political events gave no promise whatever of any important
change. But here were men of great pretensions to polite literature.
Now, among all these learned men, already named, or not named, who
gave celebrity to the court of Henry, or adorned the royal table, had the
idea of giving the Sacred Volume, translated from the original, into the
language of the common people, once been mooted "i Had the learning
they had acquired ever led them to this one point, and as to one that
was important, incumbent, or necessary ? So far from it, the very pro
posal would have made them tremble, or have filled the majority with

10 STATE OF LITERATURE. [book I.
indignation. Colet, a man to be distinguished from all others then
living, might perhaps have hailed such a proposal, though decidedly
attached to the forms then existing, but his opinions had rendered him
so obnoxious, that, but for the King's personal regard, he might have
suffered. However, he died in 1519, and Grocyn, absorbed in Greek only
as a language, died of palsy the same year. As for Linacre, who expired
in 1524, nothing favourable is upon record. It has even been said, that
though enjoying the fruit of several ecclesiastical preferments, he had not
begun to look into the Greek New Testament till towards the close of life ;
and on reading our Lord's beautiful Sermon on the Mount, as in Matthew,
coming to that passage, — " Swear not at all," he cast the book aside,
saying, that " this was either not the Gospel, or we were not Christians."^
But with regard to the rest of these scholars, when the Book of Life in
the vulgar tongue once comes into England, Tunstal and More, Wolsey
and the King, will not fail to render themselves conspicuous as its bitter
est and most determined opponents.
Neither the political nor literary condition of England,
under the dominant sway of Cardinal Wolsey, affording the
slightest indication of the Sacred Scriptures being about to be
given to the people, but the reverse ; in justice to that event
it is necessary to observe also, the nature of that connexion
which had existed for ages between Britain and Rome, more
especially since it was now as intimate and powerful as ever.
Indeed, under Henry VIII., it arrived at its climax. This
connexion sustained a peculiarly complicated character. There
was the Annate, or first fruits, payable by the Archbishop
down to the lowest ecclesiastic, upon election to office — the
Appeal to Rome — the Dispensation from it — the Indulgence
— the Legantine levy — the Mortuary — the Pardon — the
Ethelwolf's pension — the Peter's pence for every chimney
that smoked in England — the Pilgrimage — the Tenth — be
sides the sale of trinkets or holy wares from Rome ! Here
were not fewer than twelve distinct sources of revenue !
These altogether were operating on the inhabitants without
any exception, and with as much regularity as the rising and
setting of the sun. It was a pecuniary connexion of immense
power, made to bear upon the general conscience, which knew
no pause by day, no pause by night ; falling, as it did, not
merely on the living, but on the dying and the dead !
3 Cheke— " Do pronunc. Grsccae LinRua;," Fuller indeed tries to soften this, bnt Cheke was
almost a contemporary.

1500-23.] WORCESTER AND GLOUCESTER. H
In no other country throughout Europe, without exception,
was it so probable that this system, in all its oppressive and
fearful integrity, would be maintained. Under an imperative
Monarch, originally educated as an ecclesiastic, and who now
gloried in his acquaintance with scholastic divinity ; with a
Prime Minister so well known to every foreign Court, and
who himself breathed with ardour after the Pontificate,
England had become the right arm or main-stay of this sys
tem. Nay, as if to render this still more apparent, and so
fix the eye of posterity, the King upon the throne had resolved
to distinguish himself as the reputed author, in support of this
singular power ; and he became at once the first and the only
Sovereign in Europe who was understood to have lifted his
pen in defence and defiance. For this feat in reply, though
not an answer to Luther, it is well known that Henry had
obtained from Leo X. his highly prized title of "Defender
of the Faith."*
If, however, the reader should now wish to know, whether there was
any part of this Island, by way of eminence, where the power and
pressure of Rome was more strikingly apparent ; any ground which
seemed to be " all her own ;" he must look down to the west of
England. In a district of country, extending from above Kidderminster
to a little below Bristol, lay what was then styled the diocese of Wor
cester, Embracing the county of that name, as well as the whole of
Gloucestershire to the borders of Somerset, we need to say nothing of
its beauty, since a richer variety of scenery, or finer studies of the
picturesque, can scarcely even now be found. It is of more importance
to remark, that, even at this early period, there was no part of England
in a better state of cultivation, if, indeed, there was any to equal it.
This may very easily be imagined from the fact, that, to say nothing of
the Cathedral at Worcester, with all its appendages, within the county
of Gloucester alone there were not fewer than six Mitred Abbeys, viz.
Gloucester, Cirencester and Winchcombe, Tewkesbury, Hailes and Flax-
ley ; the three first Abbots having seats in Parliament as peers of the

* The title of " Most Christian King," taken from the King of France, had actually been
conveyed to Henry, by the warlike Julius II., through Cardinal Balnbridge. — Rymer's Ftedera.
But Leo professed to know nothing of this, or would not recognise the transaction, and annulled
all that his predecessor had done against Louis. The present title to Henry was no more than
that which James IV. of Scotland had received, fourteen years ago, from Julius. Not being
hereditary, it had died with him, though we shall find James V. irritating his uncle, by assuming
that of " Defender of the Christian faith ;" intended, perhaps, as a hint to Henry, after his de
fection. Neither was the title now conveyed to England meant to be hereditary : it became
80 only by an Act of Parliament in 1544, and though the statute had been repealed, the title
was retained even by Philip and Mary. So it has continued to the present hour.

12 WORCESTER AND GLOUCESTER. [boOK I.
realm. But, besides these, there were many other Houses, styled Re
ligious, of almost every grade and denomination. If, from the days of
King John and Henry III., England had seemed to the eye of the
Pontiff, like a " garden of delight and an unexhausted well," no judges as
to the most pleasant and productive spots, were superior to the Monks ;
and these in this quarter were so numerous, as to have given rise to the
common and profane proverb — that such a thing was as certain, as that
" God was in Gloucestershire." And who were the Bishops, then in full
power over all this Goshen or Gerar, and enjoying its fruits ? Not one
of them an Englishman, resident within our shores ! Since this century
commenced, or rather from the year 1497 to 1534, they were actually
four Italians, in regular succession. The two first had been resident
with a witness ; but as for the two last, there was no occasion, since
Wolsey, the Cardinal and Legate of England, transacted all their busi
ness. Indeed, for a period of half a century, or from 1484 to 1534, the
connexion of this district with Italy is particularly worthy of notice,
more especially on account of what then and there took place. The
reader will discover presently, that there is one important reason for
his attention being first directed to these Italian Bishops, and to their
intimate and profitable alliance with England.
In the year 1484, Innocent VIII. had been elected Pontiff. It was
by his authority that John de Lilius, or Giglis, LL.D., an Italian of
Lucca, was sent into England. He came as Questor, or Collector, for
the Apostolic Chamber, and it was not long before he had thoroughly
feathered his own nest. From time to time he became Rector of
Swaffam in Norfolk, of Langham in Suffolk, and of St. Michael, Crooked
Lane, London ; Prebendary of St. Paul's, York, and Lincoln ; Pre
bendary, and afterwards Dean of Wells ; Archdeacon of London and
of Gloucester, or, in all, ten different appointments ; in return for which,
since he came as Questor-general for the Pontiff who sent him, he could
have done little else than collect the revenues. From Innocent, more
over, de Lilius had received a most scandalous commission ; authorising
him to pardon the most heinous offences, such as robbery and murder,
usury, simony and theft, or every species of crime ; and to dispense
with the wo?i-restitution of goods acquired by any fraud, upon condition
that part of such gain should be handed to the Pontiffs commissioners
or their deputies ! Nor can we suppose this man to have been negligent
in employing this power to his own, as well as his master's emolument.
At last, loaded with fruit, it was time to return to Italy, though his con
nexion with England was not to be broken off ; so far as emolument was
concerned, far from it. He became Henry's Solicitor in the Court of
Rome ; and no sooner was the diocese of Worcester vacant by the death
of Robert Morton, than de Lilius, the Archdeacon of Gloucester, became
Lord of the See. To this he was appointed by Alexander VI., on the

1500-23.] WORCESTER AND GLOUCESTER. 13
30th of August 1497, and, as Bishop of Worcester, he died at Rome on
the 25th of August next year.
This man, however, had been assisted as Collector by a nephew, Syl
vester de Lilius, who had remained in England behind him, and now for
his usefulness and activity in this employment, he was advanced by
Alexander VI. to succeed his uncle, and as Bishop of Worcester, at once.
Appointed on the 17th March 1499, he continued in England for thirteen
years ; but in 1512, Julius II. having summoned the fifth Lateral
Council, Henry VIII., " the head of the Italian league," could not do
less than send him to Rome. What then could become of his occupa
tion in England or of his see 1 There was no difficulty ; here was
Cardinal Wolsey always at hand, and he will now have not a little to do
with the Counties of Worcester and Gloucester, as long as he lives. He
was appointed Commendatory for Sylvester, and farmed the diocese for
him. The Italian never returned from Rome, where he soon showed
himself to be a most base and ungrateful character. Continuing to re
ceive the fruits of his residence and appointment in England, he lived
for nine years, and died at Rome, 16th April 1521. It is but very re
cently that the secret has been discovered, though the fact appears to be,
that he there lived to subserve the purposes or 'pleasure of Wolsey, his
agent in England, rather than those of the King, whose orator he pro
fessedly was. In the second year after his return to Rome, the English
Cardinal Bainbridge, when writing to Henry direct, has the following
passage : — " During the time of my abode here in this Court, I neither
can nor will desist, to signify unto your Highness, such things as I shall
perceive that be dissonant, either to your Grace's honour, or wealth of
your realm. As touching my Lord of Worcester, your Grace's orator, he
doth use continually the company of the Protector of France, both in
the city, and also in Vines (Vineyards) and Gardens without the city, both
by day and night, whereof right honourable men, your Grace's friends,
hath at sundry times advertised me ; and that he is more familiar with
him than with any cardinal of Rome. It is perfectly known to every
Englishman within this city, that nothing can be more odious unto him,
than to hear of any success of your Grace's causes, or for to hear of any
honour spoken of your realm or subjects, either by writing from England
or other places, upon your most noble acts and victories obtained. From
Rome, the 20th day of May 1514." Whoever was the perpetrator, the
writer of this letter was dead in less than two months, and by poison.
The real date of Bainbridge's death, was July the 14th ; and there
can be no. question now, that the Italian Bishop of Worcester was deeply,
if not chiefly concerned in the murder of the English Cardinal.^ Wolsey
succeeded Bainbridge as Archbishop of York, and Sylvester de Lilius at

5 See Ellis' Original Letters, I., pp. 99-113.

14 COUNTY OF GLOUCESTER. [bOOK 1.
Rome went on to receive the fruits of his bishopric, till his death in
1521. De Lilius once dead in Italy, there was no occasion for sending another
Italian to England. The Pontiff, it appears, might now exercise his right
of nomination, and at once secure the see. Under Leo X. abroad, and
Wolsey, as farmer of the district, at home, the transfer was easily ad
justed. There was a soldier of the order of St. John of Jerusalem, a
Florentine, who had been raised to be a Cardinal. He was not only
Archbishop of Narbon and Florence, but moreover the Chancellor of the
Roman Church both in spirituals and temporals ; and as if all this had
not been more than sufficient, the English vacancy was handed over
to him ! On the 7th of June 1521, Leo X., by his provisory Bull, made
him Bishop of Worcester in England. The nod of the Pontiff was all-
sufficient security, and therefore the very next day, Leo empowered
Thomas Wolsey to take possession of the see for him, and to act in his
name. It actually seemed as if all the most conspicuous men in the
great following drama, must be brought into contact with this particular
spot in England. For who was this soldier ? It was no other than the
cousin of Leo, Cardinal (Julio) di Medici, educated by Lorenzo his
uncle, and so well known as the future Pontiff, Clement VII. !
It was but a few months before Julio found an opportunity of serving
the English administrator of his English diocese. Leo died in December
1521, when the most active in Wolsey's favour to procure the Pontiffs
chair itself, were the Cardinals di Medici and Sion. They had both
left the army, to be present in the conclave ; but, as already stated, the
ancient preceptor and friend of Charles V. stood in the way, when Wol
sey was outvoted by Adrian VI. The Italian Bishop of Worcester then
thought it prudent to tender his resignation, and not damage his re
putation or influence under the reigning Pontiff; taking care, at the
same time, to recommend one of his own countrymen, Jerome de
Ghinnuci, already Bishop of Asculum. This change, however, did not
take place till the 27th of October, nor was the see filled up till the
20th of February 1523, when it was conferred on Ghinnuci, now
domestic Chaplain to Adrian, and Auditor-General of the Apostolic
Chamber. Thus, it once more appeared, as if this district of country,
in particular, must ever stand in close and profitable union with a man
at the ear of the Pontiff, while Wolsey went on to farm it as before.
Little, however, was he aware, that the same man who had professed to
be so warm in his favour at Rome, in January 1522, would in less than
two years, for ever cut him off from all prospect of the Pontificate.
Julio, the former Bishop of Worcester, became Clement VII. on the
25th of November 1623 ; but still Cardinal Ghinnuci held the diocese,
and that untU 1534.
In these transactions, therefore, and within the compass of this dis-

1500-23.] BIRTH OF TYNDALE THERE.

15

trict alone, the reader has, singularly enough, met in his way not fewer
than seven Pontiffs, from Innocent VIII., and the notorious Alexander
VI., down to Leo X., and his nephew, Clement VII.*' Here, in short,
was the finest spot in all then: English garden, and under Wolsey, as
Cardinal, and Legate, and Commendatory, it had now certainly ex
hibited the climax of their power. In no other diocese of all England
were the influence and authority of Pontiffs, and Cardinals, and foreign
ecclesiastics in such full display. By way of eminence, it had been, as
it were, given up to Italy. Added to all this, we need not, must not,
dwell on the shocking immorality which every where reigned triumph
ant, and under the desecrated name of religion. A specimen has al
ready been given in the vile commission granted by the first of these
Pontiffs. " The mind," says Turner, " must have renounced both its
judgment and its conscience, not to have called for some reform ;" but
the fact was, that, in the language of sacred writ, " both the mind and
conscience were defiled." " On no part of Europe," he adds, " can we
fix our eye in the reign of Henry VIII., but we meet in what was styled
the ecclesiastical order, with the same picture of arraigned depravity."
But as far as our own island was concerned, that great power which
ruled the earth, filled with hostility to all change, and more especially
to the Word of God, seems to have gathered itself into a focus before
our eyes, while it rested, like an incubus, on this diocese of Worcester.
Let any one now direct his attention to the first quarter of
the sixteenth century ; let but the state of our native land be
surveyed, but more especially the counties of Gloucester and
Worcester ; and so far from there being any, even the
slightest token of the Divine Word being about to be laid
open to the common people ; the political state of England,
and the literary, such as it was, but, above all, her intimate
and complicated connexion with Italy, decidedly forbade the
idea of such a thing. Where, then, throughout all England,
was any individual to be expected, sufficiently bold to cherish
the noble design ?
Now, it was such a time as this ; it was in the midst of
hostile circumstances, nay, it was in the very spot, or diocese,
to which we have already pointed, that a man according to
God''s own heart had already been found ! It was in the
centre of this diocese that he was born ! From about the
year 1484, this district, above all others, had fallen under
the power of Italy, or, like a ripe fig, into the mouth of the
e Or Seven Pontiffs, in only fifty years, from 1484 to 1534.

16 FAMILY OF TYNDALE. [bOOK r.
eater ; but it may now be added, " about which time William
Tyndale was born."
Great characters have not unfrequently been raised from
an obscurity which has baffled all research. So it has hap
pened emphatically in the present instance. Not only are
the statements hitherto advanced altogether erroneous ; but
even after the utmost diligence, whether in searching the
Parish Registers themselves, the Visitations in the Herald's
Office, or the manuscript stores of our British Museum, still
there hangs, at least, some degree of obscurity over the pre
cise year of Tyndale's birth, as well as his immediate parent
age. Without, therefore, encumbering the page, we now
confine attention to what appears to be morally certain ; and
for the additional confirmation of our narrative, refer to an
article at the close of this work.
Among the picturesque beauties of Gloucestershire, where
the prospects pointed out by the topographer amount to
nearly forty in number, there is one from the top of Stinch-
comb Hill, fifteen miles south-west of the city, which com
mands the Severn, from Gloucester to Bristol; having the
Vale of Berkeley, with its venerable castle, on the left bank
of that river, and the Forest of Dean, Chepstow, and the
Welsh mountains, on the right. From this point more than
seven counties are visible, and about thirty parish churches ;
but to every admirer of England's best hope, her Sacred
Volume, the spot acquires by far its deepest interest, from
his having immediately below his eye, the birth-place of its
original Translator. There can be no question that Tyndale
was born within the hundred of Berkeley, whether at the
village of Stinchcomb itself, or more probably at North
Nibley, two miles to the left, now also full in view. His
family, however, stands long in connexion with both villages.
Before the birth of our Translator, his progenitors, for two,
if not three descents, had lived under the western brow of
Stinchcomb Hill, where, for a limited period, they had passed
under the name of Hitchins. The removal of the family into
Gloucestershire, as well as the temporary assumption of this
name, have been ascribed to the wars between the houses of
York and Lancaster, and such may have been the occasion ;
but the temporary adoption of the name of Hitchins, may
just as probably have arisen from a deadly local family feud

1500-23.] FAMILY OF TYNDALE. 17
which long agitated the very spot where they now dwelt.
The violence of the civil wars had loosened the authority of
government, and this part of the country afforded one of the
most striking proofs ; for though, in the contentions of York
and Lancaster, the neighbouring castle of Berkeley had no
share, yet it had suffered greatly from the disputed title to
its possession, between the heir of the Barony, and Richard
Beauchamp, Earl of Warwick. Perhaps there never existed,
in the history of England, a hereditary family contention
equal to this ; as it continued to smoulder on for nearly two
hundred years, from 1417, and in its earlier stages burst out
with great violence. Mutual reprisals had been made again
and again, till a final period was put to such a mode of
settlement, by the fierce contest on Nibley Green in March
1470.'' This is indeed the only event by which the village
itself has hitherto been distinguished. Now, the Tyndales
were then living at Stinchcombe ; and as the number, on
both sides, amounted to 1000 men, most of whom were
gathered, in one night, from the lands of Berkeley hundred,
they must have taken part in the fray. While, therefore,
the quarrel was at once local and personal, between William,
the seventh Lord Berkeley, and Thomas, Lord Lisle, then liv
ing at Wooton under Edge, it must be observed that the
former was on the Lancastrian side of politics, and, as ten
ants at least, so were the Tyndales. The consequence was,
that although Berkeley was victorious, the encounter being
fatal to Lord Lisle himself and 160 more; and although
Government was prevented from taking cognizance of the
7 It was after the death of Thomas, the fifth Lord Berkeley, in 1417, that this contest be
gan. In 1418, Richard Beauchamp, who had married his daughter, and sole heiress, " lay
before Berkeley Castle with an armed force, fully determined to destroy it, but was diverted
from his purpose by the intercession of the Bishop of Worcester and the neighbouring gentry,"
— Prynn^s MS. It sustained at this time several sieges, which were as frequently raised.
After Warwick's decease, the quarrel became hereditary. All decision by the sword termi
nated on Nibley Green in 1470, but the tedious process of law continued till the 7th of James I.
1609-10, or 193 years from the commencement of the dispute! Meanwhile, the successful
combatant at Nibley did not fail to give sufficient proof of his devotion to his party ; for in De
cember 1487, having quarrelled with his brother Maurice, on account of his marriage, he as
signed the castle and manor, with other Lordships, to Henry VII., and his heirs-male, so that
the property did not return to the right heirs till the death of Edward VI. Still the legal pro
cess went on till its settlement under James I. ; and yet, even now, it must still be noticed as
a notable proof of " the glorious uncertainty " of the law ; that if modern decisions may be ap
plied to the subject, the Barony of Berkeley, created by the Writ of Summons in the 23d Ed
ward I. is now in abeyance between the descendants and representatives of the three daughters
and co-heirs of Elizabeth, the ancient Countess of Warwick ; and the Barony possessed by tho
present Earl of Berkeley, is that created by the Writ of Summons to James de Berkeley in
1421, or 9. Henry V. — Nicolas' Synopsis, pref. xxi.-xjcx. and p. 60, See the printed cases of the
present Earl Fitzhardinge, and of Sir J. S. Sidney on the Earls, for all the facts and argu
ments on the subject.
VOL. I. a

18 TYNDALE'S ANCESTORS. [book I.
result at the time, owing to the far greater affairs of the civil
war, still afterwards Lord Berkeley had to humbly sue for
forgiveness from Edward the Fourth, the royal head of the
house of York. At all events, from whatever cause, the
name of Hitchin had been assumed by this branch of the
Tyndale family, for years, as will appear presently.
The family of our Translator is to be traced to an ancient
Barony, by tenure, which, however, in his name, became ex
tinct so early as the beginning of the thirteenth century.^
From the second son of Adam, the last Baron de Tyn
dale and Langeley, in Northumberland, or Robert Tyndale,
who removed southward in the reign of Edward I., who
settled at Tansover, or Tansor, near Oundle in Northampton
shire, and was living in 1 288, there gradually sprung diffe
rent families ; so that, by the beginning of the sixteenth
century, respectable proprietors of the name of Tyndale were
living at Tansover and Deane, in Northamptonshire ; at
Hockwold, in Norfolk ; at Pull Court, in Worcestershire ;
and at Stinchcombe and North Nibley, in the county of
Gloucester; as there were soon afterwards at Eastwood, in
the same county ; at Bathford and Bristol, in Somerset ; at
Mapplestead, in Essex, and, still later, at Bobbing Court, in
Kent. All these families claim descent from Robert of Tan
sover ; and even that of our William Tyndale has been sup
posed, by no inferior genealogist, to have sprung from him.^
This it certainly had done, though in a very remote degree,
as we shall presently meet with ground to believe that there
was some affinity between it, and that of Tyndale of Pull
Court, a branch of the house of Tansover.
Of the family resident at Stinchcombe and North Nibley,
we have two distinct genealogies. The first, under the head
of Hunfs Court, Nibley, is to be found in the account of the
hundred of Berkeley, drawn up by Mr. Smythe, the factor of
Lord Berkeley, resident in the old manor house of Nibley.
The second genealogy is founded upon a deed under the reign
of Henry VIIL, the best of all evidence ;^'' while, so far as the
latter goes, and the authority quoting it, there is a perfect
agreement with the former as to the descents, viz. : —
8 The Barony ot Tyndale then passed ,;Mre uxmis to Nicholas de Bolteby, who died in 1272,
whose son, Adam, died in 1281.— See Nicolas' Synopsis, and the admirable genealogy of G. B.
Tyndale, Esq. of Hayling, in Burke's Hist, of the Commoners, iv. p. 546.
9 Mr. Jekyll's genealogies, quoted in the Biog. Brit.
10 Rudder's Gloucester, under Stinchcombe, p, 695,

1500-23.] FAMILY OF TYNDALE. 19
I. Hugh Tyndale, father of John, f. of Thomas, f. of Richard, f, of Richard, f, of Thomas,
II, Thomas, f. of Richard, f, of Richard, f, of Thomiis.
The first individual mentioned by Mr. Smythe, is said to
be Hugh Tyndale, alias Huchens, the name which, for a
season, the family had adopted. This is confirmed by
Tyndale himself, who, in his first publication, gave both
names-—" William Tyndale, otherwise called Hitchins," —
though ever after, he used only the former. Whether John
Tyndale ever resumed the name without the alias, we have
MO evidence; but to a certainty Thomas did, and, after his
example, so did our Translator. " Some of his ancestors,"
says Bigland, " having taken an active part in the Lancas
trian cause, migrated to Stinchcombe, in this county ; and, as
it appears from the Register of North Nibley, bore, for con
cealment, the name of Hutchins or Hitchins, but resumed
their own in the reign of Henry the Seventh.""
But why should the neighbouring parish of North Nibley
be introduced? This brings us to the deed already mentioned,
or the second genealogy, and the following fact. " Thomas
Tyndale," the first man of that name, " died sometime
before the 33d Henry VIIL, or 1541-2, as appears by
a deed of that date, to which Edward Tyndale, of Pull
Court in Worcester, was a witness."'^ And, still using
the deed, the writer proceeds, — " By Alicia his wife, daughter
and sole heir of Thomas Hunt, (of Hunts' Court,) he had
five sons, Richard, William, Henry, Thomas, and John, and
one daughter, Elizabeth.*^
To the admirers of Tyndale, it would no doubt be gratify
ing, could we now positively affirm, that they have the entire
family, parents and children, before them ; but unfortunately
owing to recent, though very loose assertions, the question
may return, — was this Thomas Tyndale his brother only,
and these sons his nephews ?¦ Or have we thus on record.

I' Bigland's Glos., p. 293. He is generally one of the best authorities, though we have not
been able to verify the quotation, the Register, as now examined, not extending farther back
than 1560, We have stood on the ground still pointed out as the site of Hunt's Court, in the
village of North Nibley, but no house worthy of the name now remains,
12 This Edward Tyndale was the youngest son of Sir William Tyndale of Hockwold, and he
was the son of Sir Thomas Tyndale of Deane, the fifth in lineal descent from the first Robert of
Tansover, This Edward, too, was the brother of Sir John of Hockwold, of William the an
cestor of the Tyndales of Bathford, as well as of Robert, who died without issue. Thus, as far
as being party to a will bespeaks aflSnity, there is ground for the conjecture of Jekyll.
13 The writer, as already quoted, then informs us, that this Thomas waa father of Richard, f.
of Richard, f. of Thomas, who died in 1637, as appears by the probate of his will. To these we
can now add, father of Thomas, f, of William, who, at the age of 80, died in 1748. See the
A rticle on the Parentage and early years of Tyndale at the close of this work.

20 FAMILY OF TYNDALE. [bOOK 1.
the Father of the martyr, and of his brother John, who, we
shall find, was persecuted and fined by Sir Thomas Morel
If any one should suppose the former only, then there is
actually no positive evidence to show that Thomas had a
brother, much less two, and these named William and John ;
while, upon the other hand, this family of Thomas happens to
be at once the^s* and the only one, throughout this genealogy,
where all the children are named. Bigland has told us, that
the family resumed its name in the reign of Henry VII., and
therefore after his accession in 1485, what was more likely to
induce the change, and follow in the train of this marriage ?
The Tyndales had been upon the Lancastrian side, and that
was now finally triumphant. But be this as it may, here is the
family to which the martyr belonged, and from it we are able
to come down, without any obscurity, nearly to the present
day. The estate in North Nibley was sold indeed, in the
reign of King William, when the proprietor, Thomas Tyn
dale, Esq., removed into Kent, but the family was not extinct
till so recently as the year 1748, and the collateral connexion
is still traceable. As for the female line, from a great-grand
daughter of the first Thomas Tyndale, a descendant is now
living in the City of London— John Roberts, Esq., Temple.
The year of our Translator's birth, could it be positively
ascertained, might help us to fix his parentage ; but as nearly
as it can be, it seems to harmonise with the idea of Thomas
being his father. Tyndale himself, unrelentingly persecuted,
was cautious of ever saying one word respecting his relatives.
Even his younger brother John became involved, in conse
quence of receiving letters from him, and not delivering them
up ! But the future martyr would have borne the pelting of
the pitiless storm all alone, sooner than involve his family in
distress ; and more especially that father, to whom he had
been indebted for the expenses of his education. His keen
and voluminous opponent, however, Sir Thomas More, pro
voked his triumphant answer; and if we knew the year of the
Lord Chancellor's birth, Tyndale himself will help us to fix,
very nearly, that of his own. In the course of his writings
there may be some other references ; but we shall quote only one
passage in the defence of his translation, quite to the point."
n We do not refer to tho tract published by Tyndale in April 1533, on tho " Supper of the
Lord," where he repeatedly twits Sir Thomas with being " the old man," with his " old eyes
and spectacles ;" because this seems to be nothing more than his retort to the Chancellor, for
having again and again alluded so contemptuously to his friend Fryth, as " the young man."

1500-23.] YEAR OP HIS BIRTH. 21
It is now generally understood, that Sir Thomas More was
born in 1480, and most probably in the spring of that year,
as this harmonises with the statement of Erasmus, who says
1479, their year running on to the 25th of March. In 1497
More was sent to Canterbury Hall, Christ Church, Oxford,
where he studied Greek, as well as Latin, under Linacre and
Grocyn, for two years. Now, what says Tyndale, when de
fending his translation of the New Testament from the Greek ?
" He," Sir Thomas, " rageth because I turn %af's into favour
and not grace ; and that I use this word knowledge (in the
sense of acknowledge) and not confession, and this word re
pentance and not penance. In all which he cannot prove that
I give not the right English unto the Greek word. These
things to be even so, M. More knoweth well enough ; for he
understandeth the Greek, and he knew them long ere /." Since
then Tyndalie was brought up to learning from his youth,
and at Oxford afterwards, there can be no question, that this
is the language of a junior scholar, at least by four or five
years, and that consequently the birth of Tyndale must have
been correspondingly later. Now, without having observed
this, it is rather a curious coincidence, that the first gentle
man, well qualified, in our own day, and most solicitous to
ascertain the point, has fixed upon the year 1484. " Pro
bably," he says, " Tyndale was born about 1484." This was
the younger brother of Mr. Roberts just mentioned, or Mr.
Oade Roberts of Painswick, the correspondent of Lysons;
and had the Magna Britannia been finished so as to have in
cluded Gloucestershire, a place would have been found for his
information. Mr. R., indeed, imagined in 1814, that Tyn
dale might be the son of Hugh, and then in 1818, the son of
John ; but as he maintains, not merely from Bale, Atkyns, and
other authorities, but from domestic tradition in Gloucestershire,
where he himself resided, that our Translator was born at North
Nibley; then, if we are to believe the deed already quoted,
and so attested, we seem to have the entire family of Thomas
Tyndale once more brought in view.'" A very strong proba
bility, therefore, is now presented, that our first and eminent
Translator, was the son of Thomas Tyndale, by Alicia Hunt

IS We quote from the letters of Mr. 0. Roberts, in the British Museum. (See Lysons' Topog.
Coll. 1)468. Pint. fol. 69, 62.) His surviving brother informs me, he died in 1821,

22 NURTURED UPON CROWN LAND, [^BOOK I.
of North Nibley; that his brother John was the youngest son
by the same mother, and that Tyndale himself was born in
the year 1484, 5, or 6. This would make him about the age of
fifty at his death ; and this exactly corresponds with the full
persuasion of old John Foxe in 1573, when he published the
works of Tyndale, Fryth, and Barnes. " In pursuing where
of," says he, " thou shalt find, gentle reader, whether thou
be ignorant, what to learn ; or whether thou be learned, what
to follow, and what to stick to. Briefly, whatsoever thou art,
if thou be young, of John Fryth ; if thou be middle age, of Wil
liam Tyndale ; if in elder years, of Dr. Barnes, matter is here to
be found, not only of doctrine to inform thee, of comfort to de
light thee, of godly ensample to direct thee ; but also of special
admiration, to make thee to wonder at the works of the Lord."
But if the obscurity of our Translator's parentage must
still remain, nay form emphatically a part of his singular his
tory, and as the only point which will not be distinctly proved,
there is one curious fact, of which there is now no doubt.
As the Marquis of Berkeley had conveyed his castle and
estates to Henry VII., descending as they did to Henry
VIIL, Tyndale was nurtured upon ground held immediately
by the crown, which was afterwards /aj-jwei for Italian bishops,
by Cardinal Wolsey ! And before he is driven from his native
county, we shall find him brought, by persecution at least, into
remote contact with the most conspicuous characters, who were
about to figure even in the great drama of European politics.
The education of our Translator was now to be provided
by his parents, and being afterwards a man of such inflexible
perseverance, there can be no question that he had availed
himself of every literary advantage placed within his reach.
Owing, however, to the imperfect view, too often taken, it be
comes necessary that we should first glance at those oppor
tunities, then so providentially presented to a student, and
more especially to one so ardent in pursuit of learning.
It has been dwelt upon by Warton, in his history of Poetry, as a
historical fact, that the revival of classical learning gave a temporary
check to vernacular composition in England, and that, in the commence
ment of the sixteenth century, the culture of new languages introduced
a new course of study. This " temporary check," however, was only
with a view to further progress, in the true sense of the word, and Ox
ford as well as Cambridge will present us with illustrations.

1500-23.] ERASMUS AND OTHERS. 23
About the year 1460, the disposition to acquire Greek and Latin, as
well as to promote its cultivation, had been shown by William Selling, a
Fellow of All Souls, Oxford, the man who afterwards introduced Linacre
to Politian, at Bologna. On returning from Italy, he brought with him
no inferior collection of Greek and Roman manuscripts, which he had
there collected ; though, to his regret, they were soon after accidentally
consumed by fire at Canterbury. Comellius ViteUius, an Italian from
Tuscany, first taught Greek at Oxford, as a schoolmaster in Magdalen
College. Grocyn, a native of Bristol, was his pupil, and after visiting
Italy, where he perfected his knowledge of languages, he became, on his
return to Oxford, the first voluntary lecturer in Greek, before the year
1490. Linacre and William Latimer followed in the same course, and
all the three taught, more or less, within the walls of Magdalen.
But above all other men, Erasmus from Holland, considering what he
accomplished in 1516, cannot be overlooked. He first reached England
in the close of 1497. He had come to commence his studies in Greek.
Elated with what he had found, when writing to a friend in Italy, in
December of that year, he says, — " Here I have met with humanity,
politeness, learning ; learning not trite and superficial, but deep, ac
curate, true old Greek and Latin learning ; and withal so much of it,
that, but for curiosity, I have no occasion to visit Italy. In Grocyn I
admire an universal compass of learning. Linacre's acuteness, depth,
and accuracy, are not to be exceeded." Pursuing his study of Greek,
under Grocyn, throughout 1498 and part of next year, he was now
acquainted with Thomas Wolsey, just appointed Bursar or Treasurer to
Magdalen College, with John Claymond, its future President, and, Jortin
asserts, with Thomas More, now at Canterbury Hall. He then proceeded
to Paris, where, he tells us himself, that his application to Greek had
almost killed him. In a letter to Dean Collet in 1504, he informs him
that he had " closely applied to Greek for the three last years." Two
years after this he paid a visit to Cambridge, and in 1508 went to Italy.
Returning to Cambridge in 1509, he there became the first Greek pre
ceptor in that University ; and some months afterwards we find him in
forming Servatius, the Prior of a Dutch Convent, where he had once
resided, that he was so engaged. He explained there the grammar of
Chrysoloras, and was to read lectures on that of Gaza. Four intimate
friends, he tells us, above forty years of age, had begun to study Greek.
Erasmus remained in England nearly five years, or tiU the beginning
of 1514, and eight years after this, Richard Croke, who had been the
pupil of Grocyn, succeeded as the regular Professor of Greek in
Cambridge. This residence of Erasmus must have had more efiect than
has ever been fully explained ; and considering how certain individuals
acted afterwards, it is curious to see how high he stood in public favour.
But caressed by Henry VIII., invited to Cambridge by the Chancellor,

24 ERASMUS AND OTHERS. [BOOK I.
Fisher of Rochester, patronised by Warham the Archbishop, though not
one of them foresaw the result ; we can understand the ground on which
Stillingfleet has denied that Luther or Zuinglius had much influence in
awakening the English mind. He says, " it was Erasmus especially
among us in England," and here he certainly appears to be correct.
The credit of being one of the first learned men in Europe, who argued
strongly for learning being cultivated, with a view to the benefit and in-
striiction of the comman people, can never be taken from Erasmus.
His influence in England may be estimated by the opposition dis
played against him. Lee, afterwards Archbishop of York, and Standish,
provincial of the Franciscan friars, the future Bishop of St. Asaph, were
loud and bitter opponents. Invectives against the learned languages
were uttered from the pulpit, and hence the proverb — " Cave a Greeds,
ne fas Hcereticus ; Fv,ge literas Hebrceas, ne fas Judmorum similis."
" Beware of Greek, lest you become a, heretic ! Ply from the Hebrew
letters, lest you become like Jews !" GroBcvlus iste, the phrase first ap
plied by Standish to Erasmus, became, for a long time afterwards, the
phrase for an heretic. All these men, however, were proceeding under
the guidance of a higher power ; for even Erasmus, now past fifty, and
in the most memorable year of his life, or 1516, speaks with timidity
respecting the study of Hebrew — a proof, by the way, that it was culti
vated. After observing that literature began to make a great and an
happy progress ; " but," says he, " I fear two things ; I fear that the
study of Hebrew will promote Judaism, and that the study of philology
will revive Paganism !" And by this time there certainly were Italians,
many of whom, says Jortin, were writing in the style and manner of
Pagans. The fulness of the time, therefore, was now come, to show
what the vernacular tongue, the tongue of the common people, could do.
Meanwhile, in 1516, the New Testament, in Greek and Latin, with the
notes of Erasmus, had come forth, printed by Froben at Basil. It soon
spread far and wide. He received the congratulations of his friends,
but it raised up a host of enemies ; and one of the colleges in Cam
bridge, though only one, actually forbade it to be brought within its
walls ! In Oxford no such fear had been displayed, though even there
great caution was demanded. It was, however, only the next year,
when Fox, the Bishop of Winchester, had determined to found his col
lege at Oxford, that of " Corpus Christi," so that all things were, at
least, working together for good. Two Professors, for Latin and Greek,
were constituted, with competent salaries. The books in Greek were
expressly specified by the Founder, and these, says Warton and others,
" were the purest, and such as are most esteemed, even in the present
improved state of ancient learning." The Greek lecturer was ordered
to explain the best Greek classics ; but there was one curious circum
stance connected with this foundation, and especially these lectures.

1500-23.] GREEK AND HEBREW. 25
which must not be omitted. So long before as the year 1311, at
Vienne, in Dauphine, Clement V., (the man who first appropriated to
himself the first year's revenue of all the benefices in England — the
origin of the first fruits,) from a superstitious veneration for Hebrew
and Greek, because they formed part of the sv/perscription on the cross
of Christ, " enjoined that professors in Greek, Hebrew, and Arabic,
should be instituted in the universities of Oxford, Paris, Bononia,
(Bologna,) Salamanca, and in the Court of Rome." It was actually
under the infiuence of this injunction that one of the Greek exiles
claimed a stipend for teaching his native tongue in Paris ; and Pox,
therefore, that he might not appear to be countenancing any dangerous
innovation, was obliged to cover his institution under the mantle of this
authority ! The reason given was not satisfactory to all, but learning
flourished ; though little had Clement V. imagined what eifeets would
follow from his canonical decree, so far as it was now pled.
With regard to Hebrew learning at this early period, it is by no
means sufficient to direct the eye only to John Reuchlin, the well-known
promoter of this language, however eminent his services. Throughout
the year 1498, he remained at Rome, perfecting himself in Hebrew,
under Abdias, a Jew. But to say nothing of Hebrew manuscripts, in
England as well as the Continent, the art of printing had been applied
to the language more than twenty years before this, in the Psalter of
1477. Then came the Pentateuch, and other books at Bologna, in 1482 ;
the Prophets, at Soncino, in 1486 ; the Hagiographa, at Naples, in 1487 ;
and in 1488, there was printed at Soncino the first edition of the Heb
rew Bible entire. Nay, within the compass of a single year, and that so
early as 1494, there were published not fewer than four editions of the
Hebrew Bible, which almost immediately disappeared, so great was the
interest awakened for Hebrew learning. In short, and without mention
ing single portions of the Sacred Volume, by the year 1526, there had
been published fourteen editions of the Hebrew Bible, in folio, quarto,
and octavo, with and without points ; and it is especially to be re
membered, that Divine Providence had so over-ruled the whole, that not
one of the Sacred Originals, whether in Hebrew or Greek, had ever been
restrained by any Government, however absolute !'^
Indeed, at this moment, so far from such restraint being imposed in
England, it was quite the reverse : as not one man of high authority

16 These Bibles are dated, Soncino, 1488 ; three in 1494, fol. 4°. 8°., and in the same year at
Brescia, an octavo. The identical copy of this last, from which Luther translated, is still pre
served in the Koyal Library at Berlin, The Complutensian in 1515. Then followed the Son
cino of 1517, three editions in 1518, and one in 1621, 1524, 1S25, and 1526, Not fewer than the
half of these, from 1518, were printed by a native of Antwerp, the first printer of the Christian
profession, in this language, the celebrated Daniel Bomberg, whose press, almost equally with
that of Aldus, was the ornament of Venice. He is said to have retained about a hundred Jews,
as correctors of the press, the most learned he could find. Other editions need not be here
mentioned ; but Bomberg went on printing till his death, in 1540.

26 EDUCATION OF TYNDALE, [BOOK I.
appears to have foreseen, that the cultivation of the original languages
would inevitably lead to a translation of the Sacred Volume into the
vulgar tongue, Wolsey himself, only two years after Fox, had begun
to encourage classical learning, by founding at Oxford, in 1519, not
only a chair for Rhetoric and Latin, but one for Greek, with ample
salaries ; while his royal Master was also favourable to the progress of
letters. Thus, in this very year, we know from the epistles of Erasmus,
that a preacher having harangued at Oxford, with great violence,
against the opinions inculcated by the new Professors ; and his argu
ments having been keenly canvassed by the students, a just detaU was
laid before His Majesty, then residing at Woodstock, by Sir Thomas
More, and Pace of Fox's College, when Henry interposed his authority,
and transmitted to the University a royal mandate, commanding, " that
the study of the Scriptures, in the original languages, should not only
be permitted for the future, but received as a branch of the academical
institution." We have, now, however, gone over the precise period in which our
first and future translator of the Scriptures resided, both at Oxford and
Cambridge. Such a combination of advantages fully explain the source
of those attainments in learning, which he was afterwards to turn to
such powerful account.
Tyndale was brought up, from his earliest years, at Oxford,
and as a scholar, where, after a lengthened residence, he pro
ceeded in " degrees of the schools ;"^7 or, as Foxe has said —
" By long continuance, he grew up and increased as well in the
knowledge of tongues, and other liberal arts, as especially in the
knowledge of the Scriptures ; insomuch, that he read privily to
certain students and fellows in Magdalen College some parcel
of divinity, instructing them in the knowledge and truth of
the Scriptures." His education " in grammar, logic, and
philosophy, he received," says Wood, " for the most part, in
St. Mary Magdalen's Hall," immediately adjoining the Col
lege of that name. At this Hall, first called Grammar Hall,
from the attention paid to classical learning, and where
Grocyn, as well as W. Latimer and Linacre, had lectured,
the members stood, as they do now, on the same footing with
those of the other Colleges ; their course of study, tuition,
length of residence, examination, and degrees, being precisely
the same as the rest of the University. In those early days,

17 " Whether ho took a degree," says Wood, " doth not appear in our Registers," and for the
best of all reasons— the Registers do not go so far bnclc, as he himself has told us elsewhere.

1500-23.] EDUCATION OF TYNDALE. 27
however, these Halls, having no exhibitions nor endowments
for scholarships, many of the students lived at their own
charge ; and since no man has ever once been mentioned as
patronising Tyndale, throughout his whole life, the presump
tion is, that his expenses while at College must have been de
frayed by his parents.^' Tyndale's zeal, however, had at last
exceeded the endurance of his contemporaries, and exposed
him to some danger. There is no ground for supposing that
he was expelled ; " but," says Foxe, " spying his time, he re
moved from Oxford to the University of Cambridge, where
he likewise made his abode a certain space," and, it has been
vaguely conjectured, took a degree. At all events, his resi
dence in that city had terminated by the year ] 519.
Possessed of such an education as he must have then ac
quired, as well as of such an ardour to improve, we cannot
here disturb the narrative by any discussion as to its merits
or extent. Sufilcient evidence of both will occur in the fol
lowing pages. We only remark here, that the incontro
vertible proof of Tyndale's erudition, whether as a Creek or
Hebrew scholar, is to be found in the present version of our
Bible, as read by millions. " The circumstance of its being
a revision five times derived, is an advantage altogether pecu
liar to itself, and doubly valuable from that circumstance." '^
While, notwithstanding this five-fold recension of the Greek
and Hebrew original, large portions remain untouched, or
verbally as the Translator first gave them to his country.
It is, indeed, extraordinary that so many of Tyndale's correct
and happy renderings should have been left to adorn our ver
sion, while the terms substituted, in other instances, still
leave to him the palm of scholarship. When the incorrect,
not to say injurious, sense, in which certain terms had been
long employed, is duly considered, the substitution of charity
for love, as Tyndale translated, of grace for favour, and church
for congregation, certainly cannot be adduced as proofs of
superior attainment in the original Greek.
In a historical point of view, however, and independentlv
of his merits as a translator, it would be of some importance

J 8 From inattention to dates, and in the absence of authentic information, many wild asser
tions have been hazarded as to the early years of Tyndale. Among others, it has been said that
he was chosen by Cardinal Wolsey one of those early Canon,s, selected to grace the opening of
Cardinal College ! By the time of this selection, Tyndale was beyond seas, in possession of that
learning which he had acquired during the auspicious period at which we have glanced. It is a
distinguishing feature of our Translator's history, that he never had a patron. 19 Whitaker.

28

EARLY SENTIMENTS. [|bOOK I.

if we could ascertain what had been the state of his mind,
even before leaving the University, in reference to that great
system of impiety and oppression, which, single handed, he
was afterwards to assail with such decisive eflfect. Had he
already seen through its character? Was he even already
engaged in marking it, as he never after ceased to do ? If he
was, this would go a great way in proving him to have been
an instrument raised up by God, as independently of Luther,
as were Lefevre and Zuinglius. His lectures at Oxford, which
must have been about 1517, if not earlier, and his being ob
liged to desist, certainly say as much as that he was in ad
vance of the age, but how far, from this source, we have no
intimation. If Tyndale himself would afterwards give us
but one hint, we could not desire better evidence. By those,
however, who are familiar with his writings, it must have
been observed that he very seldom has introduced his own
personal feelings, with any precision as to dates, not caring to
establish himself, in point of priority, to any man : and yet
there is one passage, with which he casually concludes his
Exposition of the Epistle of John, which seems to glance as
far back as the year 1518, if not to some time before it. He
had been exposing the policy of the hierarchy, in raising the
cry of sedition or insurrection, in the days of Wickliffe, —
" And so," he adds, " the hypocrites say now likewise, that
God's Word causeth insurrection ; but ye shall see shortly
that these hypocrites themselves, after their old wont and en-
samples, in quenching the truth that uttereth their juggling,
shall cause all realms Christian to rise one against another,
and some against themselves. Ye shall see, then, run out,
before the year come about, that which they have been in
brewing, as I have mm-ked, above this dozen years. This
much have I said, because of them that deceive you, to give
you an occasion to judge the spirits."
Now, this language was published in September 1531 ; but
" above a dozen of years," brings us back to 1518, if not to
an earlier period. We leave the reader to form his own con
clusion ; but, at all events, such a state of mind was in per
fect consonance with the course which Tyndale so immedi
ately pursued, with all his characteristic vigour.^"
20 Let it here, however, be observed, by the way, that in August 1518, Martin Luther was
quietly awaiting the good eifeets which he imagined his submissive letter to the Roman Pon
tiff was calculated to produce. He had not seen Melancthon till tho 25th of that month ; and

1500-23.] RETURNS TO GLOUCESTERSHIRE. 29
Returning to his native county, Tyndale was soon actively
engaged, and so continued to be, from Stinchcombe-hill down
to Bristol, to the close of 1522. As the place where he lived,
only eight miles south from that of his birth, is well known ;
nay, and the house under whose roof he spent his best and
zealous exertions, in discussing aud defending the Word of
God, is happily still in existence, — to all such as may take an
interest in the following history, there is not a more heart-
stirring spot in all England. The Halls of our Colleges,
wherever they stand, have never given birth to a design, so
vitally important in its origin, so fraught with untold benefit
to millions, and now so extensive in its range, as that which
ripened into a fixed and invincible purpose, in the Dining
Hall of Little Sodbury Manor House.

Little Sodbury Manor House in 1839.
It was in this house that Tyndale resided for about two
years, as a tutor ; and adjoining to it behind, there still stands,
with its two ancient yew trees before the door, the little Church
of St. Adeline, where of course the family and tenants attend
ed. Foxe has said of Tyndale, while at Antwerp, that when
he " read the Scriptures, he proceeded so fruitfully, sweetly.

it was on the 31st that he wrote in admiration of him to Spalatin—" I can vrish for no better
Greek master." Of course, nothing from the pen of Luther had yet reached England; but
Tyndale has been giving lectures, some time before, to the students and fellows of Magdalen
College, Oxford ; and having quitted Cambridge also is now on his way to Gloucestershire.

30 THE FAMILY TUTOR IN [bOOK I.
and gently, much like unto the writing of John the Evangelist,
that it was a heavenly comfort to the audience to hear him ; "
and so it may have been, under some of his earliest eflbrts,
within the walls of this diminutive and unpretending place of
worship. At all events, let it be observed, when his voice
was first heard, Luther had not yet been denounced even by
Leo X. at Eome, much less by Cardinal Wolsey in England.
" About A.D. 1 520," we are informed, that " William
Tyndale used often to preach in Bristol." This he did on
the great Green, sometimes called the Sanctuary, or St.
Austin's Green. " He was at that time resident with Sir
John Walsh at Little Sodbury, as tutor to his children, and
on Sundays he preached at the towns and parishes in the
neighbourhood, and frequently he had debates with the Abbots
and other clergy who frequented the house."^'
This small parish, with its manor house and inmates, thus
become objects of no little interest, and for the sake not of
Tyndale only, but especially of the design there formed, as
well as of the circumstances that led to it, we must not re
frain from giving some farther particulars.
In this part of Gloucestershire there are three contiguous
parishes of the same name — Old Sodbury, Chipping, i. e.
Market Sodbury, and the third, named Little Sodbury, by
way of distinction. This last, consisting of about 900 acres,
chiefly in pasture, lies on the side of Sodbury hill, and extends
to its summit. On the edge of this hill is a strong Roman
camp of an oblong square, where first Queen Margaret, and
then Edward IV. in pursuit, had rested before the battle of
Tewkesbury. Immediately below this camp, on the side of
the hill fronting south-westward, stands the Manor House, an
ancient building, from which there is a beautiful and extensive
prospect over the vale, as far as the Bristol Channel. Four
clumps of large trees growing above, objects very observable,
are taken notice of through a large extent of country on that
21 Memoirs of Bristol, from old authorities, by Seyer, vol. ii., p. 215. This House, under
Edward II. and III., had been inhabited by the Despencers ; by the Stanshaws under
Ed. IV., and in the year of Henry the Seventh's accession, or 1485, it came to the family
of John Walshe of Olveston, by his marriage to Elizabeth Forster, daughter and heir of the
previous proprietor. Henry VII., with an eagle eye to property, as well as the crown, had
prevailed upon Ann, the old unfortunate Countess of Warwick, to settle the greater part of
her large inheritance on him and his heirs. Hence it was that Henry VIIL, through the Ber
keley family, as already explained, and now through that of Warwick, had no small stake in
the county of Gloucester. Among other property, the manor house of Old Sodbury was now in
his gift, and hence, along with his Imighthood, we shall find it given to Sir John. It may be
added, that this explanation accounts for the many repeated gifts of property in Gloucestershire
afterwards, both by Henry VIIL and his son Edward, more especially to Sir Ralph Sadler.

1500-23.]

LITTLE SODBURY MANOR.

31

side of the hills. In the sketch already given, one of these
clumps may be seen on the left, but a nearer view will give a
better idea of the house itself.

Leas distant View.

Inhabited by different families from the thirteenth centuiy,
it was now in possession of Sir John Walsh, Knight, as in
herited from his father. Happening to have been Champion to
Henry VIII. on certain occasions, and to please his royal mas
ter, the heir of Little Sodbury had been knighted, and received
from him in addition, the Manor House of Old Sodbury, then
in the gift of the Crown. Intimate as Walsh had been, both
with the young king and the court, and now given to hospi
tality, his table was the resort, not only of the neighbouring
gentry, but of the Abbots and other dignified ecclesiastics,
swarming around him. Thus it was, that, whether in com
pany, or alone with the family, where he was treated as a
friend, Tyndale enjoyed one of the best opportunities for be
coming intimately acquainted with the existing state of things,
whether civil, or ecclesiastical so called. Sir John had married
Anne Poyntz, the daughter of an ancient Gloucestershire
family in the neighbourhood, a lady who took as warm an in
terest as her husband in the discussions at their table.^^

22 Lady Walsh was the daughter of Sir Robert Poyntz of Iron Acton, by Margaret, dr. of
Anthony Earl Rivers, after whom her brother was named. She was, therefore, the ancestor in
a family which, in the male line, became extinct, only the other day, by the death of William

32 MEMORABLE DISCUSSIONS THERE. [bOOK I.
" This gentleman," says Foxe, " as he kept a good ordinary
commonly at his table, there resorted to him many times,
sundry Abbots, Deans, Archdeacons, with divers other doctors
and great beneficed men ; who there, together with Master
Tyndale sitting at the same table, did use, many times, to
enter into communication. Then Tyndale, as he was learned
and well practised in God's matters, so he spared not to shew
unto them simply and plainly his judgment ; and when they
at any time did vary from his opinions, he would shew them
in the book, and lay before them the manifest places of the
Scriptures, to confute their errors, and confirm his sayings."
It was not long, however, before Sir John and his lady had
been invited to a banquet given by these great Doctors.
There they talked at will and pleasure, uttering their blind
ness and ignorance without any resistance or gainsaying. On
returning home, both Sir John and his lady began to reason
with Tyndale respecting those subjects of which the priests
had talked at their banquet ; one decided proof, that some
considerable impression had been made. Tyndale firmly main
tained the truth, and exposed their false opinions. " Well,"
said Lady Walsh, " there was such a doctor there as may dis-
pend a hundred pounds, and another two hundred, and another
three hundred pounds : and what ! were it reason, think you,
that we should believe you before them V^ To this, Tyndale
at the moment, gave no reply, and for some time after, said
but little on such subjects.
He was at that moment busy with a translation from Eras
mus of his " Enchiridion Militis Christiani," or Christian
Soldier's Manual, the second edition of which, with a long
and pungent preface, had appeared at Basil, in August 1518.^*
Once finished, Tyndale presented the book to Sir John and
his lady. " After they had read," says Foxe, " and well
perused the same, the doctorly prelates were no more so often
invited to the house, neither had they the cheer and counten-

Stephen Poyntz, Esq., of Cowdray Park and Midgham. His daughters are married into the
noble families of Clinton, Spencer, and Exeter.
23 The wages of a Haymaker, under Henry VII., were one penny Oriay, and under Henry
VIII. they had not risen above three-half-pence. The money referred to by Dame Walsh, was
therefore equal to from £l500 to £4500 of our present money.
24 The flrst edition, printed in 1502, was composed by Erasmus " to correct the error of those
who supposed religion to consist in mere ceremonies and bodily service, to the neglect of real
piety." Written originally at the request of a lady, with a view to her husband, it was now
translating into English for another couple, on whom it was to have no small effect. The nrc-
face will reward the perusal of any Oxford scholar in the present day.

!. 500-23.] TYNDALE BEFORE THE CHANCELLOR. 33
ance when they came, which before they had." This they
marked, and supposing the change to have arisen from
Tyndale's influence, they refrained, and at last utterly with
drew. They had grown weary of our Translator's doctrine,
and now bore a secret grudge in their hearts against him.
A crisis was evidently approaching. The priests of the
country, clustering together, began to storm at ale-houses and
other places ; and all with one consent, against one man.
Whether the existing Chancellor of the diocese of Worcester
had ever feasted at Little Sodbury, does not appear ; but it
cannot be long before Tyndale will have to stand before him.
Fortunately the tutor has left on record his own reflections
as to this period of his life.
" A thousand books," says he, " had they lever (rather) to be put forth agauist
their abominable doings and doctrine, than that the Scripture should eome 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 de
spise their abominations, with arguments of philosophy, and with worldly simili
tudes, aud apparent reasons of natural wisdom ; and with wresting the Scriptures
unto their own pui-pose, 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 subtile riddles.
'^ Which thing only mored tne to translate the JVew 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 thsir mother
tongue, that they might see the process, order, and meaning of the text : for else,
whatsoever truth is taught them, these enemies of all truth quench it again —
partly with the smoke of their bottomless pit, (whereof thou readest in Apo
calypse, chap, ix.) that is with apparent reasons of sophistry, and traditions
of their own making ; and partly in juggling with the text, expounding it in
such a sense as is impossible to gather of the text itself."
Accordingly, " not long after this," says John Foxe, " there
was a sitting of the (Italian) Bishop's Chancellor appoint
ed, and warning was given to the Priests to appear, amongst
whom Master Tyndale was also warned to be there. Whether
he had any misdoubt by their threatenings, or knowledge given
him that they would lay some things to his charge, is uncer
tain ; but certain this is, as he himself declared, that he doubts
ed their privy accusations ; so that he, by the way, in going
thitherward, cried in his mind heartily to God, to give him
strength to stand fast in the truth of his word." But let us
hear Tyndale's own expressions.
VOL. I. c

34 TYNDALE BEFORE THE CHANCELLOR. [bOOK I.
"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 thiswise
thought in myself, — this I suffer, because the priests of the country be unlearn
ed, as God knoweth, there are a full ignorant soi't, which have seen no more
Latin than that they read in their Portesses and Missals, which yet many of them
can scarcely read. And therefore, because they are thus unlearned, thought I,
when they come together to the ale-house, which is their preaching place, they
affirm that my sayings are heresy. Besides they add to, of their own heads,
that which I never spake, as the manner is, and accused me secretly to the Chan
cellor, and other the Bishop's Officers."
Here then was Tyndale, in the year 1522, brought to
answer for himself; and having already had so many discus
sions with dignitaries on Sodbury Hill, as well as arguments
with the priests in other places, one might have supposed
that something decisive was on the eve of accomplishment ;
but it turned out an entire failure.
" When I came before the Chancellor, he threatened me grievously, and reviled
me, and rated me as though I had been a dog; and laid to my charge whereof
there could be none accuser brought forth, as their manner is not to bring forth
the accuser ; and yet, all the Priests of the country were there the same day."
Tyndale's future footsteps will frequently discover him to
have been a man, who, in the history of his country stood
literally alone ; and here, it should seem, this peculiar feature
had already begun to discover itself. As standing before the
Chancellor of any diocese, we read of no second individual, in
whose appearance there were so many curious coincidences.
The reader will now recollect the thoroughly Italianised cha
racter of the district, as formerly described, and the questions
very naturally present themselves — Who was this Chancellor I
Who the Cardinal that had recently appointed him ? Who
was the non-resident Italian Bishop ? nay, and who the reign
ing Pontiff himself, the fountain of all this oppressive autho
rity ? The Pontiff viSiS Adrian VI., who, to appease Wolsey,
had recently made him " Legate a latere" for life ; the Bishop
was Julio di Medici, the future Clement VII., and who, with
out even visiting England, had been made Bishop of Worces
ter by Leo X. The man who had lately appointed the
Chancellor to the diocese was Wolsey himself, who farmed the
whole district for his Italian brother ; and the Chancellor,
•who had raised himself to this unenviable notoriety by so
treating the man destined by Divine Providence to overcome
all above him, as far as Rome itself was concerned ; was a
creature of the English Cardinal, a Dr. Thomas Parker, who

1500-23.] REVILED AND THREATENED. 35
lived to know more of Tyndale's power and talents, than he
then could comprehend. Had such men only known who was
then within the Chancellor's grasp, with what eager joy would
they have put an end to all his noble intentions ?^^
Escaping, however, out of Parker's hands, the Tutor de
parted homeward, and once more entered the hospitable abode
of Little Sodbury, but more than ever firmly resolved.

Entrance to L ttle Sodb ry Manor from tlie Bast
It is some alleviation to find that every man in the country
was not of the same opinion with the reigning, if not furious
Chancellor. " Not far off," continues Foxe, " there dwelt a
certain doctor, that had been an old chancellor before to a
bishop, who had been of old familiar acquaintance with Master
Tyndale, and also favoured him well. To him Tyndale went
and opened his mind on divers questions of the Scripture, for
to him he durst be bold to disclose his heart. To whom the
doctor said — ' Do you not know that the Pope is very Anti
cs Owing to the inaccuracy of several authors, there is some danger of this Chancellor being
mistaken for Dr. Thomas Bell, the future Bishop of Worcester, as they have represented him to
be Chancellor from 1518 to 1526. This is a mistake. Bell, who in 1518, had succeeded Haniball,
now resident in Rome as Wolsey's correspondent, had been superseded by the appointment of
Parker, to act for Julio di Medici, and he continued to act as Chancellor or Vicar-General from
1522 to 1535.— See fF'ood's Fasti, by Bliss, p. 70-80, and Green's Hist, of fVorcester. No, Parker
was evidently a man of great passion. He had commenced with Tyndale, and afterwards dis
played his fury on another memorable occasion. This was actually the same man who dug up,
and then burnt to ashes, the body of William Tracy, Esq. of Todington in Gloucestershire. This
cost him a great sum, as will appear in our history under 1531; but he was not removed till 1535,
when Httgh Latimer became Bishop. Parker died at Salisbury in 1538.

36 TYNDALE'S NOBLE RESOLUTION. [^BOOK I.
Christ, whom the Scripture speaketh of ? But beware what you
say ; for if you shall be perceived to be of that opinion, it will
cost you your life ; ' adding, ' I have been an officer of his ;
but I have given it up, and defy him and all his works.'" ^^
It was not long after this that Tyndale, happening to be
in the company of a reputed learned divine, and in conversa
tion having brought him to a point, from which there was no
escape, he broke out with this exclamation, " We were better
to be without Cod's laws, than the Pope's ! " This was an
ebullition in perfect harmony with the state of the country at
the moment, but it was more than the piety of Tyndale could
bear. " I defy the Pope," said he, in reply, " and all his laws ;
and if God spare my life, ere many years, I will cause a boy
that driveth the plough, to know more of the Scripture than you
doV It was one of those significant bursts of zeal, which
will sometimes escape from a great and determined mind. It
meant even more than met the ear, for, by this time, Tyndale
might have said, with Jeremiah of old, and perhaps did so,
" His word was in mine heart, as a burning fire shut up in my
bones, and I was weary with forbearing, and I could not stay."
Just so, th' Omnipotent, who turns— the system of a world's concerns,
From mere minutiae can educe— events of most important use ; —
But who can tell how vast the plan— which this day's incident began ?
After this, as might have been anticipated, the murmuring
of the priests increased more and more. Such language must
have flown over the country, as on the wings of the wind.
Tyndale, they insisted, was " a heretic in sophistry, a heretic
in logic, and now also a heretic in divinity." To this they
added that " he bare himself bold of the gentlemen there in that
country, but that, notwithstanding, he should be otherwise
spoken to."^
It was now evident that Tyndale could no longer remain,
with safety, in the county of Gloucester, or within the Italian
diocese of Worcester. He has therefore been represented, by
Foxe, as thus addressing his Master : " Sir, I perceive that I
shall not be suffered to tarry long here in this country, neither

26 Who could this " old familiar" be, if not William Latimer the Greek Scholar? He retired
to Saintberry and Weston-Sub-Edge as Rector, and these were both in Gloucester County.
27 It must be remembered that Tyndale himself was the son of a respectable family, only
eight miles distant ; that he was now under the roof of Henry's Champion, and not to men
tion other gentlemen, that Sir John's brother-in-law. Sir Anthony Poyntz, was this year High
Shcriffof the County.

1500-23.] PROCEEDS TO LONDON. 37
shall you be able, though you would, to keep nie out of the
hands of the spirituality; and also what displeasure might
grow thereby to you by keeping me, Grod knoweth ; for the
which I should be right sorry." Searching about, therefore,
not so much for an avenue to escape, as for some convenient
place to accomplish the determined purpose of his heart, by
translating the Scriptures, he now actually first thought of
Tunstal, Bishop of London, one of the future burners of his
New Testament! From Sir John Walsh's intimate knowledge
of the Court, there was no difiiculty in procuring the best access
to him ; and so Tyndale must bid farewell for ever to his in-
teresting abode on Sodbury Hill.^^ It was his first and last,
or only attempt throughout life to procure a Patron, and he
will, himself, now describe his own movements.
" The Bishop of London came to ray remembrance, whom Erasmus (whose
28 Before our leaving the House, however, which was then left by Tyndale with such inten
tions for his country's benefit and future glory, its history to the present day must not be withheld
from the reader. Of its present aspect the reader has already seen three correct views. Sir John
Walsh survived to the year 1546, when he was succeeded by Maurice Walsh, Esq., the pupil of
Tyndale, then in his seventh year, when his Tutor left Sodbury. He married the daughter of
Nicholas Vaux Lord Harrowden ; but in 1556 a storm fell on .this house. The lightning having
entered at the parlour door, forced its way out at a window on the opposite side of the room,
supposed to have been that part of the buildinR which is seen on the left ; one of the children was
killed on the spot, and the father himself, with six others, were so much hurt that they all died
in less than two months ! An heir, however, survived. Sir Nicholas Walsh, and, as named after
his grandfather Lord Harrowden, probably the eldest son. The manor, as well as that of Old
Sodbury, continued in the family till 1608, when both were purchased by Thomas Stephens, Esq.,
Attorney-General to the Princes Henry and Charles. His eldest son, Edward, was High Sheriff
in 1634. In prospect of this he had repaired the Manor House where Tyndale once lived, and
hence, on the chimney-piece of the great room or Dining Hall, we have the family arms, having
on one side the initials of his father and mother, T. S : E. S., on the other those of himself and
his lady, ^-a.^-, and the date " A. a. 1633." Both houses were held by this family till 1728,
when, through Sir Henry Winchcombe, they became the property, and Little Sodbury the
abode of David Hartley, M.D., the author of Observatiom an Man. His gi-eat-grandson,
Winchcombe Henry Howard Hartley, Esq., of Bucklebury House and of Little Sodbury, being
the present proprietor. See Rudder, Atkyns, Burke's Commoners, ^c.
At the back of this ancient Manor there was a room styled the Library, which the writer,
with a friend, once visited ; and with not a little interest, as the apartment in which Tyndale
may have often sat, with his pupils around him; and, as Dr. Hartley is described by his son, to
have been " methodical in the order and disposition of his books and papers, the companions of
his thoughts," here, also, he may have mused the hours away. Bnt on a subsequent visit this
part of the house had been taken down, in apprehension of its falling ! Surely it is to be hoped,
although the house at present he iohabited by the Farmer on the Estate, and a new erection is
said to be proceeding on still higher ground, that not one stone more will be removed. There is
an interest said to be attached to Bucklebury House, Herts, in consequence of its being the occa
sional residence of the well known Lord Bolingbroke, but, in the eye of thousands, this is not
to be mentioned in comparison with that which must ever be associated with the Farmer's pre
sent abode. Should this note ever meet the eye of the present respectable proprietor, we have
no doubt that verbum sapienti sat est.
Upon our first approa<:h to this house, in 1839, enquiring, by way of experiment, of a little girl
who answered the door— whether she had ever heard of a man named Tymlnle, who lived long
ago ? " Yes, Sir," she replied, " he lived in this house, and translated the Bible here." And in
this the child was saying nothing more than our eminent antiquary Camden had said, for so even
he imagined—" The learned William Tyndale lived here as Tutor, &c., and here translated the
Bible." It is, however, quite possible that Sir John may have heard him read here some speci
men of what he was bent upon accomplishing.

38 APPLIES TO TUNSTAL. [boOK I.
tongue maketh of little gnats great elephants, and lifteth up above the stars
whoevex- 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." 29 Such was his im
pression in Gloucestershire, when moved by the Wind superstition of his country
"to translate the New Testament;" and, .till now, evidently unacquainted with
the state of the metropolis ; for " even," says he, " even in the Bishop of
London's house I intended to have done it ! "
" 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 liim an
Oration of Isocrates, which I had translated out of Greek into English, to speak
unto my Lord of London for me. This he also did, as he showed me, and willed
me to write an epistle to my lord, and to go to him myself, which I also did,
and dehvered my epistle to a servaijt of his own, one William Hebilthwayte, a
man of mine old acquaintance. But God, which knoweth what is witliin hypo
crites, saw that I was beguiled, and that that counsel was not the next way to my
purpose. And therefore He gat me no favour in my lord's sight. Whereupon
my lord answered me — ' his house was full, he had more than he could well find,
and advised me to seek in London, where, he said, I could not lack a service.'"
This memorable interview between these two individuals,
happened about three or four months after Tunstal's conse
cration as Bishop of London ; and before the reader has pro
ceeded much farther in these pages, he will discover a singu
lar propriety in Tyndale having first called upon this man,
above all others, previous to his going abroad. All parties
agree as to Tunstal's attainments in learning — the specimen
presented to him was a translation from the Greek of Isocrates
into English ; and, after receiving it, the Bishop replied, —
" Seek in London, where you cannot lack a service." If
there was any meaning in the words employed, it was this, —
" You are a competent translator from Glreek into English."
Tyndale, it is true, was now evidently led, like a blind man,
29 This reference to Erasmus is at once curious and important. His writings Tyndale admir
ed, but saw through the defects in his character. It was in 1530 that Tyndale thus wrote.
By " annotations" he could not refer to the paraphrases of Erasmus, which were not yet pub
lished, but to the preliminary matter before his New Testament, or to the Capita argumentorum,
&c. But, by thus writing, he incidentally discovers that he had kept his eye on the successive
editions of Erasmus' Greek New Testament. The three first were 1516, 1519, and 1522 ; all of
which he may have seen before leaving England, but in none pf these is Tunstal mentioned.
He is first introduced by Erasmus among his Patrons in his fourth Ed. of 1527; but this, of
course, could not infiuence our Translator when applying to the Bishop in 1523. Tyndale is
therefore to be understood as marking, in 1530, the last specimen he had read—" Whom Eras
mus praiseth among otJler in," &c. They were the other commendations, which moved him in
1523. Thus, in a letter to Sir T. More, as early as 1517, Erasmus makes grateful mention of his
pecuniary obligations to Tunstal, and in another that year he says, " scarcely one man in many
thousands can be found more upright and obliging ;" in one of 1516 he extols him for his know
ledge of the learned languages. All this requires to be observed in connexion with a note in
Russel's edition of Tyndale's works, i. p. 600 ; as well as with another, by the Editor of Foxe,
as lately published by Seeloy, vol. vii. pp. 656, 656. Er,asmus had not benefited by the Com
plutensian Testament previous to his edition of 1627. and thus Tyndale discovers that he in-o-
bably had the fourth ov fifth Edition before him, when correcting Ms New Testament o/1534.

1500-23.] HIS ABODE IN LONDON. 39
by a way that he knew not ; but it certainly was some.
thing, to have received such an answer or attestation to his
scholarship from such a man, before he proceeded farther with
his intended work. It was equal to the Bishop having said.
Go forward— though, if Tunstal had only divined what was the
main object in view, no such answer had been returned ; nay, an
authoritative stop would have been put to all farther progress.
Meanwhile, and on the contrary, by the advice, and there
fore the authority, of the Bishop of London himself, Tyndale
was now authorised to seek for some situation throughout the
metropolis. No ecclesiastic, however, afforded him any per
manent abode ; but, in a little time, and for fully the last six
months of this year, namely, 152-3, he was most kindly enter
tained under the roof of Mr. Humphrie Munmouth, a wealthy
citizen, and future Alderman of London, when he used to
preach at St. Dunstan's in the West, Fleet Street. Al
though he sought in vain for a situation, " almost a year,"
yet the residence itself was not without its value in future
life. It had a similar effect upon him, which a visit to Rome
had upon some others, and tended not only to ground him
more firmly in his views of divine truth, but to inflame his
zeal for translating the Scriptures. He had opportunity for
more closely observing many things which he had never seen
before ; and, in reference to the scene around him, witness his
own language, in 1530 :—
" And so in London I abode almost a year, and marked the course of the world,
and heard our preachers, how they boasted themselves and their high autho-
I'ity ; 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 anothei', 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 Lon
don'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."30
There is here not a little expressed, but far more implied,
when coming from such a man as Tyndale. Had he been
nothing more than a scholar, and merely the translator of the
Scriptures, it would have been out of place to have noticed
30 Preface to the Pentateuch, 1530. Tyndale drew from the life, or from what he had seen,
and hence the power of all his writings. He was now publishing his " Practice of Prelates,"
and therefore deferred to say more in this preface.

iO STATE OF THE NATION. [booK 1.
other affairs. But since all his other writings were so power
ful at the moment, as to excite the dread of these very Pre
lates, and thus enjoyed the honour of public denunciation ;
since he was the first, if not the only man, who gave such a
masterly exposure of the whole policy of Wolsey, and now,
without knowing it, was about to enter on a twelve years'
war with the powers of darkness ; we owe it not only to him
self, but more especially to the Scriptures he translated, to
watch the course of Divine Providence in the world. It may
only be remarked here, once for all, that for seven years to
come, while Henry VIII. had one object in view, his Prime
Minister, Cardinal Wolsey, was frequently pursuing another.
There was almost always an under-plot, which may now be
detected ; and it is not difficult to do so, throughout this pre
sent year, or 1523.
While Tyndale abode in London, searching, but in vain, for a conve
nient place or opportunity to translate the Scriptures, but at the same
time "marking the course of the world," the affairs of all Europe seem
ed to hinge mainly upon only two individuals, one abroad, the other at
home, or in England. The former, the Duke of Bourbon, distinguished
for his military skill ; the other we need scarcely name, Wolsey, rising
higher stiU, through the extent of his ministerial power. The former,
unquestionably, panted for the throne of France, the latter as certainly
for the Pontifical Chair. They were the two instrtiments raised up by
the Supreme Kuler to agitate the nations at this time, while neither the
one nor the other was ever to reach the object of his ambition.
It was in the beginning of this year that Bourbon was agitated into
determined treason, not without great provocation. Though the ablest
General and the Constable of France, the King having, instead of him,
preferred to the command of his army the Duie of Alen^on ; and besides
other offences, the Lady Regent, as nearest of kin, having claimed the
estates of his deceased wife, which would have reduced him to poverty ;
Bourbon now meditated that revenge which he could only gain by revolt.
The resentment once felt, was soon conveyed to the ear of Wolsey, and
by the month of May, he had concluded that treaty by which the Duke
professedly bound himself to acknowledge Henry VIII. as King of France,
and, of course, to dethrone his own Sovereign. So late as September he was
again oscillating in suspense, but at last he decided, and in the fall of the
year, Henry was dreaming in the hope of his wearing the crown of Prance.
The subject will again force itself on our notice, and before the arrival
of Tyndale's New Testament ; but in the meanwhile, as for Wolsey, all
this was merely one subordinate arrangement. The monarchs of Europe,

1500-23.] HOSTILE TO TYNDALE'S DESIGN. 41
and especially the Emperor and the King of France, wished to secure or
enlarge their dominions, but the English Cardinal longed to rule them
all. They might reign over the bodies of men, but in the autumn of
1523, he was in ardent expectation of ruling both sovereign and subject,
in mind and body. Having been disappointed of the Pontifical Chair
after the death of Leo the Tenth in 1521, before that Tyndale left
London he must have known of Wolsey's second failure by the election
of Clement the Seventh ; not that the Cardinal had given up all hope
of the prize, but blaming the Emperor, his suspicion of him was chang
ing into positive enmity. He must, however, conceal his resentment
from his Royal Master. He will gradually alienate Henry's affection
from the Emperor, but, in the meanwhile, actually expressed great satis
faction with the elevation of Clement !
In few words, the world was hastening into greater ferment. The
King of Denmark and his family, driven from the throne had fled into
England, and news had arrived, that Solyman, the greatest Emperor the
Turks ever had, having for many months besieged the Isle of Rhodes,
had taken it by storm. This island being the great resort and succour
of the European nations when sailing to the east, this event turned out
to be only the commencement of those ulterior operations which agitated
aU Europe ; while as to England itself, discontent was prevailing through
out the kingdom, through Wolsey's determination to raise immense
pecuniary supplies for foreign war.
But before that Tyndale embarked for the Continent, was
there no other step already suggested, which might operate
in direct hostility to such a design as that which he con
templated ? Yes, there was, and in this very year, one of
the most powerful and magnificent character. It may be re
garded as the climax in the triumph of literature, or as a
phalanx in opposition. The attempt too is the more worthy
of notice, since it has often been loosely regarded as the only
redeeming trait in Wolsey's character. We refer to the
establishment of Cardinal College, Oxford. " He patronised
letters," it has been said, " and may be classed among the
benefactors of the human mind." But even in the cultivation
of letters, we must observe the end in view, and in order
effectually to secure us against all unfair or even harsh con
clusions, we shall take the explanation from the best of all
authorities ; or from the devoted friend of Wolsey, the Con
fessor of Henry VIII. and his Almoner, John Longland, the
Bishop of Lincoln. Immediately after explaining Wolsey's

42 STATE OP ENGLAND. [book I.
whole intentions to the King, his letter is addressed to the
Cardinal himself, and dated so early as January 5, 1522, i. e.
1523. The explanation once given, he proceeds : —
" I assure your Grace, the King doth consider all this in the best manner,
and so doth report it unto your Grace's honor, better than I can with pen ex
press. Saying that more good shall come of this your honorable foundation
than any man can esteem ; with many good words much rejoicing in the same,
as I doubt not but he will express at length unto your Grace at your coming,
which I shewed him should be on Monday next. I ascertained him over this,
youif pleasure concerning the secret search ye would this term make in divers
places, naming the same to him, and that at one time. And that ye would be
at the Cross, (Paul's Cross,) having the Clergy with you, and there to have a
notable Clerk to preach before you a Sermon against Luther, the Lutherans and
their defaulters, against their works and books, and against introducing their
works into the kingdom : And then to have a proclamation to give notice that
every person having any works of Luther or of his fautors mailing, by a limited
day to bring them in, under pain of the greater excommunication, and that day
past, to fulminate the sentence against the contrary doers ; and that, if, after
that day, any such works be known, or found with any person, the same to be
convicted by abjuration ; and if they will contumatiously persist in their con
tumacy, then to pursue them by the law (ad ignem) to the fire, as against an heretic.
And that ye purpose over this, to bind the said Merchants and Stationers in
recognisance, never to bring into this Realm any such books, scrolls or writings.
Which, your godly purpose his Highness marvellously well alloweth, and doth
much hold with that recognisance, for that some and most will more fear that,
than excommunication.
" And his Grace thinks my Lord of Rochester to be most meet to make that
Sermon before you, both because of the authority, gravity, and doctrine of the
person. His Highness is as good and gracious in this quarrel of God as can
be thought, wished, or desired, aud, for the furtherance of this godly purpose,
as fervent in this cause of Christ's Church, and maintenance of the same, as
ever noble Prince was."
After flattering Henry as extolled throughout all Christendom for his " notable
wark maad agaynste Luther," he goes on to say, —
" It may please your Grace, of your merciful goodness, among all these great
affairs, to remember this matter to his Highness, to animate him in this cause
of Christ, of Christ and his Church, for the depression of the enemies of God.
The world is marwllously bent against us, and it is the King's Grace and you
that must remedy the same. God hath sent your Grace amongst us, to advance
his honor, and maintain his Church and faith ; for whom we are all most bound
to pray, and for your most noble prosperous estate long to endure.''
The same day after dinner, Longland went with the Loi'ds into the Queen's
Chamber, where the King followed, and said to the Queen, — « Madam, my
Lord of Lincoln can show of my Lord Cardinal's College at Oxford, and what
learning there is and shall be, and what learned men in the same." Upon
which signal the Bishop went over the same ground once more, and amongst
all, continues Longland : —
" I shewed her of the notable lectures that should be there, and of the ex-
cercetations of learning, and how the Students should be limited by the Readers
to the same; likewise in the exposition of tlie Bible. And her Grace was marvellous

1500-23.] HOSTILE TO TYNDALE'S DESIGN. 43
glad and joyous to hear of this your notable foundation and College, speaking
great honor of the same." 31
We need now no farther explanation. The curtain has been withdrawn ; we
have seen into the interior, and as far as the Professor's chairs. The Bishop
has exultingly poured out all his incense, and the sequel will more fully prove,
that we have had before us, no other than "a grand systematic attempt, under
the guise of learning, to retain the human mind in bondage ; to prevent, if
possible, the entrance of divme truth into England, and thus so far retard its
progi-ess in Europe. Here, it will be found, was, in embryo, what may be
styled the first Jesuit College ; projected, too, in the very year when Ignatius
Loyala was no farther than Rome, imploring the benediction of the Pontiff, and
seven years before he came begging into England. Well might Lord Herbert
say, that the Cardinal thought, « since printing could not be put down, it were
best to set up learnmg against learning, and by introducing able persons to
dispute, suspend the laity betwixt fear and controversy— as this, at the worst,
would yet make them attentive to their superiors and teachers !" The remark
will force itself upon us again, but was this then a " benefactor of the human
mind V On the contrary, others will see here nothmg else than a splendid but
vain project to perplex the understanding, nay, to Wind the mmds of them that
believed not, lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ, who is the image of
God, should shine unto them.
It ought, however, to be here observed, that all the dark
purposes, divulged in this memorable letter, were literally
fulfilled. There was the secret search, and at one time ; there
was the sermon delivered, and by Fisher, the man pointed
out, and the books were burnt ; but then, it is a most remark
able fact, that all these we shall see deferred — nay, deferred
for exactly three years, or till immediately after Tyndale's
New Testaments had arrived in the country ! Wolsey, it is
true, will have quite enough to divert him all the time, but
it was just as if Providence had intended that the writings of
no human being should have the precedence, but that His own
Word, being so treated, should thus enjoy the distinction of
exciting the general commotion of 1526. The burning of the
New Testament was to be the head and front of their offendinjj.
We have now done with Tyndale upon English ground ;
and, disappointed of employment, he also was done with
" marking the pomp of our Prelates,^' or hearing the whole
fraternity " boast of their high authority." But certainly

8' MS. Cotton Vitell, B. v. p. 8. Nor must the character of the writer of this letter be for
gotten. No wonder than he wrote, as he evidently did, con amore. This was the same man
who, in 1521, not two years before, had tormented his whole diocese ; burning all such as had
relapsed, and severely punishing those who were convicted of reading certain parts of the Sacred
Scriptures, in English manuscript, or of even possessing the ten commandments ! After he had
written this letter, he was down at Oxford preparing for the Cardinal's buildings ; and while
Tyndale waa busy at the press in 1525, Longland was preaching, on the foundation stone of
Cardinal College being laid. Wood'sAnnals, byGutch, ii. p. 24. Wood'sAthenas, by Bliss, i. p. 164.

44 MUST LEAVE HIS COUNTRY. [booK I.
when he was to be seen walking up Fleet Street, from the
hospitable abode of Mr. Humphrie Munmouth, to preach at
St. Dunstan's in the West, nothing in this world could have
been more improbable, than that in a short time he was so to
agitate the whole hierarchy of England, and the city which
he was now about to leave for ever !
Here, then, and before he embarks, let us pause for a
moment. The copies of the Sacred Scriptures in the English
tongue, now far exceed in number, not only that of every other
nation, but they have been supposed to surpass the number
in all other languages when put together ! With us they
are familiarly enumerated by millions, and myriads of our
countrymen have lived in peace, and died in joy, full of the
genuine consolation thus imparted ! As far, therefore, as
human agency was employed, it becomes a sacred duty to
trace this, the highest favour of Heaven, up to its source ;
and certainly it is not a little singular, at the distance of
nearly three hundred and twenty years, that we should be
able to contemplate the origin of the whole, within the bosom
of one disappointed and neglected, if not despised individual !
There was, indeed, one young man, his own convert, with
whom he may have communed on the subject, John Fryth,
whether in London, which is most probable, or at Cam
bridge, but he was not to accompany him ; no, nor even an
amanuensis. Solitary and alone he went out as far as we yet
know, and, with the exception of the port to which he sailed,
like the patriarch of old, " not knowing whither he went."
By faith, it may be truly said, he left his native country, not
unmindful of it, but, on the contrary, loaded with a sense of
genuine pity for its inhabitants, from the king downward.

SECTION II.
THE KEW TESTAMENT IN ENGLISH PKEPABING BY TYNDALE, FOR CIBCULA-
TION IN HIS NATIVE LAND ; AND IN TWO EDITIONS rROM THE PRESS BY
THE CLOSE OP 1525.  STATE OP ENGLAND IMMEDIATELY BEFORE THEIR
RECEPTION.
We are now entering upon a war of opinion, and one of para
mount importance to this kingdom, which, as far as our first

1 524.] TYNDALE LEAVES ENGLAND.

45

translator of the Sacred Volume was concerned, lasted, without
one moment's interruption, for twelve years. It must appear
singular, that no detail of such a contest, ending as it did, has
ever been written. Such, however, being the fact, and such
the variety of character, as well as the strange incidents in
volved in the struggle, without keeping rigidly to our narra
tive, year by year, as the subject never has been, so it never
can be understood.
Tyndale, though strongly attached to his native country,
having now fully resolved on going abroad, Munmouth " helped
him over the sea." We know that he sailed direct for Ham
burgh, and the question is, whether he did not there remain
for more than a year. At all events, a period of about fifteen
months, or rather two years, has to be accounted for, from
January 1524; but so much obscurity has rested upon it,
owing to the mere afiirmations, both of friends and foes, that
it becomes necessary to call for proof, and to proceed no farther
than it will carry us.
Two general assertions have been hazarded, and too long-
received. One is, that, upon leaving his native land, Tyn
dale went directly to Luther, and completed his translation
in confederacy with him. The other is, that he dwelt at
Wittenberg while thus engaged.
This idea of Tyndale's immediate and intimate confederacy
with Luther, and his dependence upon him, originally im
ported from abroad, through men who were, at the moment,
under the torture of examination in " England, has been re
peated from Sir Thomas More and John Cochlseus, two
determined enemies, not to say John Foxe, a decided friend,
down to Herbert Marsh in our own day ; but it is more than
time that it should be exploded. Considering that these are
nothing more than assertions, it is strange that they should
have prevailed with any, after Tyndale's own language to
Sir Thomas More.
" It is to be considered," said More, " that at the time of this translation,
Hychens (that is Tyndale) was with Luther in Wittenberg, and set certain
glosses in the margin, (alluding to the edition in quarto,) framed for the setting
forth of that ungracious sect ;" aud again — " The confederacy between Luther
and him, is a thing well known, and plainly confessed by snch as have been
taken, and convicted here of heresy, coming from them."
The poor men who fell into Mora's hands, and on whose

46 FOR HAMBURGH. [bOOK I.
testimony he rests his assertions, were no doubt willing, nay
glad, to confess anything, which might please him, and favour
their escape. But what says Tyndale himself to all this, in
his " Answer to Sir Thomas More's Dialogue ?" After stat
ing that he had already answered the whole of his Eighth
Chapter, Third Book, with one exception, he emphatically adds,
" And when he saith Tyndale was confederate with Luther, that
is not truth ,-" though as a man traduced, and then persecuted,
he would give his adversary no farther positive information.
But even independently of this pointed denial, was he even
resident in Wittenberg, nay, in any part of Saxony, during
this period ? If not, then both assertions fall to the ground.
That he saw and conversed with Luther at some period,
may be supposed, though we have not a shadow of proof;
but that he had done either, or even set his foot in Saxony,
before the publication of his New Testament, will very soon ap
pear to have been impossible, in the nature of things. On
the contrary, if we are to depend on the distinctly recorded
testimony of the generous man with whom he resided in
London ; delivered, too, in very peculiar — because responsible
— circumstances, and involving pecuniary transactions with
Tyndale himself, which account for his support, a difi'erent
place of residence must be assigned to him.
On the 14th of May 1528, Munmouth being sent for by
Sir T. More, was the same day committed to the Tower.
His petition for release, on the 19th, is addressed to Wolsey
and the King's Council. Now, in this we have the following
evidence, both as to time and^Zaceof residence, throughout 1524.
" Upon four years and a half and more, I heard the foresaid Sir William
Tyndale preach two or three sermons at St. Dunstan's in the West in London."
Tyndale, he then relates, applied to the Bishop of London, and was refused ;
" so I took him into my house half a year. I did promise him ten pounds ster
ling, to pray for my father and mother's souls, and all christian souls. I did
pay it him when he made his exchange to Hamburgh. Afterwards he got of
some other men, ten pounds sterling more, the which he left with me ; and
within a year after, he sent for his ten pounds to me from Hamburgh, and
thither I sent it to him, by one Hans CoUenbeke, a Merchant of the Stilyard."!
' Harleian MS., Foxe, and copied by Strype.— It is worthy of notice, that Tyndale had left
with his generous host, two copies of the Enchiridion of Erasmus, which he had translated at
Sodbury, copies of the sermons he had preached in London, besides other papers, bnt Mun
mouth became intimidated, and after Tunstal's denunciat,ion of the New Testament, he not only
delivered it up, but all the treatises and letters that Tynd.ile had sent or left he destroyed ! " I
did bum them in my house, {or fear of the translator, more than for any ill that I knew by them."
But the fact is, that Munmouth was now in very /front fear of himself, and this must be borne in

lo24.] ABIDES m HAMBURGH. 47
Thus, in the summer of 1523, Munmouth heard Tyndale
preach ; he dwelt six months in his house, and probably more,
as our translator himself has told us, that in London he
" abode almost a year ;" in the beginning of 1524 he made
his " exchange" for Hamburgh ; nearly a year elapses before
he sends, from Hamburgh still, for his second ten pounds, and
he there remains till he received it. That he had never left the
spot, will presently appear still more evident.
Until, therefore, other evidence to the contrary can be pro
duced, we have accounted not only for Tyndale's residence in
Hamburgh throughout 1524, but also for what is more grati
fying, the expense of his support for even a longer period. It
is some consolation to find him not thrown entirely on the
hospitality of foreigners, if indeed in any degree ; as the sums
allotted to him, when put together, were equal to fifteen times
the amount in our day, or about ^300 sterling.^
We presume it will now be admitted, that the residence of
Tyndale at Wittenberg, has been nothing more than an
assumption, serving powerfully, at the moment, the purpose
of Sir Thomas More, his calumniator. The evidence, as yet,
is distinctly in favour of Hamburgh, and as for " confederacy
with Luther," that has been pointedly denied. More had
afiirmed that Tyndale " was unth Luther in Wittenberg ;"
and Tyndale replies, " that is not truth." Indeed, these
words are his emphatic answer to all that his opponent had
either of malicious purpose, or by mistake, asserted in both
of his sentences, already quoted.
We, however, now know the movements of Luther better
than did Sir Thomas More ; and it may be worth while to
enquire how he was engaged at the moment, and throughout
the greater part of this year. Most unfortunately he had

mind when reading his confession. That he gave the ten pounds to Tyndale, to pray foi- his
father and mother's souls, was the cant language of the day, now employed, under intimidation,
to justify his having lent him assistance. By this time Tyndale had no faith in such prayers,
and it is even questionable whether Munmouth himself had— but certainly not when he made
his will in 1537, commending his soul " unto Christ Jesus, my Maker and Bedeemer, in whom,
and by the merits of whose blessed passion, is all my whole trust of clean remission and forgive
ness of my sins. He ordered his body to be buried, " without any dirige to be sung or said."
2 Munmouth mentions far larger sums that he had given away, though ten pounds was then a
princely donation. " Henry VIII. rewarded Roger Ascham with a pension of ten pounds
annually, a sum so small, that it may appear unworthy of enquiry what could be its value ; but
it must be enquired what twenty shillings could then perform." After doing so, the author
adds — "His pension, therefore, may be estimated at more than a hundred pounds a year."
—Johnson's Life qf j4scham.— The Doctor's calculation was nearly eleven times, but we abide
by fifteen, as more correct.

48 ABIDES IN HAMBURGH. [BOOK. I.
just fallen out violently with Carlostadt, and taken that step
which has so often been lamented since, as a memorable in
stance of human imbecility. It only requires to be observed,
that the time of Tyndale's sailing from London, and that of
Carlostadt leaving Wittenberg, were simultaneous, or the be
ginning of 1524. The vexatious controversy respecting the
Lord's Supper had already commenced. Luther was posting
after Carlostadt, and, by the month of August, at Jena, they
were pledged antagonists, after which the latter had to seek
refuge in Strasburg. The approach of any man to Luther,
at this period, who was not of his opinion, would have been
fatal to any advice or confederacy with him. Now, as Tyn
dale was not at present, nor indeed ever was, a Lutheran, and
since, as a scholar, he needed neither assistance nor advice,
from a man with whom he could have conversed only through
the medium of Latin ; to send him into Saxony for such pur^
poses, and at such a time, was equally absurd. On the con
trary, if there were strong reasons for seeking no such inter
course at this moment ; there were stronger still, gathered by
Tyndale himself from the state of England, as already de
scribed, whether in Gloucestershire or in London, for his im
mediately sitting down to his work ; and, instead of hasten
ing away from Hamburgh into Saxony, if we at once assume
that Tyndale remained in this city throughout 1 524, as Mun
mouth has told us, and then, in 1 525, was first at Cologne,
and then at Worms ; we shall leave the reader to judge, as
he proceeds, whether a day was left for visiting other places,
except such as lay in his way, and more especially one so far
distant as the usual abode of Martin Luther.
To return, therefore, to our history. Tyndale had now
entered, with great vigour, on two of the most important
years of his existence ; and if, when his productions are once
discovered in England, it shall come out in evidence, that, in
that time, he had translated and printed first an edition of
the gospel of Matthew, then another of the gospel of Mark,
with two editions of the New Testament ; this will demon
strate, that neither his residence, nor his labours, have ever
yet been understood.
At the moment of Tyndale's arrival in Hamburgh, it is
not unworthy of remark, that he had found the city in a state
of great excitement, but, at the same time, one by no means

1524.] ABIDES IN HAMBURGH.

49

unfavourable to the commencement of his design. Nor was
this excitement of recent origin. In 1523, the burghers
had already agreed, in a body, to oppose the usurpations, the
taxes, and the excommunications of the Chapter, while they
were divided in their opinions respecting points of belief and
ceremonies. One party, and that supported by the Senate,
were for reforming both. A Franciscan friar, named Kempe,
newly come from Eostoc, had been requested to preach the
gospel in its purity, and was now so engaged ; with better
success than Henry Zuphten, who had been burnt alive at
Mehldorf, by a decree of the official at Hamburgh.^
But if Tyndale, in 1524, abode in this city, had he the
benefit of any assistance, or did he meet with an amanuensis
there ? With regard to the first enquiry, he himself informs
us, that he " had no man to counterfeit, neither was holpen
with English of any that had interpreted the same, or such
like thing in the Scripture before time."* As for an amanu
ensis, and one who was also able to compare the text with him
when translated ; he seems to have had first one, and then
another, who remained in his service for a considerable time.
The first of these, we cannot name, though he was highly
esteemed by our translator ; the second was William Roye,
a friar observant of the Franciscan order at Greenwich. The
truth is, that the only authentic explanation of this period, is
to be found in a passage of Tyndale's own writing, contained
in the preface to the very first book that he published after
his New Testament — " The Parable of the Wicked Mammon."
" 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 efiect !) One William Roye, a man some
what 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.

3 See Essay on the Hist, of Hamburgh, translated from the French, by M. A. Dathe, London,
1766, in which there are some curious particulars, Part II. chap. 2. For Zuphten's affecting
martyrdom, see O'Aubign^'s History, vol. iii. p. 211.
4 This language, which accompanied his New Testament, might surely have been received
as a sufficient disclaimer of all '* confederacy " with any man. To counterfeit, in that age,
meant, " to follow in imitation, as an example." Thus—" Every Christian man ought to have
Christ always before his eyes, as an ensample to counterfeit and follow." — Tyndale's Works.
VOL. I. D

50 ABIDES IN HAMBURGH. [bOOK I.
I took my leave, and bade him farewell for our two lives, and, as men say, a
day longer. After we were departed,5 he went and gat him new friends, which
thing to do, he passeth all that ever I yet knew. And then, when he had
stored him of money, he gat him to Argentine, (Strasburg,) where he pro-
fesseth wonderful faculties, and maketh boast of no small things. A year after
that, and now twelve months before the printing of this work, (or May 15'26,)
came one Jerome, a brother of Greenwich also, through Worms to Argentine —
which Jerome, I warned of Roy e's boldness, and exhorted him to beware of him,
and to walk quietly, and with all patience and long suffering, according as we
have Christ and his apostles for an ensample, which thing he also promised me.''
In reference to the place of Tyndale's abode, when Roye
came to him, we have to regret a very singular hiatus, as,
perhaps, he prudently wished to conceal the place. " While
I abode  , a faithful companion," fee. ; but, with the
trustworthy testimony of Munmouth before us, we may
surely presume that the words to be supplied are, " in Ham
burgh.'''' Who the " faithful companion" was, we have not
been able to ascertain ; only this could not possibly be John
Fryth, according to the vague assertion which has been so
often and so long repeated. He was still at Cambridge, as
he did not take his degree at that University till December
1525, nor escape from Oxford to the Continent, as we shall
see afterwards, till August or September 1526.
But it is with Roye we have especially to do ; and, with
this passage before us, it appears that he came to Tyndale at
Hamburgh, for he was afterwards with him at Cologne, and
left him not at Worms, " till that was ended, which he could
not do without one." Unable to procure any other suitable
individual, once hired, Tyndale was evidently shut up to
the necessity of retaining Roye in his service. His occupa
tion was, in a great degree, mechanical ; but there is a de
gree of point in the language employed, for an important
reason, which will be fully explained when we come to the
year of its publication, or 1527.
With regard to the progress actually made during this
year, or how much Tyndale may, if not must, have accom
plished in Hamburgh, there has never been any distinct in
formation. This, however, may be accounted for from the
fact never having been before known, that previously to the
publication of his New Testament ; whether in quarto, with

1 i. e. separated ; a word long employed in this sense.—" Depart ye to me, Saul and Barnv
bas, into the work to which I have taken them." — Wicliffe.

1524.] MATTHEW AND MARK PRINTED. .51
glosses, or in octavo, without them ; Tyndale had printed an
edition of Matthew, as well as of Mark, by themselves, al
though not a single copy has ever yet been identified. In
the eager search for the Scriptures, with a view to their being
destroyed, they may have been sometimes given up, to save a
Testament ; but there can be no question that we have here
before us Tyndale's earliest efi"ort for the benefit of his country.
After John Foxe had printed his loose statement in his
Acts and Monuments, when he came to publish Tyndale's
works, in 1573, he glances at this fact, though no attention
has ever been paid to his words. In his life of Fryth, talk
ing no more of Saxony, he has said — " William Tyndale first
placed himself in Germany, and there did Jirst translate the
Gospel of St. Matthew into English, and after, the whole
New Testament," &c. His mention of Matthew, by itself,
certainly appears to imply some distinction ; but the real
state of the case was this — ^that Tyndale not only " first
translated Matthew," but printed it, and the Gospel of Mark
also. Both of these we shall find to be most bitterly denounced
in the beginning of 1527, after having been read ; and as a
publication, not only separate from the New Testament with
its prologue, but as printed previously.
It is worthy of notice, that Munmouth, in his memorial to
Wolsey and the Council, who had been in possession of the
earliest New Testament, distinctly confesses that he had " re
ceived a little treatise," which Tyndale had sent to him,
" when he sent for his money," in 1524. This, at least,
shows that he had been busily engaged in the city where he
had first landed. But if this was not the well-known tract,
which was ere long to produce such efiect, entitled, the
" Supplication of Beggars," by Mr. Fish, it may have been
these gospels, or one of them.
We do not, however, farther anticipate. The fact of both
gospels having been printed, and styled emphatically, " the
first print," is certain ; and we simply add, that the place
where they were printed, we have been led to believe, must
have been Hamburgh. Of this there will be farther evidence.

Were it now possible to relate, in full detail, the history of
the printing of the two first editions of our New Testament in
the English language, it would unquestionably form one of the

52 PROCEEDS TO COLOGNE. [bOOK I.
most striking illustrations of the superintending providence of
God over his own Word; and only exceeded by its introduction
into England and Scotland, immediately after being printed.
The account, however, even as far as it may be traced, cannot
fail to interest all those who desire to mark the hand of the
Supreme Being, in by far the greatest gift which He has ever
bestowed on Britain.
It has been usual to represent the first edition of Tyndale's
New Testament as printed at Antwerp in the year 1526, and
so dismiss the subject. We shall have occasion to show that,
though not printed under his eye, this was the third edition ;
and that the history of the two first editions, printed in 1625,
by Tyndale himself, elsewhere, has never yet been properly
understood. Indeed, so defective have the statements hither
to been, that although two editions were distinctly denounced,
both by the Bishop of London and the Archbishop of Canter
bury, in 1 526 ; no one had thought, till very lately, of either
enquiring after the missing book, or even allowing the quarto
edition with glosses, to have then existed. Every particular
circumstance, therefore, which can be properly authenticated,
respecting these two first productions of Tyndale's own hand,
the source of so many subsequent editions both abroad and at
home, ought to be recorded ; and more especially, since so
diligent was the "secret search" after them, and so frequent
the fiames which consumed them, that, of the octavo impres
sion, only one copy of the sacred text remains complete, one
other imperfect, and of the quarto, nothing more than a vener
able fragment. This last, however, happily includes his
original prologue entire, or the very first sheets thrown ofi' at
the Cologne press.
We proceed, therefore, to give a general statement of the
movements of Tyndale, explaining it more fully, and confirm
ing it afterwards. Having left the place of his abode, which
we have assumed to be Hamburgh ; he arrived at Cologne
on the Rhine, in the end of April or beginning of May 1525,
perhaps earlier, accompanied by his amanuensis William Roye.
He commenced his labours by committing to the press his
New Testament, in the form of a quarto volume. Not only
was the entire sacred text then translated, but his prologue,
extending to fourteen pages, was composed before he began
to print. This appears to be evident, not merely from the

1525.] FIRST NEW TESTAMENT. 53
language of the prologue itself, but from its commencing with
sign A ij, and the letters running on regularly through the
sacred text.
The printers, however, had only proceeded as far as the
tenth sheet, or letter K, when an alarm was raised, the
authorities of the place informed, and the work interdicted.
Tyndale and Roye contrived to secure the sheets printed ofi",
and sailing up the Rhine to Worms, where much greater
liberty could at this time be enjoyed, they proceeded with
their undertaking. This interruption, though felt to be most
grievous at the moment, as Tyndale afterwards obscurely
hinted ; far from damping, only inflamed his zeal, and the re
markable result was, that two editions were accomplished by
him, in the same period in which very probably he had con
templated only one. These statements, however, admit of
ample confirmation, and, on account of the confusion which
has hitherto prevailed, they demand it.
In the illustration of historical truth, except attention be
paid to all that the chief opponents have written, we must
occasionally be unable to recount the facts as they occurred.
Invaluable information may be drawn from an enemy, and if
his statements can be authenticated, they often fill up a chasm,
and explain matters which otherwise must have remained in
oblivion. Besides, in all instances where an opponent could
have no motive to falsify, his narration of facts should be the
more respected. We have a striking illustration of these
remarks now before us.
Perhaps the most virulent enemy to the Word of God being-
translated into any vernacular tongue, who ever breathed, was
John Cochlseus. He at least rose above all his contemporaries
of the sixteenth century, and with an unwearied perseverance,
worthy of a better cause, he not only strove to prevent the
difi"usion of the Scriptures, and longed to strangle every
attempt at their translation in the very birth, but even gloried
in his enmity to all such proceedings.
Born at Nm-emberg, in the year 1479, he died at the age of 73, in January
1552, at Brcslaw ; and from the year 1522, in which he published his '' Invective,"
down to 1550, his fertile pen was perpetually busy, and his tongue as much so
as such unweai'ied wi-iting would permit. Although his History of the Hussites,
and his Commentary on the Life and Writings of Luther were volumes, his gene
ral mode of warfare consisted in small publications. Thus, in 1528, 1530, 1534,
1537, he published seven each year, in 1544, nine, and in 1539, eleven. In the

54 INTERRUPTED BY OOCHL.«US. [bOOK I.
course of 28 years we have, on an average, above one publication every three
months. Our list of the whole consists of one hundred and twenty -two, but there
must have been more. During this long period, he had printed against Luther,
and Melancthon, Velenus and Pomeranus, Zuinglius and Jonas, Tyndale and
Ales, Ambrose and Morbanus, Musculus and Bullinger, Bucer, and finally,
Calvin. Ceasing not to publish till he was past seventy years of age, he died
as he had lived, a determined enemy to the circulation of the Scriptures, the
only point in his character with which we have here to do.
Violently opposed, as it will appear, to the people of Scot
land, as well as England, receiving the Word of Truth in their
mother tongue, the inhabitants of both countries may well
mark the futility of all his eflbrts ; and the more so, as we are
indebted to this opponent for statements, curious and minute,
of the accuracy of which there will be no reason to doubt,
before we come to the close of this narrative.
Certainly, at the moment, nothing must have been more
lamented, than that the most inveterate living opponent on
the Continent should come, nay, be driven into Cologne, soon
after Tyndale had commenced at press ! How much more so,
when it turned out that Cochlseus was shut up to the necessity
of remaining there throughout the rest of the year 1525 !
Such, however, was the fact; but what was the result ? Why
that, whether we ascribe it to his opposition or not, there were,
as already stated, two editions of the New Testament printed,
instead of one.
According to Cochlseus, the " two English apostates," as
he styles Tyndale and Roye, first contemplated an edition of
six thousand copies, but for prudential reasons, they began
with three thousand. He tells us, that Pomeranus had
already sent forward his letter to the saints in England, and
that Luther himself had written his conciliatory letter to
Henry VIII. Now this letter, we know, was dated the 1st
of September 1525. He then adds, that it had been antici
pated, this English New Testament in quarto, would soon
follow; but that the Lutherans, overjoyed, broke the secret be
fore the time ; or in other words, he himself ferreted out the
secret, as will be seen by his own confession. We have only,
therefore, to verify the residence and occupation of this oppon
ent during 1525 and 1526, in order to ascertain the precise
period to which his account refers. During the year 1525,
Cochlseus was actually resident in Cologne, but not in 1526.
While there, he was as usual, busily occupied in writing

1525.] INTERRUPTED BY C0CHL.ffiU8. 55
against Melancthon, Velenus, and Luther, as well as in
searching after the writings of Rupert, an Abbot, formerly in
the Monastery of Deutz, immediately opposite to Cologne.
This Abbot, who flourished four hundred years before, had
written certain commentaries on the Scriptures, besides seve
ral other pieces ; and as some of his sentiments were thought
to be favourable to the cause of divine truth, its friends were
eager to procure any of his works, and publish such of them,
with notes, as might at once serve their cause, and prove that
their doctrines were not so new as their opponents represent
ed. One of his little pieces, " Of the Victory of the Word of
God," had been already printed, with annotations by Osiander
of Nuremberg, and the Lutherans were actually in treaty with
the then Abbot of Deutz, expecting from him other works of
Rupert, intending to convey them for examination to Nurem
berg. Cochlseus interposed, alarmed the Abbot, and, lest the
notes and prologues of his opponents should make Rupert
appear in favour of their doctrine, contrived himself to gain
possession of the whole. He had then to engage parties wilU
ing to publish, and though he found considerable difficulty, at
last he prevailed on Peter Quentel, aud Arnold Byrckman,
well known printers of the place.
Now it was while this engaged at Cologne, in 1525, that
Cochlseus discovered this frst impression of the English New
Testament, proceeding briskly, as he says, or swiftly at the
press ; yet, with such caution had both Tyndale and Roye
conducted themselves, that, although Cochlseus succeeded in
stopping the press, he was never able to meet either the one
or the other ; a striking proof, by the way, of their intimate
acquaintance with his character.
On making the discovery, Cochlseus says that he was agitat
ed by fear as well as wonder and surprise ; but why so ?
Let it be observed, that, in connexion with his proposed pub
lication of Rupert's works, his situation was a very critical
one. Before his arrival, Tyndale was going on at the press,
and if it shall turn out that Byrckman, as well as his brother,
and Quentel were at all concerned in his progress, though merely
in the way of business, what is Cochlseus to do ; or how is he
to proceed ? As for Francis Byrckman, we know, that, as a
bookseller, he had connexions with Quentel, and also with
England. Indeed, for such an early period, he had an exten-

56 INTERRUPTED BY COCHL^US. [bOOK I.
sive business, having a warehouse not only in Paris but in
London ; his shop was then, and for ten years before this,
" in cemiterio Sancti Pauli," in St. Paul's Church Yard.^
But, besides, we shall present the strongest presumptive, if
not positive evidence, that Quentel was the printer. If, there
fore, Cochlseus now aimed at the interruption or suppression
of a work in the English tongue, to the printer a foreign
one, and already so far advanced at press ; Cochlseus being
not even a citizen of Cologne, but only an exile, and but re
cently arrived, his circumstances were embarrassing, and most
probably, he had a very difficult game to play.
Be this, however, as it may, Cochlseus succeeded dexterous
ly. Not appearing himself, he sem'etly secured the ear of the
well known Herman Rincke or Ringe, and this was all-suffici
ent. Possessed both of a civil and a military capacity, his
authority in Cologne was great ; and besides it was but the
revival of his intercourse with a court, which he had visited
so long ago as 1502, when Wolsey was nothing more than
the Rector of Lymington.''
Now, as we shall find that Cochlseus, as well as Rincke, alarm
ed by letter Henry VIIL, theCardinal, and Fisher the Bishopof
Rochester, their eye must have been efl'ectually if not intensely
fixed, at the moment, on ^/^/s edition. Yet the graphical and
minute account of Cochlseus, has never been given- complete
by any English author. We shall, therefore, first present it,
entire, and then corroborate it, particularly as to the time, or
year, of which he speaks.
" Two English apostates, who had been sometime at Wittenberg, sought
not only to subvert their own merchants, (who secretly favoured and supported
them in their exile,) but even hoped that, whether the king would or not, all
the people of England would in a short time become Lutherans,',by means of the
New Testament of Luther, which they had translated into the English language.
They had already come to Cologne, that thence they might convey, secretly,
under cover of other goods to England, the Testament so translated, and multi
plied by printers into many thousands. For they had so much confidence of
managing the business well, that, at the first onset, they asked from the printers

6 There were three of this name in succession, Francis, Arnold, and John. The two last were
printers at Cologne as well. We allude to the first as a bookseller.
7 Rincke had been sent in 1602 by the Emperor Maximilian to Henry Vll., on an important
embassy, in reference to commercial intercourse between Germany and England. He was the
veiy best man for promoting the nefarious design of Cochla:us ; and, it deserves notice, that im-
mediatolj after Oils period he becomes the confidential correspondent both of Henry VIII. .and
of Cardinal Wolsey. Hence wo have letters to both parties in tho Museum, to which emphatic
reference will be made under the year 1528, and even later.

1525.] INTERRUPTED BY COCHLjEUS.

57

six thousand to be given from the press. But fearing lest they should meet
with a very heavy loss, if any thing happened unfortunately, they only put three
thousand to the press ; which, if they should happily be sold, could with ease
be prmted anew. Already Pomeranus had sent forward letters to the saints
who are in England,^ and Luther himself had also written to the King. And
when it was believed that the New Testament was about to follow by and bye,
so great joy from that hope seized the Lutherans, and inflated them with the
wind of vain confidence, that, filled with delight, they, with their vain boasting,
bi'oke the secret before its time.
" At that time John Cochlaeus, Deacon of the Church of the Blessed Virgin
of Frankfort, lived as an exile, at Cologne, who, by his host George Laver,
Canon to the Apostles, intimately acquainted with the Abbot of Deutz, when
he heard that certain works of Rupert, formerly an Abbot of that Abbey ,9
were to be sent to Nuremberg, that they might be published by the Lutherans,
he began, with the greatest eagerness, both to dissuade from, and to hinder that
business. For the Lutherans, even to that day, after they had diligently search
ed and turned over all the ancient Libraries, could find no author of all the
Doctors of the Church for so many ages, who could have approved of the doc
trines of Luther. At last a little work of that Rupert, who had lived 400 years
before, was found.lO The title of it was, ' of the Victory of the Word of God.'
And it was forthwith published by the Lutherans ; because, by its title, it so
directly pleased all, that nothing more desirable could be seen than that author.
In the meantime, they understood from Trithemius, that he had written many
little pieces, but they had found only two ; of which one was inscribed ' of the
power,' the other 'of the providence' of God. In their edition, Osiander, a
married priest and preacher, applied many things after the manner of Luther,
by which he attempted to make the pious author the patron of that infamous
sect ; and now they were treating with the Abbot of Deutz himself, that he
might send the rest of the works of Rupert to Nuremberg, to be printed. He,
however, as soon as he heard from Cochleeus what great danger there would
be in that matter, if he delivered the pious author into the hands of the impious,
who were about, not only to basely contaminate him by impious prefaces and
annotations, but even to pervert his upright and sound opinions ; and of an
ancient catholic were about to make a new heretic, who, four hundred years
before, should seem to have approved of all the dogmas of Luther. The Abbot,
therefore, good man, having changed his opinion, kept by himself the volumes,
already packed up into a large bundle, ready to be conveyed to Nuremberg.
In this bundle there were fourteen books on the Gospel of John, twelve on the
Revelations, and twelve books ' De divinis Officiis.'
" When, however, the monks were not to be at rest, unless they published
these works, Cochlseus earnestly entreated Peter Quentel and Arnold Byrckman
that they should, on their joint expense aud profit, undertake their publication ;
notwithstanding, he could not persuade them, till at length he had promised
them, to that edition, all his own labour. When that became sufficiently pro
fitable to them, they no more required Cochlaeus to urge them, but themselves,
of their own accord, sought out more of his small works, requesting now the

8 " Epistolaad Anglos," 1525. Reprinted in English, 1536 ; penes me, from Heber. Herberts
Ames, p. 1546.
9 Deutz Benedictine Abbey, connected with ColoRue by a bridge of boats.
10 Rupert, a native of Ipres, died in Feb. 1135, aged 44. His works full of mysticism, were not
only now printed at Cologne, but in 1638, at Paris in 2 volumes, and at Venice, 1748-1752, in 4
vols. {o\io.—V Advocat.

58 COCHLjEUS SOUNDS THE ALARM [bOOK I.
Abbot, and then CochlEeus, that they might search for more of them in any
quarter. The Abbot, therefore, thus excited, diligently searched out of the
old monasteries of St. Benedict, thirty- two books on the twelve minor Prophets,
and seven on the Song of Solomon. Cochlffius found at Cologne, in the Library
of the Greater Church, nine books concerning the Glorification of the Trinity,
and the procession of the Holy Spirit ; and in the School of Arts, a large volume
on the works of the Trinity. When, however, he learnt that Rupert was
formerly a Monk of St. Laurence at Leige, he wrote to Theodoric Hezius, a
Canon of Leige, whom he had known intimately at Rome, after the death of
Adrian VI., (Sep. 1523,) whose private secretary he had been, entreating that
he would search out in that monastery whatever remained of the books of
Rupert. He found, therefore, a work greatly esteemed — thirteen books on
Matthew, ' of the glory and honour of the Son of Man.' He could not, however,
send the original to Cologne, except he, with two other Canons, would pledge in
security to the monks all their goods, for the restoration of the copy !
" AU these volumes, therefore, Cochlseus, being called away to Mentz, carried
with him, and while residing there prepared them for publication, and sent them
back, to be pubUshed at Cologne."ll
Three volumes in folio were accordingly published at Cologne, but every one
of them in the year 1526. Cochlseus, however, must still relate more circum
stantially what had occurred in the previous year, when he was an exile at Cologne.
" Having thus become more intimate and familiar with the Cologne printers,
he sometimes heard them confidently boast, when in their cups, that whether
the King and Cardinal of England would or not, all England would in short
time be Lutheran. He heard also that there were two Englishmen lurking
there, learned, skilful in languages, and fluent, whom, however, he neoer could
see or converse with. Calling, therefore, certain printers into his lodging, after
they were heated with wine, one of them, in more private discourse, discovered
to him the secret by which England was to be drawn over to the side of Luther
— namely. That three thousand copies of the Lutheran New Testament, trans
lated into the English language, were in the press, and already were advanced
as far as the letter K, in ordine quaternionem. That the expenses were fully
supplied by English merchants ; who were secretly to convey the work when
printed, and to disperse it widely through all England, before the King or the
Cardinal could discover or prohibit it.
" CochlaBus being inwardly affected by fear and wonder, disguised his grief,
under the appearance of admiration. But another day, considering with him
self the magnitude of the grievous danger, he cast in mind by what method
he might expeditiously obstruct these very wicked attempts. He went, there
fore, secretly, to Herman Rinck, a patrician of Cologne and Military Knight,
familiar both with the Emperor aud the King of England, and a Counsellor,
and disclosed to him the whole affair, as, by means of the wine, he had received
it. He, that he might ascertain all things more cei-tainly, sent another person
into the house where the work was printing, according to the discovery of
Cochlseus ; and when he had understood from him that the matter was even
so, and that there was great abundance of paper there, he went to the Senate,
and so brought it a,bout that the printer was interdicted from proceeding farther

ii This work on Matl]iew last mentioned was accordingly AmsAeii at press, 12th June 1.526.
That on John aud the Revelations followed in the jaiJieyear; the smaller work '*De div. oificiis "
came out in March \M^.— Panzer. To each is attached the name of Francis Birckman, a proof
that ho was deeply concerned. To tho first and the last of these books we shall have to make
some reference presently.

I'^'^S.] TO ALL ENGLAND.

59

in that work. The two EngUsh apostates, snatching away with them the quarto
sheets printed, fled by ship, going up the Rhine to Worms, where the people
were under the full rage of Lutherauism, that there, by another printer, they
might complete the work begun. Rinck and Cochl^us, however, immediately
advised by their letters the King, the Cardinal, and the Bishop of Rochester,
that they might, with the greatest diligence, talie care lest that most pernicious
article of merchandise should be conveyed into all the poi-ts of England."l2 ^
Although this arch-enemy had never written another word,
there can be no question as to the period of this vexatious
interruption. He has fixed it himself, by telling us, he was
then an exile at Cologne. In 152.3, Cochlseus was at Rome,
in 1524 he was at Frankfort and Mentz, and, driven from
both, he fled for refuge to Cologne in 1525. There he re
mained stationary till the beginning of 1 526, when, recalled
to Mentz, he went in June to the Diet of Spire, and remained
till August. Returning to Mentz, he paid a transient visit
to Cologne in 1527, but not as an exile. " In 1525," says
Dupin, " Cochlseus, who had been obliged to quit first Frank
fort and then Mentz, because of the popular seditions of the
cities, was at Cologne, where Eckius going into England, had
an interview with him."" Yes, and Eckius not only went,
but would no doubt enforce all that both Rincke and Coch
lseus had written. '"'
Now, with regard to the interruption itself, the usual mis
representations, of Tyndale translating from Luther''s Testa
ment, and at Wittenberg, being once deducted ; we have here
a very distinct testimony as to the secrecy and prudence with
which Tyndale had conducted himself, and, moreover, a frank
confession from Cochlseus. He was bent on crushing the
work, and then all methods were fair. He intoxicates the
workmen, and gains his purpose ; a method in perfect keeping
with his character, and in 1549, or twenty-four years after
wards, he was not ashamed to make the avowal !

12 Cochlgeus, Com. de actis et scriptis Martini Lntheri- -Moguntium, 1549. Or Colonia 1568,
pp. 153-156. Cochlseus says they wrote immediately, though, writing from memory, he had
aifirmedthat Luther had already sent his letter to Henry. But as it was dated 1st September,
there seems to have been some little delay in writing. Be this, however, as it may, the letter of
Luther, we shall find presently, did not reach Henry's eye till six months after its date !
13 See the Nouvelle Bibl. of Dupin, 1703, vol. xiv. p. 185.
14 He had returned from England after the departure of Cochlaeus to Mentz, iind was publish
ing "De Sacrafido Misses. Colonies J. Soter, 1526. The truth is, that, in 1524 and 1525, Lutheran-
ism increasing, established itself in many cities. Thus at Frankfort, the people rising, dismissed
the two Deacons of the principal churches, viz. Martorff and Cochlatcs i broke up the Monas
tery, and remodelled the government of the town. The same cause obliged him to quit Mentz,
and this was the reason of his being an unwilling exile at Cologne in 1525, for at least nine months.

60 THE KING AND OTHERS INFORMED. [book I.
We find, however, also from himself, that throughout the
whole of this business it was not blind zeal only by which he
was actuated. He had not only notoriety, but gain in view,
and we shall see him sadly mortified in obtaining neither.
Meanwhile, no means are left untried to procure distinction,
and, if possible, some money from England ; as well as to
secure friends at Cologne, after what he had done. He,
therefore immediately employs Quentel himself, but in very
difi'erent work.'* In 1526, though not at Cologne, he is
writing to Rincke, and following up his letters to England
by a present to the same parties to whom he had formerly
written, and through the same medium. — " The said Sir
Herman Rynge shewed me a letter that he had received from
one Doctor Johannes Cocleus, containing only the overthrow,
without any mention of the King, and those of Vienna in
Austria be greatly afraid. Also he shewed me to have re
ceived three Boohs from the said Doctor, the one for the King's
Highness, the other for your Grace, and the third for my
Lord of Rochester."'^ In 1527, Cochlseus was publishing
Luther's letter to Henry VIIL, with the King's Reply, and
his own virulent comments, intended as a compliment to the
English Monarch, and then, also, he must flatter both Birck
man and Rincke.''' But all was in vain. Henry VIIL
communicated only with Rincke, and never even answered
Cochlffius, or sent him any reward ; a mortification which he
felt the more, as he ever afterwards regarded his interruption
of Tyndale, to be one of his most notable and praiseworthy
exploits. Again and again did he refer to it in future life.

15 J. CochliEus adversum Lutherum. Colonice Petr. Quentel, 1525. See Kloss's Catalogue of
Melancthon's Books and MS., No. 2356. Sold by auction in London, May 1835.
16 MS. Cotton, Vitell. B. xxi. 10, b. Sir Jo. Wallop to Wolsey, .'iflth Sep. 1526. Sir John,
our ambassador to France, though travelling, was this year resident at Cologne for some time ;
at least his letters onward to 3flth Nov. are dated from thence. The first allusion of Cochlseus
is to the progress of the Grand Turk in Europe, and the consequent overthrow of Hungary, her
King being drowned in his flight from the field. The three books were most probably the Reply
of Cochlaeus to Pomeranus. His " Epistle to the faithful in England " having been sent over in
1525, Cochlseus published his reply in 152G. Another book he sent to the King in 1527.
17 He dedicates this thing from Mentz, 1st March, to the famous bookseller, Fr. Birkmann, a
citizen of Cologne— " Seeing that you are a Bookseller, very well known both in England and
France, and have warehouses well furnished every where by the Catholic Doctors of the Church,
out of which, as from forti6ed arsenals, you conveniently furnish arms to those who are inclined
to fight against this most hideous sect, I thought these things ought to be especially sent to you ;
and they will be able more and more to commend the Royal EpisUe, of which you arc so diligent
a publisher.*' He must dedicate this also to Rincke, styling him the " most prudent Councillor
of the greatest Sovereigns ;" and finally he passes down to Cologne in March, and dates it " at
tlie house of the honourable citizen Peter Qutntell."— See his Epistola Jllarlini Lutheri ad
IJ. fill., &c. 1527.

1525.] THE KING AND OTHERS INFORMED. 61
for which we are the more obliged to him, as every fresh al
lusion only corroborates or explains the movements of our
Translator of the Scriptures. Whether he be writing to
Scotland, England, or even Poland, Cochlseus cannot omit
mention of the subject.
Thus, in writing to Scotland on the 8th of June, 1 533, it
is his boast, that he had eight years ago thus interrupted the
printing of the Scriptures, which had been commenced by an
impression of three thousand copies, after the war of the pea
sants. By this expression he intends to mark either the be
ginning of May 1525, when the great battle with Muncer
was fought, or it may be a little earlier, when the commotion
at Cologne in particular had been suppressed.'^
The allusion, however, to his interruption of Tyndale, which
must have been most mortifying to the pride of Cochlaeus, was
that to which he was provoked by severe chastisement, in 1 538.
Cochlseus before then had, of course, changed his opinion of
Henry VIIL, and more especially since he' had neglected
him. Sir Richard Morysin, one of our ambassadors, having
in his " Apomaxis," posted Cochlseus in his title page, as " a
petty professor of arts, bold in sarcasm, who had attempted
to attack the reputation of Henry the Eighth,"'^ Cochlseus
then published his " Broom of Cochlceus, versus, the cob-webs of
Morysin ;"^*' in which we have the following rejoinder.
" But, Morysin, I was not slow to praise your King, when he did things that
were worthy of praise ; and I could immediately write against him a charge of
ingratitude, much more justly than you can against our excellent Emperor and
most sacred Prince. For in the year of our Lord mdxxv. when I was poor, and
by the seditions of the people and tumult of the rustics settled an exile of Cologne,
not only did I discover to him, by a private epistle, the secret wicked machina
tions of two Englishmen against his kingdom, by whom the New Testament (of
Luther) translated into the English language, was printed at Cologne, that it
might be transmitted secretly, in many thousands into Englandjy' But I also
forthwith, in the next year, publicly dedicated to him xii. Books of Rupert of
Deutz, on the Apocalypse of John,2i and I sent him, as a present, a book, well

18 See "An expediat Laicis, legere Novi Testamenti libros lingua vernacula? anno 1533,"
which wDl be more particularly noticed when we come to treat of Scotland. Eight years ago
was June 1525.
19 Apomaxis Calvmniarvm— Authore Ricardo Morysino— Londini— Bertheleti— an. 1538 ; de
dicated to Cranmer 12. Calendis Julii— 21 July 1538. Tanner and Wood assign 1537 as the ye.ir,
and so does Ames, who supposed the dedication was to Crumwell; but the above date and
dedication are on the book itself.
20 " Scopa Joannis Cochlaei Germani, in Araneas Bicardi Morysini Angli." Lips. 15.38 mense
Martio i. e. 15,3a
21 Ruperti— in Apoc. Joh.tnnis — nunc primum impansis— Franc. Birckmann— anno 1526.

62 FIRST NEW TESTAMENT [BOOK I.
bound, consisting of the greater part of the small works of the said Rupert.22
'But, notwithstanding all these things, he still remained silent, and took no notice
of me, altogether unmindful of my poverty and exile, although at that time he
was a most determined enemy and opposer of the Lutheran sect. So, then,
even in his own estimation, he was indebted to me, for that discovery of mine,
concerning the two Englishmen, plotting wickedly against the peace of his
kingdom, not less than Ahasuerus was indebted to Mordecai, for the discovery,
which, through Esther, he unbosomed to the King, when in jeopardy from
his two eunuchs." '
The evidence thus presented by Cochlseus, at successive
periods, has never before been submitted to the English
reader. That statements, so graphically minute, as to carry
evidence of their correctness ; so pointed as to the year and
place of printing, and in perfect harmony with each other ;
should have been disregarded for three centuries, only shows
how little attention has been paid to the subject : but this
becomes the more observable, when the first denunciations of
" the New Testament in our English tongue," by the ofiicial
authorities next year, had expressly affirmed, " of which trans
lation there are many books printed, some with glosses, and
some without.'''' Instead of enquiring after these Testaments
vjith glosses, or at least admitting their existence, all parties
have been satisfied with having it erroneously stated, that
there had been but one edition, and that said to be printed at
Antwerp in 1526, or the same year in which it was denounced !
To some persons, no doubt, this long detail must have ap
peared to be altogether unnecessary, and to others tedious ;
though should it now be enquired what has given birth to it,
every reader will be pleased to learn, that it is not merely the
confusion that has prevailed hitherto ; but nothing less than
the recovery from oblivion of Tyndale's first pages at the
Cologne press, after the lapse of three hundred and ten years —
a fragment of the very book which was thus interrupted in its
progress, by Cochlseus, and, of course, the only i-emnant
known to be in existence !
The history of the discovery is not the least curious part of our narrative.
Mr. Thomas Rodd, of Great Newport Street, a respectable bookseller in Lon-

22 " Ruperti de divinis officiis." The dedication to Herman Archbishop of Cologne, who
afterwards renounced the authority of the Pope, is dated 3d idus Martias 1526, i. e. 13th March
1627. Thus Cochlseus writes to Henry in 1626, dedicates a folio to him in 1526, and transmits a
book through Herman Rinck as already noted, and, as a final attempt, sends him, in 1527, this
work of Rupert. He succeeded, unfortunately, as we shall see, far bettor with James V. of
Scotland than with Henry VIII.

1525.] BUT LATELY DISCOVERED.

63

don, having exchanged with a fi-iend, who did not recollect how he came by it,
a quarto tract by CEcolampadius, without any covering, there was attached to
it by binding a portion in the English language, black letter ; and though it was
evidently the gospel of Matthew, with « the prologge" of fourteen pages preced
ing, neither Mr. Rodd nor his friend understood, at the time, what it actually
was. By degrees, however, this was at last fully ascertained. « The acciden
tal discovery," says Mr. R., •> of the remarkable initial letter Y., with which
this page, the first of the prologue, is decorated, in another book printed at
Cologne in 1534, first led me to search other books printed at the same place,
and I succeeded in finding every cut and letter, with the exception of one, in
other books from the same printmg office, that of Peter Quentel." Again, " I
have found the type in which this portion of the New Testament is printed,
and the cuts with which it is decorated, used in other books printed at Cologne
from the year 1S21 to 1540, a good proof that the book was commenced in that
city."23 But, again, in the celebrated poetical satire on Cardinal Wolsey, " Rede
me and be not wroth," which was afterwards published by William Roye,
and after his departure from Worms, there is an allusion to a sentiment of
Tyndale, the echo to v/hich is only to be found in this prologue. The fact is, that
though the tract entitled " a pathway unto the Holy Scriptures" contains the
most of it, the prologue was never printed entire in any subsequent edition, nor,
above all, its important and beautiful introduction, which we shall give presently.
Independently, however, of these proofs, there is incontrovertible evidence
presented to the eye. The first page of the sacred text is preceded by a large
spirited cut of the Evangelist Matthew, at his work, dipping his pen into the
inkstand, held to him by an angel ; and it is curious enough, that by this speci
men, though the title page be wanting, we are able to prove, not only that the
printer was Peter Quentel, but that the year of printing was 1525. The mys
tical folios of Rupert have been already noticed. His commentary on Matthew,
sent from Leige to Cologne, a closely-printed folio volume, was finished at Quen-
tel's press, so early as the 12th of June 1526. Now, as far back as the begin
ning of this folio, or page second, we have the identical large woodcut of
Matthew, which had been used to adorn the preceding New Testament ; but
before being employed in the work of Rupert, better to fit the page, the block
had been pared down so as to deprive it of the pillar on the left side, the angel
of the points of his pinions, and both pillars of their bases^at the bottom. Thus,
also, it was placed on the title page, and again, next year, before Matthew, in a
beautiful folio Latin Bible. In the New Testament of Tyndale, on the con
trary, the block will be seen entire, consequently it must have been the prior
publication, and must have been used accordingly in 1525.24
Here, then, unquestionably, we have the only portion now
known to exist, of the three thousand copies of the first and
quarto New Testament, commenced at Cologne; but when
once the reader comes to witness the powerful and unceasing
exertions of the public authorities to seize these books and
burn them ; as well as the rage excited against this prologue
and these glosses ; the wonder will be that a single leaf
23 Letters to the Author in 1836.
24 Compare with this statement the facsimile at the close of this work, where, without en
cumbering this page, the preceding account will be fully confirmed.

64 TYNDALE PROCEEDS TO WORMS. [BOOK I.
escaped. This precious relic having been .stitched up at the
end of another book, might more easily pass unheeded, or it ^
may have remained abroad till long after the fires had ceased
to rage in England. Bound up in blue morocco, with as
many leaves as the book originally composed, it now adorns
the library of the Right Honourable Thomas G-renville ; but
before leaving the place where it was printed, we give the col
lation of all that has yet been found.
Title A i wanting, as it is in the octavo. The prologge commences with
A ij, and occupying seven leaves, ends on the reverse of B iiij. The first page
of the next sheet, or letter C, contains the table of all the books of the New
Testament, on the reverse of which is the woodcut of Matthew, as exhibited
in our fac-simile. On the following leaf, therefore, is folio C iij, continuing
correctly to fol. xxiiii, where the fragment terminates in the 22d chapter
of Matthew. The type is a German Gothic. Size of the frame-work, in
cluding head-line, S| inches ; breadth, 5 inches ; but the breadth of the pro
logue only 3J ; including the head-line, 38 lines in a page ; no paper mark.
N.B. Tyndale being on the point of placing sheet letter L in the press, he must
have been pretty far advanced in the gospel of Luke, and consequently this
fragment is not to be confounded with the gospel of Matthew printed previously,
which, at the same time, could have had no such prologue, nor any such list of
all the books in the New Testament.
* Cologne, therefore, and Cochlseus also, we gladly leave for
the present ; and, with increasing interest, now follow our
Translator to his next place of abode.
Tyndale having taken up his residence in Worms, remained
there till the year 1527, — a far more favourable place for the
prosecution of his design. The commotions of the people,
which at Frankfort and Mentz had ended in triumph over
the old opinions ; at Cologne, on the contrary, had been sub
dued, and hence it was that Cochlseus had made that city his
refuge ; for at Worms he could not then have effected what
he had done at Cologne. Worms, on the contrary, Cochlseus
has told us, was " under the full rage of Lutheranism," or, in
the more sober style of Seckendorfi", " was already wholly
Lutheran." So much the better for our Translator, though
not a, Lutheran ; for his enemy will turn out to have been
only promoting, unintentionally, the very undertaking which
he meant to crush.
We have, however, now come to a period in the labours of
Tyndale, which demands some notice, of all previous accounts.
The author is perfectly aware that it may, and will be said,
by those who have ever attended to the subject, or been con-

^litptoggn

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1525.] AND THERE GOES ON.

65

versant with the octavo edition of Tyndale's New Testament,
" How are we to receive all this account, when we find Tyndale
himself, in his address ' To the Reader,' at the end of the
octavo volume, ' beseeching them that are learned christianly,
that the rudeness of the work now at the first time offend them
not f " Nay, and we may strengthen the objector's language,
by adding — How are we to reconcile the previous statements,
with the first words of Tyndale in his preface to the Penta
teuch ? " When I had translated the New Testament, I added
an Epistle unto the latter end?'' For more than a hundred
years has it not been understood, that the first New Testa
ment in English was printed most probably at Antwerp?
Have not Ames, Herbert, Panzer, and others, all assigned it
to this city ? Has not Mr. Russel, more recently, in the notes
to his edition of Tyndale's works, even specified the printer
there, as being Christopher Endhoven? Nay, did not Dr.
Grifford, the former proprietor of the only perfect copy of the
octavo, now in Bristol, consider the words " now at the first
time," as sufficient evidence that nothing had been printed
before ? And, finally, have not almost all parties agreed as
to the year of printing having been 1526 ?
All this is granted, and yet when we come to the edition
actually printed at Antwerp, in 1526, and by C. Endhoven ;
the peculiarly interesting account of which has never yet been
submitted to an English reader ; it will be distinctly proved
to have been the next, or, as we now affirm, the third edition.
Nor will any advocate for the octavo, printed at Worms, under
Tyndale's own eye, have much ground for hesitation, if he
finds that it was printed in 1525 ; since it was being read in
England as early as January and February 1526. The only
mystery to be solved is, that of the octavo being " now at
the first time" perhaps sent out, though not the first begun.
For although the quarto turns out to be, as it certainly was,
the commencement of Tyndale's labours, and his long pro
logue at the beginning of it, the veryf/rst language addressed
by him to the Christians of England ; nay, and finished at
press, before ever his epistle " To the Reader," at the end
of the octavo, was written or even contemplated; there did
exist an all-powerful reason for our translator's mode of pro
cedure, as well as for his afterwards referring to the one
edition, in preference to the other. Meanwhile, whatever of
VOL. I. E

66 SECOND NEW TESTAMENT. [boOK I.
mystery there be in the matter, it has yet to be curiously
contrasted with both editions being upon English ground,
nearly, if not positively at the same period. Yet though such
be the fact, and to be abundantly proved, Tyndale's peculiar
circumstances this year, may, even now, furnish us with some
explanation. Upon his arrival at Worms, we are not left to enquire,
whether he lost a day, as, by the event, we know full well that
every hour had been improved. Nor is it difficult to perceive
his sagacity in his mode of procedure. His quarto Testament
had been not merely interrupted, but exposed by a malignant
enemy, whose very eye he had evaded ; the book had been
described, and even to the highest authorities in England, as
well as marked out for seizure, if possible. Now, in the face
of all this, would it have been prudent to have proceeded with
this book alone ? Changing, therefore, the size, leaving out
the prologue and the glosses, which, by the way, was a great
improvement, an octavo edition must have been immediately
commenced at press, though certainly the quarto was not con
signed to oblivion. No, for the fact is, that the reader will,
before long, find it difficult, if not impossible, to say, which
was actually the first that had reached the shores of Britain,
whether of England or Scotland. Suffice it now only to state,
that copies of these precious books, it will appear, were being read
in England early in 1526 ; nay, and we shall find the quarto
had been purchased, and " read thoroughly," in the spring of
that year; eight months before the formal denunciation of
Tunstal, or nine months before that of Warham ; when both
were denounced, and said to abound, not only in the diocese
of London, but throughout the province of Canterbury. The
reader will be still more surprised to find that copies of one edi
tion, if not both, had also reached Scotland in the same year !
Tyndale, at all events, with his amanuensis, had now found
refuge within the noted city of Worms. It was but little
more than four years since Martin Luther, attired in his friar's,
frock and cowl, and seated in his vehicle, preceded by the Em
peror's herald on horseback, had entered the same place; where
the Saxon nobles meeting him and forming in procession, two
thousand persons accompanied him through the streets to his
inn. It was a larger assemblage than that which had graced
the Emperor's own approach to the Diet. Then too, and there,

1525.] SECOND NEW TESTAMENT. 67
Cochlceus, who had occasioned our English Translator's flight
from Cologne, could hold up his head, and even force himself
into Luther's presence ; now, he dared not enter the place.
With this memorable scene and its consequences, Tyndale
must have been intimately acquainted ; but when discussing
the subject on Sodbury hill, how strange must it have seemed
to him, had any one added : — '• And you too must, before long,
enter Worms ; not to leave it in haste as Luther had to do,
but to fulfil the desire of your heart, which you will never be
able to accomplish in all England ! " Yet what a contrast
have we between Luther's entrance, surrounded by his Elec
tors and Princes, and the humble approach of Tyndale, with
his bale of printed sheets ! This becomes still more striking,
if we recollect, that four years ago, it was from this very city that
Luther, hardly escaping, was carried off to his Patmos, or his
castle on the heights of the Wartburg, there, in quiet repose
and solitude, to translate his New Testament. Tyndale now
entered to print his ; to finish also in Worms, what he had com
menced in Cologne ; and to pursue his design, even after the
Testaments were off to their destination.
Of the small octavo New Testament here printed, the fruit
ful parent of so many editions, only one perfect copy of the
text remains, and no place of safe deposit in all England could
be more appropriate than Bristol, the city where Tyndale
himself used to preach. The unique fragment of the quarto
was discovered only, as it were, the other day ; but the history
of this precious small octavo volume we can trace for more than
a hundred years — and it will be found somewhat curious.
Above a century ago it formed one of the volumes in the
Harleian Library of Lord Oxford, though how long it had
been there is not known. Mr. John Murray, one of his lord
ship's collectors, had picked it up somewhere. The Earl gave
ten guineas for the book, says Mr. Ames ; twenty, says Dr.
Grifford ; but both agree that he also settled d&20 a-year for
life on Murray, who had procured it. The Earl of Oxford
died in 1741, without male issue, and his Library of printed
books was sold to Mr. Thomas Osborne for ^]3,000.'^ This
book, therefore, in the, Harleian Catalogue, prefaced by Dr.
Samuel Johnson, is thus described : —
26 A dispersion often regretted since. His Library of Manuscripts, purchased hy Government
for iSlO,OnO, forms part of our invaluable treasures in the British Museum.

68 SECOND NEW TESTAMENT. [bOOK I.
« No. 420. The New Testament, black letter, ruled with red lines, and all
the initial letters at the beginning of each book, representing the subject, finely
coloured, as likewise all the capital letters to each chapter throughout the book
adorned with different colours, and raised with gold,neatly bound in red morocco."
After such a description, Mr. Osborne, much to his own
cost, had not been aware of the rarity and value of his book,
for after thus describing it, he adds ;— " In this book no date
is left, but it appears to be Tyndale's version, and is probably
one of the editions printed in Holland, before his revisal " in
1534. Accordingly, he marked the price at no more than
fifteen shillings! At this price Mr. Ames bought it, when he
not only congratulated himself on purchasing what he styled
the Phoenix of the entire Library ; but writes, on the SOth of
June 1743, in a letter to a friend, that the annuity of twenty
pounds was yet paid to Mr. Murray, he being still alive. One
hundred pounds more, however, was still forthcoming, for the
annuity was honourably paid, until Murray's decease in 1748 !
On the 13th of May 1760, Mr. Ames' books came to be sold
by Mr. Langford, and the Testament was bought for fourteen
guineas and a half, by Mr. John Whyte the bookseller. He
possessed it sixteen years to a day, having sold it on the
13th of May 1776. On the book itself, therefore, there is
the following note in manuscript. " N.B. — This choice book
was purchased at Mr. Langford's sale, 1 3 th May 1 760, by me,
John Whyte ; and on the 13th day of May 1776, I sold it
to the Rev. Dr. Gifford for 20 guineas, the price first paid for
it by the late Lord Oxford."^''
Before proceeding farther, we now give the collation of this
beautiful and unique volume.
The book commences, like the quarto, on sign A ij. The Gospel of Matthew
to the end of Revelation occupies cccliii folios ; not 333 leaves only, as it has
been lately, but erroneously stated. On the reverse of the last is the epistle
" To the Header," occupying three pages, and then " errours committed in the
printyng." A full page contains thirty-three lines. JS.B. — There is only one
other copy in existence, in the Library of St. Paul's, but that is very imperfect ;

20 Dr. Andrew Gilford, who was also assistant librarian to the British Museum, had accumulated,
in the course of his long life, one of the most valuable collections of these ancient Bibles and New
Testaments then in the kingdom, besides many other rare books. At his death, 19th June 1784,
in the 84th year of his age, the whole came, by his bequest, to be deposited in the Baptist Museum
in Bristol, his native city. Leaving them to the denomination in which he himself, as well as
his father and grandfather, had been eminent ministers, they in Bristol and he in London, the
entire collection, with various additions, have been admirably preserved. This note will be ex
cused, as accounting for the number of rare Bibles and Testaments to be found in our List at the
close of these volumes.

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1525.] FIRST AND SECOND EDITIONS COMPARED. 69
eetive at both the beginning and end, and wanting twenty-five leaves in vari
ous places, or forty-eight in all. When first discovered by Dr. Cotton, it was
entitled on the back, « Lant's Testament," for what reason has never been divmed.
There was one Richard Lant, chaplain to Queen Anne Boleyn, but this does not
resolve the mystery. It had been recommended, that the deficient leaves should
be made up in manuscript, and the book elegantly bound ; instead of which,
and as it was, it has been miserably botched in the binding !
Here, then, are two separate editions of the New Testament,
both finished at Worms by the close of the year 1 625 ; and
printed, we believe, by Peter Schoeffer, son of the associate of
Cruttemberg and Fust.^ But on comparing one with the
other we are furnished with several important remarks, as
corroborative of all that has been already advanced.
The parties in opposition, let it be first observed, generally
mark out the quarto with glosses ; while the only distinct re
ference of Tyndale himself, is to the octavo, without them, in
his preface to the Pentateuch. The explanation is of no little
importance. The prologue and glosses, as we shall see pre
sently, excited great fear in the breast of the enemy. Thus,
when Sir Thomas More refers to the period of Tyndale's first
efforts in translating, he will have it, that " at that time he
set certain glosses in the margin;'''' an undoubted fact, though
not done, as he affirms, " at Wittenberg." In these glosses,
as well as the text itself, there was ample room for denuncia
tion, if typographical errors were to be set down as so many
heresies. " There is not so much," said Tyndale, " as one i
therein, if it lack a tittle over his head, but they have noted it,
and number it unto the ignorant people for an heresy." Tun
stal, after His return from Spain, or late in 1526, had busied
himself in marking these, till he had got up to the number of
2000 ; although more than ten times that number have been
found in one of our Testaments, printed above a hundred years
later. Now, in this view, the precious relic lately discovered,
when compared with the octavo in Bristol, affords striking
proof that the quarto sheets mast have been first printed.
The spelling, indeed, even of the octavo is irregular, as might
be expected at that early period, but still the two editions
admit of pointed comparison. Witness the following words :

37 We notice one other book, and its description, in proof of the spot. "Alle Propheten, &c.
8vo. Worms, 1S27." "In the same type as the edition of the New Testament by Tyndale, com
monly called the first, and said to be printed at Antwerp in 1526, but certainly at ITorms, the
year before."— See Bodd's Catalogue, 1843.

70 FIRST AND SECOND EDITIONS COMPARED. [bOOK I.

1. QUAHTO.

2. Octavo,

). Quarto.

2. Octavo.

prophettes

prophets.

moore

more.

moththes

mothes.

pierle^

pearles.

synners

sinners.

yooke

yoke.

mooste

most.

burthen

burden.

streached

stretched.

sekynge

seking.

In every other case, this would be at once admitted as de
cisive evidence, that the octavo followed, and did not precede
the quarto. That Tyndale should improve, as in the octavo,
was natural ; but, although it has actually been done, to sup
pose that he would spell as in the quarto, afterwards, is absurd.
That it was this quarto on which Tunstal so foolishly expati
ated, next year, at St. Paul's, after having issued his inhibi
tion, there can be little or no doubt. For, although Le Long
merely mistakes one year, he expressly states, that " his lord
ship made this reflection of no fewer than 2000 texts, on an
English translation of the New Testament, printed at Cologne
and Worms, 1526, 4to." Lewis, after quoting this, adds as
the only reason for his scepticism, " but no such edition ap
pears?'' Now, however, a sufiicient portion of it has appeared,
nearly a century after Lewis, or above three hundred years
after it was printed. This too, as already noticed, is the
identical book to which Roye alludes, when treating the hyper-
criticism of Tunstal with ridicule; it is from this prologue that
he quotes, and it is the burning of this book entire, which
Roye so graphically describes in his Satyre. " It is reported,"
said Cochlseus at the close of his statement, " that Lord Cuth
bert Tunstal, a most eloquent man, then Bishop of London,
now of Durham, when he had obtained one of these copies, pub
licly affirmed, in a most ample oration to the people of London,
that he had detected above 2000 depravations and perversions
in this one work." Tunstal, after all, was not the first who
took alarm. Far from it — he was not in England; and
though we must not anticipate, there is coming a higher de
nunciator of this very book, eight months before the Bishop,
when he was as far distant as Madrid.
Tyndale, on the contrary, alludes to the octavo edition mth-
out notes, and it was by this that he abode. This allusion,
however, let it be observed, was made in the year 1530.
Now, the truth is, and it should never have passed without
special observation by posterity, that it was upon this ground,
that Tyndale and his devoted friend Fryth, had then long

1525.]] TYNDALE'S MEMORABLE ALTERNATIVE. 71
entrenched themselves, — the Scripture without note and com
ment. " I assure you," said Tyndale, the very next year to
his Majesty's ambassador, then hunting for him on the Con
tinent, — " I assure you, if it would stand with the King's most
gracious pleasure, to grant only a bare text of the Scriptures to
be put forth among his people, I shall immediately make faithful
promise never to write more?'' And so afterwards, in ] 533, said
Fryth, upon English ground, to the Lord Chancellor More.
" But this hath been ofl^red you, is offered, and shall be off'ered. Grant that
the Word of God, I mean the text of Scripture, may go abroad in our English
tongue ; and my brother, William Tyndale, and I have done, and wUl promise
you to write no more. If you will not grant this condition, then will we be doing
while we have breath, and shew in few words, that the Scripture doth in many,
and so at the least save some."
The burning zeal of no two men born in Britain, ever had
less of self, and private interest in it, than theirs had. It
was not for glosses, or comments, that they stood and fought
so nobly, all alone. To form any mere sect, they never longed,
and they died without any such consequence following ; an
event deeply instructive, and one, which might be of infinite
importance at the present hour, were it properly understood.
It is a singular fact, that, throughout these manuscripts, the
term Tyndalietn occurs only once, in the letter of an enemy,
but it never took ; and Tyndale left the world without leaving
any circle of mere partizans to hand down his name to posterity.
Here, then, let it be observed, were our two first witnesses ;
the two men, not only first engaged in translating, but who
led the van in pleading for the Scriptures " going abroad"
without note or comment. And is there now no tribute im
peratively due to their memory and character, for having so
done ? Let the mere sectarian, of whatever name, throughout
this kingdom, make of this fact what he may; we must not,
even thus early, withhold another, which is never to be
separated from it. To their bold and first appeal, therefore,
we simply add, as an historical axiom, of the deepest import,
and one which, for three hundred years, we shall have occasion
to observe — that the Sacred text, without note and comment,
has proved not only the best mode of procedure for meeting
the enemy ; but that which time and providence have distinctly
sanctioned, down to our own day ; when it has prospered to an
extent, far, very far beyond the anticipations of the most

72 FIRST AND SECOND EDITIONS COMPARED. QboOK 1.
sanguine. Events themselves, during that long period, will
often speak, and say, or seem to say — " He that hath my
word, let him speak," and disperse " my word faithfully."
If, therefore, there had been even unbroken silence on
Tyndale's part, with respect to the quarto Testament, the cir
cumstances we have already explained, would sufficiently
account for this. His silence, we should have said, was
prudential. But let us look again, for the sake at least of
accuracy in history ; let us only once enquire, whether there
be any vestige of reference to the vexatious, but providential
interruption of the quarto book, by Cochlseus. We think
there is ; and though it be in measured language, there is, to
us now, manifestly more to be understood, than Tyndale chose
to express. What is more to the purpose, this reference is
to be found in this very epistle " To the Reader," at the
close of the octavo Testament ! Here, happily, we have an
allusion to the past — an allusion to some catastrophe — ^to
some grievous " combraunce" — to incessant toil after it, as the
result, as well as to the hope cherished of foiling his opponents ;
though he will not boast, as the printers at Cologne had done,
nor will he rehearse the matter distinctly. He then puts
this epistle " To the Reader" at the end of his book ; a
strange place, but having the advantage of contrast with the
prologue of the quarto, at the beginning, which had already
been reported to England ; and in this epistle we have the
following passage, now, we presume, no longer so ambiguous,
as it has been regarded hitherto.
" 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 faith
fully, I have interpreted it as far forth as God gave me the gift of knowledge
and understanding :2B 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 counter
feit, neither was holpen with English of any that had interpreted the same, or
such like thing in the Scripture beforetime. Moreover, even very necessity
and ccmbrOAince (God is record) above strength, which / will not rehearse, lest
we should seem to boast ourselves, caused that many things are lacking, which
necessarily are required. Count it as a thing not having his full shape, but, as
it were born afore his time, even as a thing begun rather than finished."
Now, what could this perplexity or embarrassment, this
28 The antecedent in this sentence, must be " the Scriptures,"—" tho law,"—" the Gospel,"
for the words New Testament do not once occur throughout this epistle,— a marked distinction
between it and the prologue of the quarto.

^525.] TYNDALE'S FIRST ADDRESS. 73
vexatious toil, possibly be, this combraunce above strength, of
which God was witness, if not that which we have detailed ? ^^
And what this full shape, if not the quarto before commenced,
and then nearly finished ? And what this boasting, if not the
exultation felt, when he cherished the hope of baffling his
opponents, by sending out the octavo first, it not being the
book reported, and held up to scorn ? This he might do, and
probably did ; but it was only like a man inserting the thin
end of a wedge, for he drove it home immediately with his
quarto. In his epistle, therefore, he had added, —
" In time to come, if God hath appointed us thereunto, we will give it his
full sAa;)«— desiring them that are learned and able, to remember their duty,
and to help 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."
These words sufficiently prove that the quarto was intended
to follow ; and those in italic, it will very soon be observed,
were almost the same which be had previously printed, and
with direct reference to the quarto, both here and there.
There is now only one concluding remark forcibly suggested
by comparison of the Epistle to the Reader in the octavo, with
the Prologue prefixed to the quarto. The former, brief in itself,
and abrupt in its commencement, has all the appearance of
eager despatch ; on the contrary, the opening of the quarto
Prologue, wears all the formality and precision usually adopted,
when introducing to the reader a first attempt. Witness the
commencement of the Epistle, —
" Give diligence. Reader, (I exhort thee,) that thou come with a pure mind,
aud, as the Scripture saith, with a single eye, unto the words of health, and of
eternal life : by the which, if we repent and believe them, we are bom anew,
created afresh, and enjoy the fruits of the blood of Christ."
Contrast this with the deliberate and formal language of
the Prologue, so worthy of special notice now. It has never
before been presented entire, and as it stands, since the day
on which the sheet was thrown off at Cologne. They are not
a few who will admire the modesty, the diffidence, not to say
the simple beauty of the following sentences : —

29 As to the import of combraunce, take Tyndale'suwn explanation elsewhere. "If thou wert
not brought sometime into combraunce, whence God only could deliver thee, thou shouldst
never see thy taith."— Tyndale's Works, fol. p. 111.

74 THE OPENING ADDRESS [book I.
tyndale's first language in print to the people of god in ENGLAND.
/ have here translated, brethren and sisters, most dear and tenderly be
loved in Christ, the New Testament, for your spiritvM edifying, consolation
and solace : Exhorting inMantly, and beseeching those that are better seen
in the tongues than I, and that have higher gifts of grace to interpret the
sense of the Scripture, and meaning of the Spirit, than I, to consider and
ponder my labour, and that with the spirit of meekness. And if they
perceive in any places that I have not attained the very sense of tlie tongue,
or meaning of the Scripture, or have not given the right English word,
that they put to their hands to amend it, rememiering that so is their duty
to do. For we have not received the gifts of God for ourselves only, or
for to hide them : but for to bestow them unto the honouring of God and
Christ, and edifying of the congregation, which is the body of Christ.
" The causes that moved me to translate, I thought better that others should
imagine, than thai I should rehearse them. Moreover, I supposed it
superfluous ; for who is so blind to ask, why light should be showed to
them that walk in darkness, where they cannot but stumhle, and where to
stumble, is the danger of eternal damnation ; either so despiteful that he
would envy any man (I speak not his brother) so necessary a thing ; or so
bedlam, mad as to affi/rm that good is the natural cause of evil, and darkness
to proceed out of light, and that lying should be grounded in truth and
verity ; and not rather clean contrary, that light destroyeth darkness, and
verity reproveth all manner (of) lying.
" After it had pleased God to put in my mind, and also to give me grace
to translate this forerehearsed (before mentioned) Wew Testament into our
English tongue, howsoever we have done it, I supposed it very necessary
to put you in renumbrance of certain points."^
The reader, we presume, cannot but be gratified, by a fac
simile of these words, in their original orthography. He will
observe the letter Y, then generally used for I ; which first
led to the discovery of what the fragment is ; and here he
may contemplate not merely the first page of text, in the
first sheet of a work thrown off at press, in the year 1525,
at Cologne ; but the veritable origin of all those millions of
English Scriptures now reading in so many different and dis
tant parts of the globe — ^parts, utterly unknown to our immor
tal Translator, when he sent the sheet to the press — parts, then
untrodden by any Englishman — parts, then undiscovered !^'
The last sentence of our extract, however, or that with
which the next page of the prologue begins, is full of meaning.
30 The rest, with some verbal alteration, may be seen in his tract " The pathway into the Holy
Scriptures," as printed in his Works.
31 Tho fac-simile will be found at tho close of this Work, preceding the list of Bibles.

1525.] TO HIS COUNTRY. 75
It shows that Tyndale, with all gravity, recognised no
instigator under God, and ascribed to his grace alone, the
entire glory of his work. Such had been his language in
print, before ever Cochlseus had set his foot in Cologne. But
now, that he had been so defamed by this enemy ; hear his
emphatic disclaimer from Worms. " Beseeching the learned
to consider that he had no man to follow as an example,
neither was holpen with English of any that had interpreted
the same, or such like thing in the Scripture before time." Sir
Thomas More had read this, though he did not choose, as it
was not convenient, to believe it. But surely, if any individual
of that age may be regarded as an agent, walking indepen
dently of his fellows, it will turn out to have been our English
exile. A man of manners, morals, prudence, parts,
Unpatronis'd, and therefore little known, —
a man, whose character and powerful talents have been so
grievously misrepresented, and so misunderstood, up to the
present hour. We only hope that the following pages may
have some effect in redeeming his memory from that state of
mere pupilage, or reliance on the German Reformer, which if
not true in point of fact, ought to have been corrected, at least
in England, long ago ; as well as from that " confederacy with
Luther," first forged by the enemy for the vilest of purposes,
and then so simply received and retailed by his countrymen,
from John Foxe downwards.
We are now just upon the eve of returning into England,
after spending two years abroad, in company with our
Translator ; but before we do return — before the uproar and
the consternation begin — before the wrath of 1526 burst out —
while these precious volumes are only coming over that sea,
which Tyndale had passed over to send ; and before either the
quarto or octavo had arrived in our native land ; there is one
additional event which must not be omitted even here, though
it has to be explained more distinctly three months hence, at
the moment of its occurrence.
If there was any advantage anticipated by Tyndale, from
sending over the octavo without notes " now at the first
time" — if it was indeed so sent — there must have ensued a
second momentary disappointment. If there was any device
or contrivance adopted, then it certainly failed, completely

76 QUARTO TESTAMENT THE FIRST CONDEMNED. [book I.
failed ! This quarto, with glosses, had been the first-born of
his imagination, and we have seen that his whole heart was
set upon giving the sacred text, what was strangely styled
" its full shape?'' But the Divine Author will as distinctly
say nay in London, as he had already done at Cologne ! For,
after all, we shall find next year, that this quarto book was
first held up in warning to the people. The book " with
glosses and prefaces" was first condemned, — condemned, too,
by no less authority than that of Henry "VIII. himself,
with Wolsey's full concurrence, if not his advice, — and con
demned eight months before either Tunstal or Warham held
up also the octavo, without notes, for destruction.
Tyndale certainly intended that the book with glosses should
follow " in time to come," however short. Providence caused
it to precede, and, at the same time, over-ruled it as a decoy
for several months ! All that time, therefore, the precious
little volume must have been fulfilling its commission, and
passing into its hiding place in unknown directions !
Nor is the curious fact of the New Testament " with glosses
and prefaces" being first condemned, and then passing into
oblivion through all history, for above three hundred years,
an event carrying no instruction or monition. Quite the re
verse. All who venerate Divine Revelation in its purity,
will remember that this was the commencement of a new era
for Britain, more important than she had ever witnessed,
or in truth has witnessed since. Comments, therefore, or
glosses, additions of man's devising, professedly to make the
sacred language more intelligible than that of its Divine
Author, or turn it to a certain meaning, were not to be treated
as of small account. As matter of history they were not, and
have not been so treated. These glosses sunk the book into
the shades ; just as those notes, sometimes styled contemptu
ously the Geneva spectacles, afterwards operated on that
otherwise valuable translation.
Never, then, let it pass unobserved, how soon, and how
clearly, Tyndale and Fryth saw through this ; how soon our
Translator put the King of England upon the alternative of
receiving, or not receiving, the sacred text alone; or how
decidedly, and upon English ground, Fryth repeated the bold
appeal to the Lord Chancellor, Sir Thomas More. The war
fare was at once reduced to a single point. Receive, or not re-

1525.] THE FIRM AND PINAL ALTERNATIVE. 77
ceive, the Sacred Volume, without note or comment ; so that
we have now to witness the man who, by way of eminence,
fought on one side, and the men who, by way of eminence, or
we might say the nation, who fought against him. This im
portant fact not only affords us a notable commencement to
our history, but it will connect itself, very powerfully, with the
close of this work, or the larger movements of the present day.
If, then, we are about to see one man stand up in such a
position as this, can it be necessary to bespeak the indulgence
or the attention of any reader, to every movement of his hand
and pen, every step of his progress, or every day of his life 2
To do him justice, however, at his outset, the state of his
native country since he left it, must not pass unnoticed.
Two years have now passed away since Tyndale left his country, for his
country's benefit, and the day drew near, when she was about to
" Beceive advantage from his noiseless hours.
Of which she little dreamt."
But since the entrance of the Word of God into this kingdom must be
regarded as an event superior in importance to every other, one is curious
to know what was the state of the world immediately preceding it ; or what
had taken place in England and the Continent, since Tyndale left London.
If we first look abroad, without offence to the sovereigns of the day, in
cluding the Pontiff himself, Wolsey and Bourbon must still be regarded
aa the leading characters. Thus, if the specious plan of Bourbon, for
the overthrow of France, in the autumn of 1523, entirely failed, there is
no plausible reason to be assigned, except the double policy of the Car
dinal, for he only feigned to support him. At one time abandoning the
King of France, that the Emperor might exalt him to the Popedom, he
might have remained steady ; but Charles having had good reason to
suspect the sincerity of his ambitious expectant, no sooner was Clement
VII. chosen from the Emperor's party, than Wolsey had decidedly
changed his policy. " This blow," says Turner, " to Wolsey's dearest
hopes, which he had taken some (if not great) pains to prevent, he could
neither retrieve, forgive, nor forget."
As he proceeds, therefore, it will be to play bis usual double game.
Thus, in May 1524, when another plan to conquer France was settled,
and Bourbon was called to take the oath of fealty to Henry VIII., if
England and the Emperor promise to supply Mm with money ; then
Bourbon must engage to cross the Alps with his army, while Henry with
his troops were to land in Picardy, and Margaret, the Regent of the Low
Countries, was to send an auxiliary supply from Flanders. As early as
the end of June, not only Bourbon, but Richard Pace, our ambassador,

78 ENGLAND JUST BEFORE [bOOK I.
then also with this army, were in sanguine hopes of success. Urging
Wolsey to fulfil his part of the treaty, — " If ye wUl not fetch the crown
of France,'' said Pace, " we will bring the same unto you." — " If the
King," said Bourbon, " will personally enter into France, I will give his
Grace leave to pluck out both my eyes, if he be not Lord of Paris, before
All hallowtide ; and Paris taken, all the realm of France is his." In
July, Pace is stiU more urgent. " Sir," said he, even to Wolsey, " to
speak to you boldly, if ye do not regard the premises, I will impute to
your Grace the loss of the crown of France." The general and the am
bassador were alike bent on a straightforward course, according to previous
agreement ; but this being a path in which Wolsey never trod, he hated
both the advisers. Immediately rebuking the poor ambassador, he drove
him into poverty, and ultimately to madness, for he died a lunatic.
Nay, so far from co-operation, Wolsey was cordially settling with the
Pontiff, that neither Henry nor Charles should accomplish their object !
The Popedom Wolsey yet might reach, but Prance and England, under
one crown, would have been too much for any Pope to manage ! Yet,
amidst aU the fray, we can now see the Almighty making the wrath of
man to praise Him ; for this very hatred of Wolsey to the Duke of
Bourbon, was the occasion, ere long, of Rome itself being sacked by
soldiers of the Romish faith, and the Pope imprisoned.
There were few men then living who saw so clearly through the
double dealings of Wolsej as did William Tyndale ; and his remarks
written during the Cardinal's life-time, and published in the year of his
death, are the more to be respected. " We sent our soldiers," says Tyn
dale, " two summers against the French, unto whose captains the Car
dinal had appointed, how far they should go, and what they should do ;
and therefore the French King was nothing afraid, but brought all his
power against the Emperor in other places ; and so was the Emperor
ever betrayed. Thus the Cardinal was his friend openly, and the French
King's secretly — for no love that he had to France, but to help the Pope,
and to have been Pope haply, and to save their kingdom."
It is singular enough that this extraordinary course of perfidy and
dissimulation on the part of Wolsey, with his hireling ambassadors, has
never been sifted and exposed, with any precision, till our own day.
Even Strype, without a word of reprobation, strangely called it " his
great dexterity in the managery of public affairs, and the fineness of his
policy ;" but in February 1525, Bourbon, at one stroke, exposed the
whole to public view. " Before this, indeed," says Tyndale, " all the
world smelled it, but it brake not out openly to the eye till the siege of
Pavia.'' The King of France, at the head of his army, was then in
Italy. There were two courses before him, either that of pursuing his
enemy wherever he found him, or besieging the towns he had fortified.
Now Bourbon had, with great success, followed the former course, but

1525.] RECEIVING THE SCRIPTURES. 79
failed in the latter at Marseilles in 1523. Yet, with this example be
fore his eyes, and even wishing to follow it, as if infatuated to his own
ruin, the King resolved to proceed in besieging one place after another.
" Thus unto the siege of Pavia," says Tyndale, " came the French King
personally, with sixty thousand men of war, of which twelve thousand
were horsemen, and with money enough; while the Emperor's host,"
(commanded by Bourbon,) " was under twenty thousand, of which were
but three thousand horsemen, with no money at all." But though the
Pope kept back his men, and the Cardinal his money, the French army
was annihilated, and its King became the prisoner of the Emperor for
nearly thirteen long months. " And there came out all the Cardinal's
privy treason ; for in the French King's tent were letters found, and in
the French King's treasure, and in all the host among the soldiers,
English yoM, which had come a thousand miles by land l"^^ Thus, at
last, in the net which this ambitious man " had hid, was his own foot
taken ; he was snared in the work of his own hands." To keep up the
farce a little longer, it is true, on Sunday the 12th of March, there was
Henry VIIL, with the ambassadors, at St. Paul's, and Wolsey singing
Mass with eleven prelates in his train, and the choir chanting Te Deum
for the Victory of Pavia. But from what soon followed, we may " con
jecture," says Tyndale, " with what heart our spirituaUty, with their in
visible secrets, sang Te Deum."
Before this event, the Emperor had suspected Wolsey. His suspicions
were now at an end ; for though the Cardinal, to counteract him, craftily
concluded a separate peace with the King of France, in September 1625,
knitting the Pope and the Venetians together with him, yet after the
battle of Pavia, the power of this ambitious man certainly began to
wane.33 For years he had played with both hands ; with one, he
governed the Kings of Europe ; with the other, the Pope himself, and
all his concerns. By his enchantments having once succeeded in re
ducing his own Sovereign to little more than a mere puppet, he felt that
he could expatiate on a wider field. In papers which still remain, he
professes that he had only in view " the peace and harmony of Christen
dom ;" his real object was, so to manage the powers of Europe, as that
he himself might ultimately be seated in the papal chair. By night
and by day this was his undeviating pursuit. But, in the end, he only
exposed himself to the contempt of foreign princes, and sunk the cha
racter of his own government ; while as for the Popedom, Bourbon was
about to shew that his sword was more powerful than all the thunders
of the Vatican, or even the pen and the policy of Wolsey.
82 The coin at that period denominated angels, of which Tyndale facetiously says — " But
what wonder— the coin had wings to fly into far countries, and to mount to the top of high Jiills."
33 Turner could find no letters from Charles to Wolsey in 1525, among the MSS. in the
British Museum. The first after the battle of Pavia is dated SOth November 1526. — it is a com
plimentary reply to Wolsey.

80 ENGLAND JUST BEFORE [bOOK I.
The Cardinal never reached the summit of his ambition, but he may
be viewed at the height of all his arrogance just before this decisive
battle. In the end of 1524, though it would have been death to another
man, we find him lecturing and upbraiding the Pope himself, till he
made him change from a smile to a sigh, on receiving what his ambas
sador, the Bishop of Bath, called " sour sauce sweetly powdered," — the
Cardinal reproached him with all his leagues, whether offensive or de
fensive, and said by them God had stricken and sent affliction to the
holy Church ! In short, before Wolsey, at this period, the Popedom
was but a shadow ; doomed, instead of obedience, to receive lectures,
till he made Clement stoop to apologise from that chair, before which
monarchs had so often trembled. As for the civil powers, in the spring
of 1525, his insolence knew no bounds. He had not only used sharp
words to the ambassadors of the Emperor, then in England, and insulted
them, but styled the Emperor " a liar, observing no manner of faith or
promise" — his aunt, the Lady Margaret, Regent of the Low Countries,
he said was a "ribald" — ^his brother Ferdinand was a "child, and so go
verned," and the Duke of Bourbon " a traitor." To crown all, this was
language spoken of parties with whom he and his Sovereign were pro
fessedly, and by treaty, on friendly terms ! What, then, must have
been Wolsey's mortification, when even his chosen friend Tunstal,
Bishop of London, as well as Sir Richard Wingfield, and Dr. Sampson,
whom he had sent as ambassadors into Spain, were obliged to convey to
him such severe censures from the imperial mouth, at their very first in
terview in June 1525. " It were good," said Tunstal, "to wrrite a letter
to the Emperor of your own hand, to declare the mistaking of the mat
ter. It were good to give them good words for good words, keeping secret
your thoughts, as they do." And this was a Bishop's advice ! But al
most all Wolsey's agents were practised deceivers as well as himself.
It was well, therefore, that the degradation of this lofty and unprin
cipled man, should have at least commenced just before the introduc
tion of the Word of God into our country. Divine Providence was pre
paring the way for its entrance, which wUl be still more apparent when
we turn our eye for a few moments to the state of England.
As soon as we look at home, and enquire for the leading features of
the time, in 1524, and especially 1525, we find them to be discontent
and agitation. These were general throughout the country, but espe
cially visible in London. The cause is easily explained. Part of the
Cardinal's policy consisted in having several ambassadors at the same
Court ; one of these inferior or subordinate, professedly to give dignity
to the others, but in fact a creature of his own, acting at once as an
agent to advance his own personal interests, and as a spy on the pro
ceedings of his companions in the embassy. These ambassadors, at
every foreign Court, had to send double despatches, one for the King,

1525.] RECEIVING THE SCRIPTURES. 81
his nominal master, and another for his own eye alone ! Abundance of
these exist in the British Museum, but they are, in no case, copies of
each other. These men, of course, were all to be upheld in their dignity
abroad ; while he himself, at home, having confessedly an extraordinary
taste for building, and a very childish one for the most extravagant dis
play, required immense sums. The bribes, therefore, the presents, the
pensions, or foreign annuities, which he contrived to secure for himself,
can never be enumerated. But we have yet to look at his official ex
penditure in carrying on such war abroad. Honesty, in every sense, is
the best pohcy, and so it is the cheapest ; but the double policy of
Wolsey would have beggared more kingdoms than his own. His ulti
mate object, no doubt, was one — to gain the Popedom ; but in order to
this, it seemed to him essential that France and Spain should be kept
in a state of perpetual discord ; that his own master nominally, yet him
self in reality, might hold the balance of Europe. But if the game was
double, both parties must be paid. " And accordingly," says Tyndale,
" the Cardinal lent much money to the Emperor openly," with whom he
was professedly in union, " but gave the French King more secretly,"
with whom he was professedly at war ! Such a course, it is evident,
must have been enormously expensive ; and it is not wonderful that the
demands became so exorbitant as to exceed the power of endurance.
If, by such perfidious policy abroad, Wolsey was sinking the moral cha
racter of his country ; by his cruel exactions at home, he was goading
the people into such a state of discbntent, as bordered on rebelUon.
The Cardinal's high demands for pecuniary supplies had commenced
while Tyndale was yet sojourning in London. Hitherto he had dealt in
" loans," taken from the most wealthy, and never to be repaid ; but, in
1622, having tried to ascertain, by a general survey, the capability of the
people to bear taxation ; in 1523, after falsely affirming that Henry was
driven to war and defence, Wolsey .intimated that a sum of not less than
£800,000 was wanted, by a general tax out of the fifth part of every
man's land and goods. It was still, however, denominated a loan, and
Sir Thomas More finally united with him, saying, that " of duty men
ought not to deny to pay four shillings in the pound." Ere long, com
mencing with the clergy, after haughtily reprimanding the refractory
members of the Convocation, Wolsey, by virtue of his legantine authority,
overawed the whole body ; and, coming down to the Commons, demand
ed .£800,000 ! The sum, however, was alleged to exceed the entire cur
rency of the realm, and nothing is more probable, for all things considered
it was equal to about ten or twelve millions sterling of our present coin I
A committee was appointed to remonstrate, and propose the half. Wolsey
at once dismissed them, and came down again, in all his pomp and glory,
to intimidate the House of Commons. This led to a discussion which
continued for sixteen days in succession, when three-fourths of the
VOL. I. F

82 ENGLAND JUST BEFORE [bOOK I.
original demand were ultimately voted, and to be paid in four years.
The Cardinal, however, by what was called an anticipation, compelled
many to pay the whole, and at once, and never summoned another Parlia
ment ; nor was another assembled till seven years afterwards.
We come now to the year 1625, when, certainly, nothing could be
more contemptible — and, if the consequences had not been so serious,
more ridiculous — ^than the position into which Wolsey had brought his
country. It was a crisis occasioned solely by his mad ambition for the
chair at Rome. On the 12th of March, as already noticed, in solemn
mockery, he had sung Te Deum for the victory at Pavia, and a despatch
from Bourbon himself to the King, four days after, had fully confirmed
all the fatal results of that battle. The embassy, with his confidential
friend Tunstal at its head, must be despatched into Spain, with the pro
fessed design of recovering the French King from imprisonment ; but
the escape of Praet, the Spanish ambassador at our court, who embarked
for Spain while Tunstal was waiting for a fair wind, and first reached
the Emperor, put him on his guard against all delusion.
Wolsey, however, must go on, if it be possible, in his deceitful course
at home, as well as abroad. With matchless effi-ontery, therefore, he
calls the Mayor and Aldermen of London, with some principal Common
ers ; and in a long oration, abounding with falsehood, he boasts of having
sent 100,000 crowns to Bourbon to fight this battle ;** that the King,
our master, thought it " more mastery to use victory gotten, than to get
it," so that, " contrary to his own mind and will, but compelled of very
force, he was determined to enter into a new war," — " that an army-
royal must be made, and he in person pass the seas, to recover his right
ful inheritance, and the crown of France ! " Of course he spoke not a
word of the English gold sent secretly to support Francis ; and, pro
bably, he was not yet aware that his illicit correspondence with him had
been found in the royal tent, after the battle ; but, however, seizing the
popularity of the moment, he proceeded by illegal commissions to extort
more money, and then the grand and final pressure came.
Now, every man was to be valued again, and, as if nothing before had
been exacted from him, according to the valuation taken in 152|. Com
missioners, the greatest men in every county, were appointed by Wolsey
himself, to collect the sixth part of every man's substance, and in no
wise to swerve one jot, on pain of their hves ! Commissioners were also
sent to the clergy, for the fourth part of theh lands and moveables ; but
in every assembly, the priests replied that they would pay nothing, except

34 Tyndale insists that the money was withheld by Wolsey. " Howbeit there be that say, that
the Emperor's soldiers so threatened Pace, our King's ambassador, that he was fain to bargain
with merchants for money in the King's name to pay the soldiers ; wherefore tho Cardinal took
from him all his promotion, and played tormentors with him when ho came home." As already
stated. Pace died insane.

1525.] RECEIVING THE SCRIPTURES. 83
it were ordered by a Convocation. They insisted that this commission
was contrary to law, and that the Cardinal, and all his agents, were
enemies to the King and the commonwealth. " This infamy," says Hall,
" was spoken in preachings and every where." The Commissioners, how
ever, were still sitting in March and April, and Wolsey was straining
every nerve to cajole the Londoners, the Common Council, and the Mayor.
At first he had the effrontery to say—" Forsooth, I think that half your
substance were too little, not meaning that the King so asketh ;" yet
after this he must crouch and flatter them, and finally come down in his
demands. But the people were now exasperated, and so much so, that
the proposal of collecting money from them by way of benevolence, sug
gested by the King himself, was alike in vain. The Aldermen and
Council were in a fury — In Kent, the people muttered and grudged, and
said that they would pay nothing — In Essex, they would not appear
before the Commissioners except in their own way — In Huntingdon,
various parties would not allow the Commissioners to sit at all — In
Norfolk, its Duke remonstrated with the insurgents, desiring an explana
tion through their captain ; when an elderly man begged permission
to reply, and commenced his sensible address thus, " My Lord, our
Captain is Poverty, he and his cousin Necessity have brought us to this
doing." — In Suffolk, there was open insurrection ! In short, " when this
matter was opened in England," says the contemporary historian, " how
the great men took it, was marvel ; the poor cursed, the rich repugned,
the light wits railed ; but, in conclusion, all people cursed the Cardinal
and his co-adherents, as subversors of the laws and liberty of England."
At last the King interposed ; he denied the knowledge of these severe
levies. Wolsey tried to exonerate himself, but Henry blamed him for
all this turmoil, and ordered the Commissioners to cease. " I will no
more of this trouble,'' said his Majesty, " let letters be sent to all shires,
that this matter may no more be spoken of. I will pardon all that have
denied, secretly or openly." The nobility rejoiced, and the people shouted
" God save the King," but would hear no praise of the lofty ecclesiastic.
Thus did Henry most happily prevent " that disloyalty and danger, which,
in the events that followed, might have overturned his throne."
To the art of war, with all its horrors and bloodshed, even as thus
foully conducted, Wolsey had entertained no objection whatever. The
enormous expense thus entailed upon his country, was to him of no
account, so long as he could govern the hostile movements by his pen.
But now, the art oiprintingh.a,d made him tremble ; and, though a scholar
himself, the rising repubUc of letters was to his eye no welcome vision.
He must try and provide against all danger, as best he might ; for he had
penetration sufficient to discern, that his Cardinal's hat, nay, the hier
archy itself, and the authority of the Mass, were alike in jeopardy. Hence,
without doubt, his intended College at Oxford. Amidst all the toil and

84 ENGLAND JUST BEFORE [book I.
tortuous policy of these two busy years, he had never lost sight of it ;
but to represent him, on this account, as the beneficent friend of learn
ing, would discover a very superficial view of his character. Lord
Herbert's belief as to Wolsey's intentions, was certainly the only correct
one. The discovery of printing having contributed greatly to the revival
of learning in Europe, Herbert supposes that Wolsey had stated the
effects of this new art to the Pontiff, thus ; — " That his Holiness could not
be ignorant what divers effects this new invention of printing had pro
duced. For as it had brought in and restored books and learning, so to
gether it had been the occasion of those sects and schisms, which daily
appeared in the world, but chiefly in Germany. And that which particu
larly was most to be lamented, they had exhorted lay and ordinary men to
read the Scriptures, and to pray in their vulgar tongue ; and if this were
suffered, besides all other dangers, the common people at last might come
to beheve that there was not so much use for the clergy. For if men
were once persuaded that they could make their own way to heaven, and
that prayers in their native and customary language might pierce heaven,
as well as Latin, how much would the authority of the Mass fall ? How
prejudicial might this prove to all our ecclesiastical orders ? For this
purpose, since printing could not be put down, it were best to set up
learning against learning ; and by introducing able persons to dispute,
to suspend the laity betwixt fear and controversies. This, at the worst,
would yet make them attentive to their superiors and teachers."^
The original letter of Longland, aheady quoted, fully corroborates the
whole of this statement ; and besides we know that the Pontiff himself,
formerly Bishop of Worcester, rejoiced exceedingly over this projected
College. It was in perfect consonance with his taste, and he lent it, as
we shall see, his most cordial and effectual aid.
In 1523, we left Henry VIII. and his Queen, Longland and Wolsey,
rejoicing in the prospect of this school of learning, with all its subtile
advantages. When the Cardinal had an end in view, he was not long in
finding means, and then all steps were lawful in his estimation ; nay, he
had a method of his own, by which he could make them appear to be
meritorious at the moment. Thus, in order to his immediate commence
ment of the projected buildings, he applied to Rome ; " where," says
Burnet, " he was then so much considered as a Pope of another world,
that whatever he desired he easily obtained." Therefore, on the 3d of
April 1624, Clement, by a Bull, gave him authority to suppress the
monastery of St. Frideswide at Oxford, and carry the monks elsewhere
to make room for the students. To this the King assented on the 19th
of April.^ In the following year there came another Bull, giving him
leave to enrich his College by suppressing twenty-two priories and nun-

25 Herbert's Henry VIII., p. 147. so 14 Reg., 2 Part. Bot. Pal.

1525.] RECEIVING THE SCRIPTURES. 85
neries ; but the fact is, that Wolsey having once obtained the Pope's
sanction, was resolved to proceed, as legate, of his own will, and he
actually went on till he had iissolyed forty-one. He was only restrained
by an admonition from the King. In a letter to the Cardinal, written
with his own hand, and still extant, Henry says : —
" As touching the help of religious houses to the building of your College, I
would it were more, so it be lawfully ; for surely, there is great murmuring of
it, throughout all the realm, both good and bad. They say, not that all that is ill-
gotten, is bestowed upon the College ; but that tlie College is the cloak for cover
ing all mischiefs." After specifying one description of malversation, the King
adds, — " Wherefore, you thus monished by him who so entirely loveth you, I
doubt not, will desist, not only from this, but from all other things which should
tangle the same."
There is certainly some appearance here of the Royal confidence be
ginning to shake, but the King was pleased with his design on the whole,
and Wolsey yet continued to have great influence over him. About two
years must pass away before Henry used these remarkable words, — " The
hand that made him, can destroy him when it Usts."
So much with regard to the buildings to be erected, and which in the end,
however, were never completed according to the magnificent scale laid
down. But the men to be selected, the men with whom he was to com
mence his crusade of learning against learning, had aheady engaged
Wolsey's most earnest solicitude, and all his discrimination ; as it was
through them alone he could gain his end. Educated in Magdalen
College, Oxford, and where, at the early age of fifteen, Wolsey was ad
mitted to the degree of bachelor of arts, no proofs are wanting of his re
putation as a scholar. He was therefore well able to ascertain, who,
among all that came before him, were most likely to serve his purpose.
At least so has Shakespeare sung his praise.
" He was a scholar, and a ripe and good one ;
Exceeding wise, fair spoken, and persuading ;
Lofty and sour to them that loved him not.
But to those men that sought him, sweet as summer."
Wolsey commenced by naming the Dean, Dr. John Hygdon, and
eighteen canons, men of reputed learning chosen out of the other
colleges at Oxford. Aided by Hygdon and Dr. Capon, afterwards the
head of his school at Ipswich, he added others dehberately. The most
expert and learned were alone to be selected as students — the kingdom
was searched, and in 1524, the Cardinal himself having paid a visit to
Cambridge, that University had to yield up its most choice young men.
He aimed, in short, at gathering the talent of England into one focus,
intending to maintain or promote certain ecclesiastical purposes, which
lay very near his heart, — for his " poor College at Oxford," found a place
among the wailings of his last days.

86 ENGLAND BEFORE RECEIVING THE SCRIPTURES. [^BOOK I.
By a comparison of Wood's Annals of the University of Oxford, with
his Athense Oxoniensis, and Foxe's Acts and Monuments, we find the
following names among those selected from 1623 to December 1525.
Of those selected in Oxfoed, we can only specify Thomas Canner,
Peter Garsius, a foreigner, John Tooker, Richard Champion, John Pier-
son,  Leighton ; and from Boston, Richard Taverner ; but from Cam-
BRiDOE, Robert Sherton, Thomas Curthope, Richard Cox, John Clarke,
John Fryer, Godfrey Harman, Henry Sumner, William Belts, Johk
Fryth, William Baity,  Goodman,  Radley, Miclmel Drwmm,
and Thomas Lawney?^
If the eminence to which most of these students rose in future life be
observed, it affords a convincing proof that the Cardinal had made no mis
take as to talent ; but it wUl be observed, that we have printed most of
their names in italic ; the reason is, that these men will appear again, and
before long, all in one group ; though in a character very different indeed,
from that which was contemplated by the founder of Cardinal CoUege.
As this brief survey of the political world is not unimportant in itself,
so, in the result, it will appear to be not unconnected with the introduc
tion of the Sacred Scriptures into our native land. It has shown that the
character of their grand opponent, and who seemed to possess power quite
sufficient to have excluded them, had sustained a severe shock abroad,
which it never recovered. His perfidy had sunk him in the estimation
not only of the Regent of the Low Countries, but in that of her subjects,
from whence the English Scriptures were to be imported. At home, among
a people exasperated, who now hated him, less regard would be paid to
his thundering anathemas ; and as for his favourite school of learning,
of which he had intimated at Oxford, through Longland, while Tyndale
was yet in London, — " that as he had begun, so he would found a College
for two hundred Students, and seven Lecturers, and endow them with
honest and comfortable salaries, and make their University the most glori
ous inthe universe,'' we have yet to see whether it hindered or advanced
the cause of divine truth, which Tyndale, all alone upon the Continent,
had so much at heart.

S7 It may be observed, that double the number of canons now named were Cambridge men.
Fourteen were brought from Cambridge, Tyndale's last residence, to Oxford, where he had ex
pounded Sciipturc to the students and fellows of Magdalen College: or the College where
Wolsey himself had formerly studied, and where, as a Master, he had been teacher of MagdakMi
Grammar School : associating, at that time, with Erasmus.

SECTION III.
MEMORABLE INTRODUCTION OF THE NEW TESTAMENT INTO ENGLAND  THE
TWO FIRST EDITIONS-^THE FIRST ALARM IN LONDON, OXFORD, CAMBRIDGE
 THE FIRST BURNING OF BOOKS  NEW TESTAMENT DENOUNCED BY THE
KING AND WOLSEY  THEN BY TUNSTAL AND WARHAM  THE THIRD
EDITION  VIOLENT CONTENTION RESPECTING IT  BURNING IT ABROAD
AND AT HOME  BUT IN VAIN.
That interesting period when the Word of God, printed in
our native tongue, was first found in England, had now arrived.
It was in January 1526. On the banks of the Rhine, Tyndale
had finished his New Testaments at the press, but how was
it possible for them ever to be conveyed into our country ?
Had not Rincke and Cochlseus warned the Cardinal himself,
the King, and the Bishop of Rochester, that they might " with
the greatest diligence take care" lest one of them should come
into any port in all England I They certainly had, and in
good time, so that it is no fault of theirs, if all opposing parties
were not now on the alert. Yet here are the dreaded books,
and upon English ground, and not only in the metropolis, but
in both universities, to say nothing, at this moment, of the
country at large I
It is natural, however, first to enquire whether there were
any circumstances, at the moment, favourable to their intro
duction. Of all other men, the two most able and most likely
to have prevented their arrival, or immediately suppressed
them, were Wolsey and Tunstal, the Bishop of London. But
the former was now completely engrossed by affairs of state
policy, both abroad and at home — abroad he was urging, nay,
rousing the French Cabinet to renewed war with the Emperor;
at home, he was concluding peace with Scotland, and also
busily engaged in reforming his master's household, or framing
what were called " the Statutes of Eltham." The Bishop of
London was not in the country, having been happily removed
out of the way eight months before ; he was still ambassador
in Spain, and not to return till August or September ; so that
his name never should have been associated, as it has gener
ally been, with the first reception of Tyndale's New Testament.
More than this, the winter was peculiarly unhealthy, and

88 FIRST ARRIVALS. [boOK I.
such was the alarm created by great mortality, that the courts
had been adjourned — the authorities were out of the way — the
King was keeping his Christmas at Eltham, in private, with a
few friends, " for in the King's house," says Halle, " this was
called the still Christmas" — and Wolsey, after carousing at
Richmond for a few days, had to attend His Majesty on busi
ness at Eltham, from the 8th to the 22d of January,
Such a conjunction of circumstances but seldom occurred,
and, without straining a point, they may surely be regarded
as providential ; for they afibrded certain opportunities, which,
we shall find, had been most busily improved. So easily can
the Divine Being " scatter the proud in the imagination of
their hearts," when he is about to " exalt them of low degree."
The country had been first long harassed by oppressive and
vexatious exactions, to carry on expensive foreign wars, and
now it is assailed by disease and death ! Such was the period
chosen by Infinite Wisdom to introduce the Word of Life,
that " sovereign balm for every wound !" England's surest
hope, the true secret of all her future stability, and the only
security for it still.
/ The earliest importations of these precious volumes would
' furnish a very curious subject of enquiry. The various methods
adopted for several years in order to secure their entrance into
this country, can never now, indeed, be fully detailed ; but
the conveyance of Tyndale's New Testaments into England
and Scotland, with other books illustrative of the Sacred
Volume, could only the half be told, would form one of the
most graphic stories in English history. No siege, by sapping
and mining, which Britain has ever since achieved, could
furnish the tenth part of the incident, or evince half the
courage, by which she was herself assailed. But the materials
have never yet been examined and compared, with that re
gard to accuracy as to names, and succession as to events,
which would have brought out some of the finest specimens of
faith and fortitude and persevering zeal.
From what particular port on the Continent the first copies
were sent, and to what port in England they came, may re
main for ever a secret. The probability is, that some came
from Antwerp, while others were sent from Worms down the
xRhine through Holland, and so from different places. yBe this
as it may, we know for certain of two gentlemen, who engaged

1 52G.] FIRST ALARM. 89
in very early, if not the first, active measures as to the im
portation itself; namely, Simon Fysh, of Gray's Inn, London,
and George Herman, a citizen of Antwerp, and merchant in
the English house there ; while, during this month of Janu
ary 1526, we shall find that not a few of the most learned
young men in England were eagerly perusing Tyndale's first
productions. Nothing then, however, could have been more
unlikely, than that London and both the Universities should be
in a ferment the very first week after that month had expired.
It was on the 2d of February, that an insignificant incident
gave birth to the first great alarm. It well deserves, there
fore, to be noticed. Simon Fysh, already mentioned, a native
of Kent, after receiving his education at Oxford, had taken up
his residence as a lawyer in Gray's Inn, London. A play, or
tragedy, as Foxe calls it, composed by a Mr. Roo or Row, of
the same Inn, in one part of which Wolsey thought himself
deeply impugned, was about to be acted in private ; and this
part, after others through fear had declined, Fysh undertook
to perform. He did so once, but never could a second time,
for " the same night that this tragedy was played," Fysh was
compelled to leave his own house, and finally escape to the
Continent. How often did the Cardinal, with all his sagacity,
put forth his hand to his own downfall ? Though, confessedly,
a deep politician, he was far from understanding the policy of
non-interference. This attempt at apprehension must have oc
curred before the end of 1523, if it be correct, as Foxe affirms,
that " the next year following" he composed the tract entitled
" the Supplication of Beggars."^ Mr. Fysh is stated to have
been with Tyndale abroad, and if so, " the little treatise" which
Munmouth depones that Tyndale " sent to him from Ham
burgh in 1524, when he sent for his money," may have been
this publication, if it was not the gospel of Matthew. But,
whether the one or the other, the " Supplication" must have
been in existence in 1525, from what we know of its history.
In the shape of a " Supplication," addressed " to the King

1 " Scripait," says Tanner, " ad regem Hour. VIII. A. MDxxiv." " Compyled by Symon
Kyshe, anno nicccccxxiv.," is printed on the title of the " Supplication of the poor Commons,
1546."— Herbert's Ames, iii. p. 1537. John Foxe, with all his assiduity, was no chronologist.
The substance of his narrative often furnishes a certain key to the precise year, but a few years
here or there he often treats in his own quaint style. Thus, in the narrative respecting Fyshe,
which is after all confused, he says, "the missing of a few years in this matter breaketh no great
square in our story, though it be now entered here, which should have come in six years before."

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

2 George Eliot or Elyot, a mjin well known afterwards both to George Constantyne and Lord
Crumwell ; and referred to by tlic former, under 1539,

152().] FIRST ALARM IN LONDON. 91
King Henry the Eighth, for him to read and peruse." This
was on Friday the 2d of February 1526. Many copies might
be thus disposed of, but, by another account, they had been
scattered about the streets by night.
The moment of alarm had now come. This very trivial
incident bad excited the greatest fear and dread ! Wolsey
immediately went to his Majesty, complaining of " divers
seditious persons having scattered abroad books containing
manifest errors, desiring his Grace to beware of them ;" but
what must have been his mortification, when the King, putting
his hand into his bosom, and taking out one of these very
books, delivered it into his hands ! At this period Henry
was not a little gratified by any information which he could
procure, independently of his domineering Prime Minister.
Wolsey, once roused, became fully awake to the importance
of his intentions in the year 1523. Engrossed as he had been
with political affairs, some of these intentions had remained
unfulfilled. But now there was to be " the secret search?'' and
in divers places at one time, and a sermon to be preached, by
Fisher, the very man whom Henry had then named. It was
resolved to strike terror into the heart of the enemy, and give
one vital stab to all that was now run down under the nick
name of Lutheranism ; for divine truth had been slowly gain
ing its way, and was now to spread, as it had done, independ
ently of Luther. The fact is, that the crusade, under whicii
our country long groaned and bled, was about to begin ; and
as the authorities of the day were now going to treat the
people of God after the primitive fashion, when they first put
them in bear skins, and then baited them, a word of terror was
wanting. Lollard, had been the term for above a hundred
years, as it especially was under Longland, in 1521 ; but
Lutheranism was now a far more efi"ectual, because opprobrious,
epithet ; involving all those who either read the Scriptures,
or appealed to them as authority.
Before, however, we can rightly understand the course of
events, the evidence afforded by original manuscripts, by Foxe
and Strype, Bishop Tanner and Anthony AVood, as well as
two or three other authorities, must be carefully compared.
After this, when wo look at London, Oxford, and Cambridge,
as well as the country at large, a scene, full of the deepest
interest, opens to view.

92 FIRST ALARM IN LONDON. [bOOK I.
Not a day was now to be lost. London, though far from
its present size, was large enough even then to be favourable
to secrecy ; but London, Cambridge, and Oxford, must all be
searched at one time, and Cardinal College, too, must not be
overlooked,- Wolsey could not have been with the King
sooner than next day, Saturday the 3d. The simultaneous
orders for both Universities must have been the same day, as the
Sergeants-at-Arms had arrived at both by Monday or Tuesday.
In London they commenced immediately. Among the very
Jirst places where the " secret search" began, was a narrow lane
in Cheapside, nearly opposite to Bow Church, In a church
there, " All Hallows in Honey Lane," Eobert Forman,
S. T. P., was Eector, and Mr. Thomas Garret, Curate.
Strong suspicions rested" on the latter^ as being at once a
receiver and distributor of books.^ The articles finally ob
jected against him, are to be found only in the first edition of
John Foxe's Acts and Monuments, a book which compara
tively very few persons in this country have ever seen.* We
shall, therefore, give those items which refer to the subject
before us, as they furnish an important link in the follow
ing narrative.
" Articles objected against Thomas Garret, Master of Art, sometime Parish
Priest, (!)urate of All Hallows in Honey Lane.
3 In one document he subscribes his name Gerarde, and so he is sometimes called. Out of
eighty-nine churches burnt down in the great fire of 1666, this of All Hallows in Honey Lane
was one of those which was not rebuilt, and the space was long occupied, by Act of Parliament,
as Honey Lane Market ; but the market has now given way to a noble school " for the religious
and virtuous education of boys, and for instructing them in the higher branches of literature and
all other useful learning," for such are the terms of the Act. The general course of education in
cludes English, Iiatin and French, writing, arithmetic, book-keeping, mathematics and natural
philosophy, geography and natural history, ancient and modern history, with lectures on
chemistry and experimental philosophy. A special course superadds Greek, Hebrew, German,
Spanish, and drawing, for those who wish any of them ; and there are classes even superior, for
poetry, antiquities, &c. It is curious enough that this fine establishment owes its existence to
the bequests of an eminent London citizen, John Carpenter, who lived above four hundred years
ago, in the reign of Henry VI. They had been sadly misapplied, but, through the "€ommifl-
aioners of Charities," have been now happily appropriated to invaluable purposes, of which the
original testator never dreamt. The erection looks towards Milk Street, where Sir Thomas
More was born, and who succeeded Wolsey in persecuting all those who read or possessed the
Testament of Tyndale. One distinct provision in the Act, therefore, is worthy of notice, viz.
that the Sacred Scriptures are to be " usrd and taught" in this school. Thus, many of the
sentences which Tyndale first printed for his country, will here be read daily upon the very
ground where men of other Aa.y& first searched eagerly for books, only to burn them ! It is an
elegant Gothic building, and an ornament to that part of the metropolis ; but it is more than
probable that neither Mr. Warren Hale, {to whom the city is so much indebted,) the Chairman,
nor any member of " the Committee of the City of London Schools," has been before aware of
the interesting character, not to say the celebrity of the spot, on which their building stands.
* The Colophon is " Imprinted at London, by John Day, dwelling over Aldersgate, beneth
Saynt Martins, Anno 1563, the 20th of March." "The difficulty," says Mr, Grenville, "of find
ing a complete copy of this extremely rare edition is sufficiently known."— "A peculiar merit of
it is, that it contains several passages, and particularly respecting the Protector Somerset, sup
pressed in all the subsequent editions." A perfect copy was sold, in 1823, for £56.

1526.] FIRST ALARM IN OXFORD. 93
" First, for bringing divers and many books, treatises, and works' of Martin
Luther and his sect, as also for dispersing abroad of the said books to divers
and many persons within this realm, as well Students in the University of
Oxford and Cambridge, as other spiritual, temporal, and religious men, to the
intent to have advanced the said sects and opinions. Item, for having the said
books in his custody — for reading them secretly in privy places and suspect
company, declaring and teaching here, lies and errors contained in them. Item,
for that in his own person, he followed, advanced, and set forth the said sect
and opinions, and also moved, stiiTed, and counselled others to follow and ad
vance the same, not only within the City and Dioceses of London and Lincoln,
but also in the Universities of Oxford and Cambridge, with divers other places.
Item, that he knew certain religious persons which printed English books, or some
that intended to print such books. Item, that he fled away in a layman's ap
parel from Oxford to Bedminster, when he should have been attached for heresy.
" For these articles, and such like, he was abjured before Cuthbert (Tunstal)
Bishop of London, John (Longland) Bishop of Lincoln, and John (Clark)
Bishop of Bath and Wells. No mention made of the year and time, nor yet
of any penance adjoined him." 5
Such were some of the charges formally brought against
Mr. G-arret, and not without reason ; but among all the
books imported, in Latin and in English, we have now to
enquire whether there was not one, infinitely above them all
in value, though at the first unknown to the authorities,
namely, Tyndale's New Testament.
During part of January, Garret must have been busy in
the City and Diocese of London, but in the beginning or first
week of February, when sought for at his own abode, he could
not be found. He was then " searched for through all
London," when the Cardinal ascertained that " he had a great
number of those books, and was gone to Oxford to make sale
of them there, to such as he knew to be lovers of the Gospel."
The truth is, that this future martyr had been for some time
in the habit of conveying books to both Universities, and of
visiting Oxford personally. He was down there at the pre
ceding Christmas, and, with regard to the present occasion, —
"About the year 1526," says Foxe, " Master Garret, Curate
of Honey Lane in London, came unto Oxford, and brought
with him sundry books in Latin, treating of the Scripture,
with the first part of " Unio disidentium," and Tyndales first
translation of the New Testament in English, the which books

6 So Bays Foxe, in tm first edition, p. 477- These articles, though rather an anticipation of our
narrative, afford distinctness and certainty to what follows. As for the penance, the abjuration,
the year and time, there is no uncertainty. The penance will come before ub presently, and,
alas ! his abjuration at the close of the year, when we shall glance at his future history.

94 FIRST ALARM IN OXFORD. [bOOK I.
he sold to divers scholars in Oxford." " After he had been
there a while, and despatched those books, news came that he
was searched for through all London, to be apprehended and
taken as a heretic, and to be imprisoned for selling those
heretical books, as they termed them." Not finding him in
London, " they had determined forthwith to apprehend and
imprison him, and to burn all and every his foresaid books,
and him too, if they could, so burning hot was their zeal."
By the time, however, that the Sergeant-at-Arms had
arrived, Cole of Magdalen College, who was afterwards cross-
bearer to the Cardinal, but an acquaintance of Garret's, gave
him warning. So in the morning of " Wednesday before
Shrovetide," on the 7th of February, he left Oxford, but re
turning again, he changed his dress as far as he could, and
disappeared on Friday night. There is a beautifully graphic
account of this, part of which we must quote ; for which we
are indebted to Anthony Delaber, one of the students,
devotedly attached to Mr. Garret.
" When he was gone down the stairs from my chamber," says he, " I
straightways did shut my chamber door, and went into my study, and took
the New Testament in my hands, kneeled down on my knees, and with many
a deep sigh and salt tear, I did, with much deliberation, read over the tenth
chapter of Saint Matthew his gospel : and when I had so done, with fei-vent
prayer I did commit unto God, that our dearly beloved brother Garret, earnestly
beseeching him, in and for Jesus Christ's sake, his only begotten Son, our
Lord, that he would vouchsafe not only safely to conduct and keep our said
dear brother from the hands of all his enemies ; but also that he would endue
his tender and lately born little flock in Oxford, with heavenly strength by his
Holy Spirit, that they might be able thereby vaUantly to withstand to his glory
all their fierce enemies, and also might quietly to their own salvation, with all
godly patience, bear Chi'ist's heavy cross ; which I now saw was presently to
be laid on their young and weak backs, unable to bear so huge a burden,
without the great help of his Holy Spirit. This done, I laid aside my book, safe."^
In this first attempt to escape, however, Garret had, most
unwisely, yielded to worldly policy, in consequence of his

6 That this was a copy of Tyndale's English Testament, there can be no question, although
Foxe in \iia first edition, forgetful of what he said, supposed, in a note, that this was the Testa
ment of Erasmus 1 a book, by the way, which was never denounced, and which Delaber had
therefore no reason to hide in safety. But, then, to do Foxe justice, he left this note ont of sub
sequent editions, having no doubt discovered his mistake. This must be observed by the readers
of the new edition of Foxe published by Seeley, where the note of 1563 has been restored, without
any caveat. The laborious author, by his omissions, certainly sometimes intended to convey his
Change of opinion after more accurate information, just as other authors have done, and the re
mark now made will apply to some other passages. Hence the republication of all that Foxe
ever printed, becomes a very ticklish undertaking, and, without warning, may prolong the
inaccuracy of history.

1526.3 FIRST ALARM IN OXFORD. 95
friends thinking it best that he should change his name, and
then engage himself as Curate to a brother of Delaber's, Parson
of Stalbridge in Dorsetshire, (though known to be a decided
enemy,) till the first opportunity should present itself of
escaping beyond seas. But he was too conscientious a man
to proceed in this way, and so, seized with fear, he returned
to Oxford on Friday evening. That night he was appre
hended, but escaped again, and was finally taken at Hinksey,
about two miles distant ; when he, and all besides, who
were suspected as receivers of books, were very soon in
safe keeping !
We have now, then, to witness what has come over Cardinal
College, as well as others ; for the future eminence of the
young men now imprisoned, fills the present story with no
common interest.
" Divers others, indeed," says Foxe, " were now constrained
to forsake their colleges and seek their friends ;" but still he
favours us with the names of the captured ; corroborated and
increased by Strype, as well as Wood. Thus, we find expressly
mentioned, John Fryth, with the Chaplain, his fellow prisoner,
Thomas Lawney, John Clarke, Godfrey Harman, Henry
Sumner, William Betts, Richard Taverner, Richard Coxe,
Michael Drumm, and  Radley, all of Cardinal College ;
Nicholas Udall and John Diet of Corpus Christi ; Eeden and
others of Magdalen College ; Goodman, William Bayley, John
Salisbury, Robert Ferrar, of Glo'ster, Bernard and Mary's
Colleges ; Langport, a Monk of St. Austin's of Canterbury,
and Anthony Delaber, of St. Alban's Hall.
Of Fryth we need .say nothing more at present, except that it is evident he
had not yet left Oxford, nor his native country ; and that consequently the
association of him with Tyndale in his translation, though generally current to
this day, is nothing more than an unfounded assumption. Lawney, his fellow
prisoner, a man of wit, was afterwards chaplain to the Duke of Norfolk ;
and befriended by Cranmer, he was often about his person, having a living in
Kent. Clarke, an A.M. of Cambridge, as well as Oxford, eight or ten years
older than the rest, gave lectures in divinity to these and other young men.
Though an eminent scholar, he, as their leader, was ejected ; but he, as well
as Sumner and Bayley, died in one week, and Goodman also soon followed
them to the grave ; all in consequence of the severity of the imprisonment
about to be noticed. Hai-man, afterwards Fellow of Eton College, died in
1533. Betts ultimately went to Cambridge, and was afterwards a favourite
chaplain to Queen Anne Boleyn. " A good man and zealous," says Foxe,
" and so remained," till his death in 1S34, when he was succeeded by Matthew
Parker. Tarerner is remembered chiefly by the Bibles, very nearly the same

96 FIRST ALARM IN OXFORD. [BOOK. I.
as Tyndale's, which he afterwards published. Coxe,l twelve years after this,
was one of the Tutors of Edward VI., and ultimately Bishop of Ely ; and Drumm
became one of the six Preachers at Canterbury under Cranmer. Vdall is
known as the future Master of Eton and Westminster Schools, as well as one
of the Translators of the first volume of Erasmus' paraphrase. Salisbury, a
native of Wales, and Monk of St. Edmondsbury, who died Bishop of Mann iu
1578, had a hand in translating the first edition of the Bible into Welsh ; and
forty years after this, when Dean of Norwich, we find him refer to this im
prisonment by Wolsey, in justification of his orthodoxy and his early attach
ment to the Word of God.^ He is not, however, to be confounded with Wm.
Salesbury, who previously had published the Welsh New Testament. Ferrar,
who became chaplain to Cranmer, who was for a short time Bishop of Sodor and
Mann, and then of St. David's, suffered at the stake in Caermarthen on the
30th of March 1555.
Garret and Dalaber, as convicted heretics, were made to
carry a faggot, in open procession, from St. Mary's to Cardi
nal College ; the former, as Master of Arts, having his red
hood on his shoulders. These young men, besides others not
named, followed in procession, all of whom were obliged, in
passing, to cast a book into the large fire which had been
kindled to receive them.* Garret and Dalaber were then in
carcerated at Osney Isle, till further orders from London,
when the former was called up to appear before Tunstal, as
we shall see towards the close of the year.
As for the other young men, along with Clarke, they were all
immured in a deep cell, under Cardinal College, the common
repository of their salt fish, a noisome dungeon, where the air
and food together proved but too fatal. Betts, no suspected
books being, at least, detected in his chamber, through en
treaty and surety, got out of prison, and, as soon as he could,
went to Cambridge. Taverner, though deeply implicated, as
having concealed Clarke's books under the floor, being skilful
in music, was excused by Wolsey ; but the rest remained in
this most miserable abode ; where, eating nothing but salt-
fish from the beginning of March to the middle of August,
four of them died, as already stated ! After this, but in con
sequence only of a letter from Wolsey, they were all released,
on condition of not moving above ten miles from Oxford.
How many thus continued as prisoners at large does not ap
pear ; but John Fryth being so far at liberty, and now aware

7 Who, by one account, was not so long in prison, not being suspected till July.
a MS. Sermon, Bibl. Lambeth, vol. 11.3. Willis' Cath. i. p. 367, 4to, 1727.
9 Kindled at Carfax, {qualrevdes,) ormeetingof the four streets.

1526.] FIRST ALARM IN OXFORD. 97
of the treatment of Garret and Dalaber, he " escaped by
flight over the sea to Tyndale." He left Oxford for the Con
tinent, therefore, in August or September 1526.
It will now be allowed that an event such as this, so rich
in incident, and so fraught with consequences, was worthy of
being fully traced ; though, as far as Tyndale's New Testa
ments were concerned, of course every thing depends on the
time in which all this took place. Fortunately, however, the
period can be fixed, not only to a month, but to a day ; and
it is the more remarkable, as coinciding with the same month
in which it will be afterwards deponed, that New Testaments
were purchased by other people. Foxe has said that this hap
pened about 1526 ; Strype sa.js-about 1525 or 1626 ; and the
fact is, that being in February, when the year ran on to the
25th of March, it would be called either the one or the other.
The year 1526 is pointedly fixed by Wood, for to any one
who observes the early history of these eminent young men
it is indubitable. Thus, " Clarke of Cardinal College was
incorporated M.A. of Oxford in 1525, but ejected soo7i after
for Lutheranism." Udall had passed B.A. in 1524, and
" two years after supplicated for the degree of A.M., but in
vain, as 'tis probable, because he was much addicted to the
opinions of Luther." Taverner escaped imprisonment ; but
being in disgrace, did not pass A.M. till 21st May 1527.
Ferrar was a canon of St. Mary's, " where," says Wood,
" I find him in 1526, in which year T. Garret did supply him
with prohibited books."'"
The season of the year, the month and day, are no less cer
tain ; as it was on " the Wednesday before Shrovetide" that
Garret first departed from Oxford. Shrovetide, this year,
fell on the 13th, so that Wednesday before was the 7th of
February. This date must be observed in connexion with
what took place at Cambridge.
As for the whole transaction, there need be no surprise at
so much being made of it at the time. In the year 1525,
Rincke and Cochlseus had put the highest authorities on
their guard, and these were not mistaken, in now regarding
this as no trivial affair, no inferior triumph. Students drawn
away even from other Colleges was sufficiently mortifying ;

10 Wood's Fasti, and Annala of Oxford.
AOL. I. a

98 FIRST ALARM [bOOK I.
but Cardinal College, a favourite project of Wolsey's, was
one in which he had felt almost absorbed. It was to be " the
most glorious in the world:'' Every other College had been
made subservient to this, and, at his command, had yielded
up its most choice young men. All these Canons had passed
before his own eye, having either been selected or approved
by himself, on account of the eminence of their attainments.
What, then, must have been his disappointment, when, after
all his pains, he saw the scale turning in the opposite direc
tion from that which he had all along intended ? And what
his indignation, when such a proportion, if not a large ma
jority, of these fine young men were found to be infected with
that new learning, as it was termed, which, instead of yield
ing to the old, was ultimately to triumph, and maintain its
ground in spite of the fiercest opposition ? "
Besides all this, the books distributed were a mighty griev
ance in addition, and they were now gone into corners, they
knew not where ; but of all that had been circulated or sold,
there were none to be compared with Tyndale's New Testa
ment. This was the Word of Life, and felt to be so. We
have already seen it, in the grasp of Dalaber, to have been
their sheet anchor in the raging storm. It is therefore well
worthy of remembrance, that one of Tyndale's earliest blows,
dashed to the ground the insidious design of the lofty Cardi
nal. It was an attack upon the lion in his o-wn den ; while
as to the young men, now branded as heretics, whether caught
or escaped, Tyndale had given them, not a book of new learn-

' ' Anthony a Wood, though bom more than a hundred years after this, was stUl no friend to
the new learning thus introduced, and therefore he could not sympathise with such an account
as the preceding. In his Athena, it is true, he records the transaction under Garret's name —
and he has most fully corroborated our statement, in various ways, taken from other places ;
but in his Annals of the University of Oxford, we have a very curious substitute for this period,
which is worth repeating—" But while this selected Society was busy in preaching, reading, dis
puting, and performing their scholastic arts, a vehement plague brake forth in the University,
and dispersed most of them, returning not till the year following, or two years after ! And of
the said plague, divers persons dying near the halls of St. Alban's, Jesu, Edmund, and Queen's
Colleges, the Batchelors of those places were, on the last of January this year, dispensed with
for performing their Determinations in the public schools in the Lent following. Among those
that.^d, some wore of the number that came from Cambridge, which caused them not to return
again, or at least be a terror to others from coming to seek promotion ! Thus was this (Cardinal)
College in manner settled, and soon after left as 'twere desolate— o{ the nobleness and magnifi
cence of which, the University took oftentimes an occasion to make mention, in their courting
epistles to the Cardinal!" And thus also, no doubt. New Testaments were carried into the
country j for even here, Wood afHrms that Dalaber betrayed about tu>enty-two of his brethren
who favoured Garret, and bought his books. If there was any disease, the state of Oxford only
the more resembled that of London ; but what had happened was plague sufficient to Cardinal
Wolsey, to say nothing of the young men, confined for six months in such a noisome cell.

1.526.] IN CAMBRIDGE. 99
ing merely, but the volume of Divine Mercy — it was not the
owl of Athens, but Mount Zion's dove.
Thus it happens, whenever Infinite wisdom employs " the
things that are weak to destroy the mighty," and men of no
account, to bring down those of high degree, " He disap-
pointeth the devices of the crafty, so tJiat their hands cannot per
form their enterprise ; He taketh the wise in their own crafti
ness ; and the counsel of the froward is carried headlong T
If Oxford had been thrown into a ferment during these early
days in February, the commotion at Cambridge was, if pos
sible, still greater ; but there had been some powerfully ex
citing causes, and now in full operation, which were peculiar
to this University. A very brief retrospect will explain, as well
as lend additional interest to the present burst of opposition.
The publication of the Greek Testament by Erasmus, in
1516, was one of the most important events in the progress
of letters ; but Cambridge seems to have been inferior to Ox
ford in their cultivation. Even the Priests, in their confes
sions of young scholars, had cautioned them against the ac
quisition of Greek and Hebrew, on account of the consequences
they dreaded. Standish, afterwards Bishop of St. Asaph,'^
was one great promoter of this hostility ; and, upon one occa
sion, on his knees before the King and Queen, is said to have
conjured them, by every thing sacred, to go on as their ances
tors had done, and put down Erasmus.'^ When, therefore,
his Testament appeared, at Cambridge it was absolutely pro
scribed by some of the doctors of the day, and one College,
as already hinted, forbade it to be brought within the walls !
Yet the book they had thus contemned, was the very same
by which God intended to promote his own designs, and in
Cambridge itself.
Not long, therefore, after the publication of this Tes
tament, which contained the Latin and Greek in parallel
columns, the heart of one student was smitten with it ; and
this, in the hand of God, was sufficient to produce a great
moral change. An LL.D., and Fellow of Trinity Hall," he

^3 This was often contracted into St. Asse when no ridicule was intended. But Standish was
an ignorant man as well as violent, and Erasmus therefore called him, " Episcopum a sancto
asino." 13 Wood's Athenas by Bliss, i. p. 94.
14 So says Kennet. The same College of which Stephen Gardiner was now master, after
having been bred in it.

100 FIRST ALARM [|bOOK 1.
had already excelled in the study of the Civil and Canon Law,
to which he had intended to devote his future life ; but falling
into great distress of mind, he applied to the Priests. They
appointed him fastings and watching, with the purchase of
pardons and masses ; but after having spent almost his all on
these ignorant physicians of no value, it had fared with him,
as with one of old, to whose situation he compares his own ;
for " he was nothing the better, but rather grew worse."
His case is the more interesting, in that no human agent was
employed to relieve him. It was a distinct divine interfer
ence for the promotion of his own cause ; but the story is
so full of simple beauty, that the student must be allowed to
tell part of it himself: —
" But at the last," says he, " I heard speak of Jesus, even then when the
New Testament was first set forth by Erasmus. Which, when I understood
to be eloquently done by him, being allured rather for the Latin than for the
Word of God — ^for, at that time, I knew not what it meant — I bought it even
by the providence of God, as I do now well understand and perceive. And at
the first reading, as I well remember, I chanced upon this sentence of St. Paul,
(0 most sweet and comfortable sentence to my soul !) in his first Epistle to
Timothy, and first chapter — ' It is a true saying, and worthy of all men to be
embraced, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, of whom I
am the chief and principal.' This one sentence, through God's instruction and
inward teaching, which I did not then perceive, did so exhilarate my heart,
being before wounded with the guilt of my sins, and being almost in despair,
that immediately I felt a marvellous comfort and quietness, insomuch that my
bruised bones leapt for joy. — Ps. Ii. 8.
" After this the Scripture began to be more pleasant to me than the honey,
or the honey-comb. Wherein I learned that all my travels, all my fasting and
watching, all the redemption of masses and pardons, being doue without truth
in Christ, who alone saveth his people from their sins ; these, I say, I learned
to be nothing else, but even, as Augustine saith, a hasty and swift running out
of the right way ; or else much like to the vesture made of fig-leaves, where
with Adam and Eve went about in vain to cover themselves ; and could never
before obtain quietness and rest, till they believed on the promise of God, that
' Christ the seed of the woman should tread upon the Serpent's head.' Neither
could I be relieved or eased of the sharp stings and biting of my sins, before I
was taught of God that lesson which Christ speaketh of in the third chapter of
John — ' Even as Moses exalted the Serpent in the desert, so shall the Son of
Man be exalted, that all which believe on him, should not perish, but have
life everlasting.'
" As soon as I began to taste and savour of this heavenly lesson, which no
man can teach, but only God, which revealed the same unto Peter, I desired
the Lord to increase my faith ; and, at last, I desired nothing more, than that
I, being so comforted by him, might be strengthened by his Holy Spirit and
grace from above, that I might teach the wicked his ways, which are mercy
and truth, and that the wicked might be converted unto him by me, who some
time was also wicked."

1526.] IN CAMBRIDGE. 101
This was no other than Thomas Bilney, the future martyr
of 1531. His preaching was followed by great and powerful
effects, for among others, Hugh Latimer and Robert Barnes
owed their conversion to him. So early, therefore, as 1523,
before Tyndale went abroad, Cambridge lay under strong
suspicion of heresy ; and yet it is curious enough, that in that
year, when certain Bishops moved, that there might be a
visitation appointed to go down, for trying who were " the
fautors of heresy" there, the Cardinal forbade it ! "Upon
what grounds," says Burnet, " I cannot imagine." It seems
to have been, either because he then meditated a reform of
the Church, after his own fancy, as already disclosed in the
letter of Longland, and of which his own sovereign authority
as Legate, should appear to be the only fountain ; or if not,
to show at the moment his authority over the clergy. His
mind, we know, was then engrossed with afi"airs of State,
abroad as well as at home.'^ At all events, the over-ruling
hand of God is manifest, in preventing all interference for at
least three years, or from January 1523, to February 1526.
The order for Oxford we have stated to be the third of this
month ; that for Cambridge must have been at the same
moment ; but in this case, previous information through Dr.
Tyrell, after-mentioned, had suggested the necessity for two
individuals being sent. One Gibson, the Sergeant-at-Arms,
a creature of Wolsey's, hated by the Aldermen and Common
Council of London, was therefore accompanied by Dr. Capon,
one of the Cardinal's chaplains. They had arrived on Mon
day, as upon Tuesday, the Sergeant " suddenly arrested Dr.
Barnes openly in the Convocation-house, to make all others
afraid ; " and by Wednesday evening, (on the morning of
which, Garret first escaped from Oxford), Dr. Barnes stood
before Wolsey.
Robert Barnes, born near Linn in Norfolk, after proceeding-
through the schools at Cambridge, had entered the Monastery
of Augustine Friars there, in the year 1514. Having then
gone to Louvaine, where he studied, and passed as Doctor of
Theology ; after his return he was made Prior and Master
of his Monastery, in 1523. In conjunction with another

!¦' "He obstructed it," says Kennet, " jiot in favour of heresy, but in support of his own
A(\(7an//ne authority." — M.S., iMnsdownc, No. ff^9, p. 3fi.

102 FIRST ALARM QbOOK I.
Louvaine scholar, Mr. Thomas Parnel, whom he had brought
over with him, he became, says Strype and others, " the great
restorer of good learning at Cambridge." He had introduced
the study of the classics, and was reading Terence, Plautus,
and Cicero ; but being brought to the knowledge of the truth
through Bilney, he proceeded to read openly with his scholars,
the Epistles of Paul. Sometime before this, Latimer had
been also enlightened through Bilney's preaching, and was
proclaiming the truth with great decision and efifect. Whether
Latimer was actually in expectation of the New Testament of
Tyndale, does not appear, but the fact is, that he was now
powerfully preparing the way for it ; as he frequently and par
ticularly dwelt on the great abuse of locking up the Scriptures
in an unknown tongue. Prior Buckingham, his opponent, in
veighed against him, and insisted, that if that heresy prevailed,
we should soon see an end of every thing useful ! This man,
Latimer put to silence, by that singular vein of humour for
which he was distinguished ; while Venetus, a foreigner,
with whom he reasoned in a strain full of gravity, was obliged
to leave the University. Latimer's opponents finding argu
ment fail, resorted to authority ; and West, the Bishop of
Ely, after hearing him, and even professing to be charmed,
ultimately prohibited him from preaching in any of the churches
belonging to the University, or within his diocese ! The Mona
stery of Dr. Barnes, however, was happily exempt from epis
copal jurisdiction, an exemption indeed, peculiar to almost all
the Monasteries, so that the Prior boldly licensed him to
preach there. The place was unable to contain the crowds
that assembled, and Dr. Barnes having been requested by the
parish to preach at St. Edward's Church hard by, resolved to
comply. This was a memorable evening on account of theefi'ects.
It was in fact a crisis, though never sufficiently marked as such.
It was " Christmas eve, and on a Sunday," says Foxe, or as
Barnes himself explains, — " in the year of our Lord 1525,
the 24th of December." Latimer was also officiating at the
Monastery that evening ; while the present, says Foxe, was
" the first sermon that ever Barnes preached of this truth."
Understanding now the way of truth more perfectly, and alive
to the state of things around him, he had resolved to be openly
explicit. By two chaplains, Drs. Robert Ridley and Walter
Preston, fellows of King's College, and kinsmen of Tunstal,

1526.] IN CAMBRIDGE. 103
Bishop of London, he was immediately accused of heresy.
This they did in the Regent-House, before the Vice-Chancellor
Edmund Nateres, and these two men, assisted by three others,
viz. Tyrell, Watson, and Fooke, having gathered up certain
articles against him, desired him to recant. The University
as a body, immediately took up the matter, and disputed their
authority. His adversaries, however, within two or three
days, having secured another meeting before the Vice-Chan
cellor ; by fraud and intimidation, they " so entreated and
cozened him," that Barnes agreed to yield to their authority
and their promised clemency. They then enjoined him to
read his revocation in St. Edward's Church next Sunday.
Barnes consulted with eight or ten of his learned friends,
among whom were Stafix)rd and Bilney, and then declined ;
but he had already ensnared himself in these private inter
views, and his accusers, aware of this, desisted, only to wait
their favourable moment. The learned of at least seven difi'er
ent colleges now flocked together in open day to sermons,
whether at the Augustine Monastery or St. Mary's.
" The names of some of them," says Strype, " were these : — Besides Bai'nes,
and Stafford, and Bilney, Dr. Thixstel or Thissel, and T. Allan of Pembroke ;
Dr. Farman, of Queen's ; Tooke and Loude, of Benet ; Cambridge, Field, Col-
man, Cooiirdale, Bachelors of Divinity ; Parnel of St. Austin's, under Barnes ;
Thomas Arthur, Dr. Warner, Segar Nicolsou, Rudolph Bradford, of King's ;
Dr. Smith, of Trinity ; and Latymer, of Christ's Church."
Disputations were held during the whole of January, at a
house called Germany hj way of derision, and " this tragedy,"
says Foxe, " continued in Cambridge, one preaching against
another, in trying out of God's truth, until within six days
before Shrovetide," or, in other words, to the very day that
Dr. Barnes stood before Wolsey.
It was not, however, to apprehend Barnes alone, that the
Sergeant-at-Arms had arrived at Cambridge. He had been
charged to make secret search for books, and instantly seize
the whole, as well as apprehend all who possessed them. Not
fewer than thirty were suspected, and spies had given them
precise information as to every one of their rooms ! But Dr.
Forman of Queen's College had happily, at the first moment,
informed all the parties of the privy search, and " God be
praised," says Foxe, the books " were conveyed away by the
time that the Sergeant-at-Arms, the Vice-Chancellor, and

104 FIRST EXAMINATION. [bOOK 1.
the Proctors were at every man's chamber." The business
of Gibson was therefore soon accomplished, and Dr. Barnes
being his only prey, he was immediately carried to London.
We return, therefore, to Wolsey's gallery at Westminster,
on Wednesday evening, Gardiner, his Secretary, and Fox,
being the only parties present with Barnes. The Cardinal
soon discovered, that he was not unacquainted with what Dr.
Barnes had been delivering at Cambridge, telling that his
noted sermon in December, was " fitter to be preached on a
stage than in a pulpit." Certainly it was very different
doctrine from that with which almost every pulpit was filled ;
and as for the rest, the fact is, that, whether well advised or
not, Barnes, unable to repress his indignation at the gross
abuses of the times, had opened up before the people Wolsey''s
extravagance. To him belongs the distinction, of having led
the way in boldly and publicly exposing the gorgeous and
tyrannical bearing of the lofty Cardinal. This accounts for
the severity with which he was now treated, for both Bilney
and Latimer were permitted to go on for some time longer.
Wolsey, however, read the articles with patience, till he
came to one personal to himself; for the men at Cambridge,
in drawing them up, knew how to touch him at the quick.
" What, Master Doctor," exclaimed the Cardinal, " had you
not a sufficient scope in the Scriptures to teach the people,
that my golden shoes, my pole axes, my pillars, my golden
cushions, my crosses did so offend you, that you must make
us rediculum caput before the people ?'^ We were jollily that
day laughed to scorn. Verily it was a sermon fitter to be
preached on a stage than in a pulpit, for at the last you said —
I wear a pair of red gloves, I should say bloody gloves, quoth
you, that I should not be cold in the midst of my ceremonies."
Whether this charge was correct, does not appear, but Barnes,
as yet unmoved, replied, " I spake nothing but the truth out
of the old Doctors." In the end, he delivered to the Cardinal
six sheets in manuscript, to confirm and corroborate all that
he had spoken. Wolsey smiling, said, " we perceive that you
mean to stand to your articles, and to show your learning."
" Yea," said Barnes, " that I do intend, by God's grace, with
your lord.ship's favour." Wolsey enquired if he did not know

Caput, the highest Council of the University.

1526.] FIRST RECANTATION. 105
that he was there for heresy, and whether he could bring six
or ten doctors of divinity to swear for him? Barnes offered
twenty honest men, as learned as himself, if not superior — but
these would not suffice. " They must be of your years accord
ing to law," said Wolsey. " That," replied Barnes, " is im
possible." " Then," said the Cardinal, " you must be burnt .'"
At the close, Wolsey was about to commit him to the Tower,
but Fox'7 and Gardiner'^ interceded, and became sureties for
his appearance. During the whole night he was engaged in
preparing for his defence before the Bishops, to whom Wolsey
had committed him. Three of his students, Coverdale, Good
win, and Field, having followed him up to London, were also
occupied in writing to his dictation. On Thursday morning,
after calling at York Place, ( Whitehall,) for Fox and Gardiner,
the Sergeant-at-Arms conveyed him down to the Chapter-
House at Westminster. He was now in the presence of John
Clark, Bishop of Bath, as principal judge, who treated him
with marked severity ; Henry Standish, Bishop of St. Asaph,
who was sure to be an enemy and not a judge ; Islip, the
Abbot of Westminster ; the Abbot of Bury ; Dr. Jeffrey
Wharton ; Dr. Allen ; and Dr. Gardiner. After this ex
amination he subscribed his articles, and was then committed
to Fleet Prison, but no one to speak with him. On Saturday
at three o'clock, when called to appear again, a long roll was
shown to him, which he must promise to read in public, with
the assurance now, that he would not add one word, more or
less ! They exacted this promise before he had read a line of
it, and put it to him solemnly three times ! Barnes continu
ing firm, was desired to retire. On being called in, they had
agreed that a Notary should read it to him, and as Barnes
listened, he felt as though he would rather die than agree.
After long disputation, threatening, and scorn, it was now
five o'clock ; when they called upon him to know whether he
would abjure or burn. Barnes was in great agony, inclining
rather to the latter, when they sent him again to take counsel
from Fox, and Gardiner alone ; and they, " by persuasions
that were mighty in the sight of reason and foolish flesh,"

17 The same man, who, when Bishop of Hereford, had Barnes associated with him in Embassy
from Henry VIII. to the Pi'otestaut Princes at Smalcald. in 1535.
18 The very person, who, fourteen years afterwards, was the occasion of Barnes and Garret
being brought to the same flamts, two days after Lord Crumwell.

106 FIRST BURNING [bOOK I.
brought him at last to yield and abjure ! It is easy for us
now to say, that he ought to have stood firm, and if he had,
Barnes would have led the van at least, of this division of
martyrs, for the Word of God ; but neither Garret nor he
were yet able to brave the horrors of the stake.
With regard to Barnes, in particular, the sight on the fol
lowing day, was indeed most humiliating, and to his adver
saries, must have seemed a great triumph. On Sabbath the
4th, in his pulpit at Cambridge, and on the next, or 11 th,
bearing a faggot at St. Paul's ! The church was crowded to
excess, and there sat Wolsey in all his glory, smiling, no
doubt, over the pointed replies of Thursday evening, while he
saw Barnes and five others, Stillyard men, humbled before
him.'^ So mighty and so important was the occasion, that, ac
cording to Foxe : —
" The Cardinal had a scaffold made on the top of the stairs for himself, with
six and thirty Abbots, mitred Priors, and Bishops, and he, in his whole pomp,
mitred, which Barnes had denounced, sat there enthroned ! His Chaplains
and Spiritual Doctors, in gowns of damask and satin, and he himself in purple !
And there was a new pulpit erected on the top of the stairs, for Fisher, the
Bishop of Rochester, to preach against Luther and Dr. Barnes; and great
baskets full of books, standing before them within the rails, which were com
manded, after the great fire was made before the Rood of Northern, (or large
crucifix at the north gate of St. Paul's), there to be burned ; and these heretics
after the sermon, to go three times round the fire, and cast in their faggots."
All this was done of course, and much more that was humili
ating, Wolsey retiring, under a canopy, in all his pomp ; and
Fisher declaring to the people, how many days of pardon and
forgiveness of sins they had, for being present at that Sermon !
To him, as well as Wolsey and Longland, it was a high day,
and one to which they had looked forward for three years.^
Here then, we have the first of a series, for it preceded
Oxford by a few days, in which books were committed to the
'fl Thus the results of the "secret search" in London and Cambridge were combined, the
scene already described at Oxford, happening also before the end of the week. These five
German Merchants, called Easterlings or Stillyard Men, or Merchants of the Hanse, had been
examined and convicted on Thursday, "for Luther's books and Lollardy ; " Tyndale's New Testa
ment, as well as his subsequent publications, being often after this wrapt up under this general title,
or that of Lutheranism. These German Merchants, who imported books along with steel and
other goods, dwelt at that place in Thames Street, still called the Steelyard. By the Kings of
England they wore granted certain privileges, which were continued to the reign of Elizabeth.
20 This Sermon of Fisher's, from Luke, xviii. 42, was afterwards published. " I have put forth
this Sermon," says he, " to be read, which, for the great noise oftlw. people within the Omrch of St.
Paul's, might not be heard." Tyndale severely reproved him for it afterwards, in his "Obe
dience of a Christian Man."— See Tyndale's Works by Russel, i. pp. 2i;o-256. Herbert's Ames,
i. p. 46!).

1526.] OF THE SCRIPTURES. 107
flames; and among many others, upon this day, the 11th of
February 1526, copies of Tyndale's New Testament, were no
doubt for the first time cast into the fire, as they were at
Oxford in the same week. By this period we shall yet have
curious and abundant evidence that they were in the country ;
Garret was convicted, as we have seen, for conveying books
to Cambridge as well as Oxford, and among the stores of the
Stillyard men, now accumulated in the " great baskets," the
London stock was so far involved. Lutheranism, it is true,
was the great bug-bear held up this day before the people, but
when chastising Fisher afterwards, for the sermon he had
preached and printed, Tyndale himself has said : —
" And mark, I pray you, what an orator he is, and how vehemently he per-
suadeth it ! ' Martin Luther hath burned the Pope's decretals ; a manifest
proof,' saith he, ' that he would have burned the Pope's Holiness also, if he had
had him.' A like argument, which I suppose to be rather true, I make.
Rochester and his holy brethren home burnt Christ's Testament; an evident
sign, verily, that they would have burnt Christ himself also, if they had had him."
These words, by the way, may now be received as the best
of all evidence, that the New Testament was there, and there
consumed. All this, however, was evidently done by the
Cardinal's supreme and express authority. He led the way,
therefore, so that it is not correct to exonerate him, as some
authors have done, by affirming that this was an after-thought
of the Bishops, when Warham and Tunstal commenced their
crusade against all books of the new learning. Even then,
Strype affirms, that they were instigated by the Cardinal ;
but upon this day, Warham was not present, and Tunstal as
far distant as Madrid. No, stung more than once, and in one
week, by what had been detected at Oxford and Cambridge,
as well as in London, Wolsey must have felt exasperated in
the highest degree, and it is manifest that, by all this parade,
he intended to produce a deep and general panic.
At the close of all, poor Barnes, though received formally
into the Roman Catholic Church again, was remitted to the
Fleet, till the Lord Cardinal's pleasure should be known ; but
his friends were permitted to visit him, and he there relented.
As the season of conviction at Oxford and Cambridge had
been the same, so also was that of relief to both parties. Per
haps the sad deaths at Oxford, in consequence of severe treat
ment, led to this ; since it was about the very same time that

108 ESCAPE BEYOND SEA. [^BOOK I.
the young men at Oxford were released, on condition of not
moving above ten miles distant, that Barnes W3.s delivered
from the Fleet ; that is, at the end of six months. He, how
ever, was not permitted to go at large, even to the same ex
tent, but was committed to be a free prisoner at Austin Friars
in London ; and from evidence which will come out in 1528,
it will appear that he was here as busy as his circumstances
would permit, in actually disposing of copies of Tyndale's
Testament ! His enemies, therefore, were not incorrect in
their suspicions, for says Foxe, " they complained again to
the Lord Cardinal, whereupon he was removed to the Austin
Friars of Northampton, there to be burned^ By a most un
worthy stratagem, however, feigning himself to have been
drowned, he escaped to the Continent. His enemies searched
for him seven days, but they dragged the pond in vain.
Once abroad, and having time for reflection, Barnes must
surely soon have seen the evil of his conduct with regret ; for
alas, independently of its own sinfulness, his example proved
most baneful ! At the moment it must have been, " as when
a standard-bearer fainteth," or rather flies, for he first led in
a path which cost many a sigh to those who followed him.
His fall and escape, for fall he did, certainly had no small
infiuence in leading to the sad expedient of abjwration, instead
of resistance unto death — an expedient which produced, as we
shall find in Bilney's case and others, mental agony to a de
gree, compared with which, the tortures of the stake were
transient, and far inferior.^'

2' It was not long before TunstJil knew that Barnes was not drowned, and he affirmed that
" the Lord Cardinal would have him over again, or it would cost him a great sum of money."
On which Barnes afterwards replied in print : — "And when my Lord Cardinal, and he, (Tunstal),
would spend so much money to have me again, I have great marvel of it. What can they make
of me ? I am a poor simple wretch, and worth no man's money in the world, (except theirs),
not the tenth penny that they will give for me. And to burn me, or to destroy me, cannot so
greatly profit them ; for when 1 am dead, the sun and the moon, the stars and the elements,
water and fire, yea, and also stones shall defend this cause against them, rather than the verity
should perish." All this was nobly said, but considering the eminence of his character at Cam
bridge, and the notoriety of his abjuration in London, escaping to the Continent as he did, and
saying this there, could not possibly prevent the injurious consequences which must have fol
lowed from his conduct.
On the Continent, Barnes became intimate with Luther and Melancthon, and other reformers ;
as well as with the Dukeof Saxony and the King of Denmark. Sent by the latter into this country,
he first set his foot upon English ground after Wolsey was in his grave, in the time of Sir Thomas
More being Chancellor, and as an ambassador to Henry VIIL, with the Lubeckers ; when he
lodged with their Chancellor at the Steelyard. He had not come, however, without the protec
tion of a safe-conduct, which More would have most willingly infringed, had the King permitted.
On his return to Germany he published his works, and after More's death ho came to London,
where he preached for some time. In 1535, he was employed as envoy from the King to the
Elector of Saxony and the Wirtemberg Divines, in reference to their Convocation at Smalkald,

1526.] ANXIETY OP WARHAM. 109
With regard to this entire statement, such a remarkable
conjunction of circumstances, has never before been traced,
and though "the Supplication of Beggars" has all along been
familiar to the readers of history, they cannot have been
before aware of the mighty stir occasioned by the distribution
of these few pages of letter-press, on Candlemas- day. Lon
don, Oxford, and Cambridge, the subjects of Wolsey's " secret
search and at one time," were ascertained, in February 1526,
to be impregnated with the same leaven ; but that the King
himself, and before all this uproar began, should have possess
ed and read this powerful tract, to the Cardinal especially,
must have proved not a little galling.
On the whole, however, it may have been observed, that
none of the principal or leading characters in Oxford, similar
to Barnes at Cambridge, had been called up before Wolsey.
Garret, indeed, had been apprehended at Oxford, but he be
longed to London, and they were young men only, who had
been incarcerated, with the exception of Clarke, and even he
was not a man of authority. Still one or two of a higher
grade, had been there suspected, of promoting the " new learn
ing." The month of February, therefore, had not expired,
when the University formally applied to Warham of Canter
bury, then their Chancellor, as he had been since 1506. He
was living retired at Knolle, but might not be so fully aware
of all that had happened, till he was officially thus informed.
Accordingly, on the 8th of March, we have a cautious and
imploring letter from him to the Cardinal, full of fear and
anxiety as to Oxford and its honour.
" The university," he says, had " instantly desired him to be their suitor to
his Grace, touching the examination of the said persons suspected of heresy,
that the University run in as little infamy as may be, after the quality of the
though chiefly with a view to their concurrence in the affair of Henry's divorce ; and afterwards
he was employed in the negotiation for Anne of Cleves. But getting himself entangled by his
opposition to Stephen Gardiner, then in high favour, and Henry being at last incensed against
him, he fell on the 30th of July 1540, with Garret, and Hierome the Vicar of Hackney, under
the sanguinary " Six Acts " of that period, justly styled "the bloody Statute."
To the end of his days, and even at the stake itself, Barnes was uniform as an advocate for the
justification of a sinner by faith, without the works of the law ; but being destitute of moral
courage and command of temper— to use his own terms, he " overshot himself," more than once.
His works were published by Foxe, along with those of Tyndale and Fryth, in one folio volume,
and thus the three names have often been repeated in the same breath ; but it would be a viola
tion of all propriety to regard the three men as alike, whether in point of general character or
sentiment. This will be evident as we proceed. We only remark here, that Barnes was a
Lutheran, which neither Tyndale or Fryth ever were. Tyndale, in 15.33, even warns Fryth to
beware of him. " Barnes," said Tyndale, "will be hot against you," — a waniing, in which at
once his temper, and peculiar sentiments with regard to the Lord's Supper, are glanced at.

110 ANXIETY OF WARHAM. [book I.
offence — for pity it were, through the lewdness of one or two cankered members,
which, as I understand, have induced no small number of young and uncircum-
spect fools to give ear to them, that the whole University should run in the
infamy of so heinous a crime — the hearing whereof would be right delectable
and pleasant to the open Lutherans beyond the sea, and the secret, behither :
whereof they would take heai't and confidence, that their pestilent doctrine
should increase and multiply ; seeing both the Universities of England infected
therewith ; whereof the one hath many years been void of all heresies, and the
other hath, afore now, taken upon her the praise, that she was never defiled ;
and, nevertheless, now, she is thought to be the original occasion and cause of
the fall in Oxford."
Warham chiefly intended by this letter, " to move that only the Capytaine
of the said erroneous doctrines be punished, to the fearful example of all other :
but if all the young scholars suspected be called up to London, it should engen
der great obloquy and slander to the University," at home and abroad, " to the
sorrow of all good men, and the pleasure of heretics." — " It is thought," he
adds, " the less bruit, the better;" and he then suggests that a commission should
be sent down to Oxford to examine " not the heads, which it may please your
Grace to reserve to your own examination, but the novices which be not yet
thoroughly cankered."
" Item, the said University have desired me to move your good Grace to
command my Lord of Rochester or my Lord of London, to note out, beside the
worlcs of Luther condemned already, the names of all other such writers and
fautors — and these names, described in a table, to be sent down to the Univer
sity of Oxford, commanding them, that no man, without express license, have,
keep, or read any of the same books, under the pain of excommmiication." 22
Thus the mortification, we have presumed to exist, was dis
closed, and it must have been extreme. But did Warham,
the Chancellor of Oxford, forget that he might be now tread
ing on Wolsey's tender toe ? Was he not aware, when
denouncing these heretics, that, amongst others, he had de
nominated the Canons of Cardinal College, who were all of
Wolsey's selection, " a number of young and uncircumspect
fools ?" Irritated Wolsey had been already by Barnes, but
this letter was certainly not calculated to allay the irritation.
The advice given, however, was not taken. Garret and
the young scholars were indeed already in durance vile, but
the requests here made were never granted. Not that the
Cardinal was already cool, or unconcerned, far from it ! but
he will take his own way, and act as it best pleased him.
Nay, he will watch for farther revenge, and before long some
thing may occur, which will carry even the King fully along

22 MS. Cotton Caligula, B. vi., fol. 171. b. Even Garret will not be called up to London, till
towards the end of the year. For Oxford's sake, and more especially the Cardinars pet College,
"the less bruit the better." So far Warham's advice was followed.

1526.] WRATH OF THE KING. Ill
with him. Accordingly, so it happened ; for in less than a
fortnight after this letter, and little more than a month after
the day of terror at St. Paul's, an opportunity was presented,
which Wolsey, with the Bishops, did not fail to improve for
the most impious of all purposes — the burning of the Sacred
Scriptures, and to be burned by authority of the King.
Henry the VIII. having written against Martin Luther's
book on the Babylonish Captivity, and thus procured from
Rome the title of " Defender of the Faith ;" Luther in 1521
had published his bold and very rough reply. In September
1525, however, as already hinted, no matter by whose advice,
or under what impression, he made an attempt at reconcilia
tion, by addressing a letter to his Majesty. In this letter he
actually, confessed that at the instance of other persons he had
grievously ofi"ended, by a foolish and precipitate publication,
yet, from the reported clemency of the King, he hoped for his
forgiveness. He had been told that his Majesty was not the
real author of the book edited under his name ; and, at the
same time, though denouncing Wolsey as " a monster, the
general odium of God and man, and the plague of his king
dom," he yet prayed for a gracious reply ! Luther pled after
wards, that he had been urgently pressed by Christiern King
of Denmark to write even this letter, but the step taken no
one can defend. It was not only unworthy of his character
and place, but at variance with the upright integrity of any
follower of Christ. " Who knows," said Luther, " but in a
happy hour I may gain the King of England ?" A little of
human vanity, therefore, seems to have been lurking in his
mind ; but at all events, he must have been quite in the dark
as to the existing state of affairs in England, when he could
pen and print such a letter.^^
Henry, in reply, having reproached Luther with levity and
inconstancy, as well as his marriage, and the vilest heresy.

23 If any one desire to have another proof that Tyndale and Luther had never met, as yet,
he may find it here. Had they done so, they must have conversed over the state of England,
and the close alliance then subsisting between Henry and his favourite Minister ; for with this
subject Tyndale was, and continued to be, most intimately acquainted. Now, had he been
"confederate with Luther," never would he or could he have advised or sanctioned such a foolish
step as this. For though he afterwards reprobated the rough and scurrilous reply of Henry, he
was too well aware of the state of parties in England to have dreamt of such a communication
being successful. No, he was far better employed upon his New Testament at Worms, than in
advising at Wittenberg, a letter to the King of England so injudicious as this— and well was it
for Tyndale's cause, as we shall see presently, that more than six months passed away before
his Majesty even saw the letter.

112 DENOUNCES THE NEW TESTAMENT. [book I.
represented Wolsey as peculiarly dear to him, and of great
value in preventing the contagion of the Lutheran heresy ;
of which, it might have been added, he had lately given a
flaming specimen.
A remarkable fact, however, respecting this letter of Luther's
has been all but overlooked. Though dated from Wittenberg,
on the 1st of September 1525, more than six months had
elapsed before it met the eye? of 'the, King. He himself pro
fesses that he only received it on the 20th of March ! Its
non-arrival may well be observed, for, had the same wrath
been excited by the end of 1525, the entrance of books at that
period, and in January, must have been still more difficult
than it was. But arriving five weeks after the famous burning
at St. Paul's, a fine opportunity was now presented for excit
ing the royal indignation against the English New Testament,
and covering it with all the odium oi Lutheranism, the assumed
cant of the day. The name of the translator not being yet
known, for Cochlseus had not mentioned it, no doubt it was
deemed a happy thought, boldly to assert that the production
was the device of Luther himself ! Henry must have been
sufficiently incensed by the letter of Luther alone, and, as for
any additional information, both he and Wolsey must have
remembered, too late, the letters of Rincke and Cochlseus ; but
the following is the language of the King, in his English pre
face, addressed to his " dearly beloved people."
" So came it then to pass that Luther at last perceiving wise men to espy
him, learned men to leave him, good men to abhor him, and his frantic favour
ers to fall to wreck ; the nobles and honest people in Almaygne (Germany)
being taught by the proof of his ungracious practice, much more hurt and mis
chief to follow thereof, than ever they looked after; devised a letter to us,
written to abuse them and all other nations, in such wise as ye, by the contents
thereof, hereafter shall perceive. In which he feigneth himself to be informed,
that we be turned unto the favour of his sect. And, with many flattering words,
he laboureth to have us content that he might be bold to write to us, in the
matter and cause of the gospel : and thereupon, without answer had from us,
not only published the same letter and put it in print, of purpose that his ad
herents should be the bolder under the shadow of our authority ; but also fell
in device with one or two lewd 24 persons, bom in this our i-ealm, for the trans
lating of the New Testament into English ; as well with many corruptions of
that holy text, as certain prefaces and other pestilent glosses in the margins, for
the advancement and setting forth of his abominable heresies, intending to

24 Lewd-i. e. unlearned ; ignorant. For the gradual changes in the meaning of this word,
see Jamieson's Dictionary, or that of Johnson by Todd.

1526.] IN ITS FIRST EDITION. 113
abuse the good minds and devotion, that you, our dearly beloved people, bear
toward the holy Scripture, and infect you with the deadly corruption and con
tagious odour of his pestilent errors.25 In the avoiding whereof. We, of our
special tender zeal towards you, have, with the deliberate advice of the most
reverend father in God, Thomas Lord Cardinal, Legate a latere of the See
Apostolic, Archbishop of York, Primate and our Chancellor of this realm, and
other reverend fathers of the spirituality, determined the said and untrue trans
lations to he burned, with further sharp correction and punishment against the
keepers and readers of the same, reckoning of your wisdom very sure that ye
will well and thankfully perceive our tenair and loving mind toward you therein,
aud that ye will never be so greedy of any sweet wine, be the grape never so
pleasant, that ye will desire to taste it, being well advertised that your enemy
before hath poisoned it." 26
They had burned New Testaments, with other books, on
the 11th of February. But this advice given by Wolsey,
and cordially sanctioned by the King, as to the burning of
the quarto book, the only edition yet marked out, must have
occurred immediately on the reception of Luther''s letter ; and
it fully prepares us for the more formal injunctions of Tunstal
and Warham, which, however, did not come out till towards
the end of the year, so that we have still several incidents to
record before then. Tunstal was still in Spain.
The footsteps of Divine Providence, at this ever-memorable period,
were marked and conspicuous. Events crowded upon each other, and,

25 Here, then, was evidently Tyndale's quarto New Testament, toith glosses, and denounced so
early as tlie 20t?t of March 1526, no mention being yet made of the small edition.
26 See the book itself, or Herbert's Ames, i. pp. 297-300. The first edition of Henry's reply,
in the original Latin, in quarto, and without date, which Strype by mistake placed in 1525, was
not published till towards the close of this year ; a second, in 12mo, came out dated on the 2d of
December 1526 ; but so eager was the King, that it had been translated into English, and by
himself. The time of receiving Luther's letter is not mentioned in the Latin editions, but in the
English the King's answer begins thus; "Your letters written the first September (1525,) we
have received the xx dap of March" But a still more cuiious circumstance, never before ob
served, is this : that the copy alluded to as received on the 20th of March, was certainly not that
of Luther's own hand-vrriting, nor in manuscript ; it was merely a copy on which Sir Thomas
More had pounced ; and the original letter in manuscript had either been miscarried, or newer
been sent! Its being printed before the King could reply, must have been very provoking, and,
therefore, this is noticed in the preceding extract, as an aggravation. For proof of what we have
now stated, we are indebted to the original Manuscripts. Thus, in a letter from Dr. Knight,
then the King's Secretary, addressed to Wolsey, so late as the 21st oi August, he says : " As for
the copy of Luther's letter, his Grace knoweth noneviher, but that Sir Thomas More hath hit."
— See Wolsey's Correspondence in the Chapter House, vol. vii.. No. 62. And again, in a letter
from Wolsey himself, to Sir T. More, towards the end of September, where, judging of other
men by himself, he says—" And whereas ye notified unto me, that the King's pleasure is, that
his Grace's answer to Luther's letter should be incontinently set forth to the Princes of Almayne,
(Germany) without abiding or tarrying for the Copy thereof, me seemeth it is not convenient that
this should be done, in my poor opinion ; as well for that Luther, who is full of subtilty and
craft, hereafter might percase deny, that any such letter hath been sent by him unto the King's
highness, as that the said answer, not having the said copy adjoined thereunto, should be for
want thereof, to the readers and hearers thereof, somewhat diminute and obscure." Both these
letters have been printed in the Government State Papers, 1830, pp. 173-175. As for Henry's
letter, in the copies for Germany the Emperor's arms fronted the title-page ; and, in 1527, Coch
lseus, as we have stated, was printing it with his own characteristic comments. See page 60.
VOL. 1. n

114 POLITICAL AFFAIRS. [bOOK 1.
no doubt, so far mitigated the severity of persecution. Political affairs
admitted of no delay, more especially as Wolsey was now often dragged
along, like a slave, at the chariot-wheels of his own ambition. " The
King," says Hall, " this summer took his pastime in hunting ;" but as
for the Cardinal, he must now be engrossed in a deep political game,
demanding all his powers ; so that affairs such as those we have been
describing, could not possibly be pursued without interruption.
The Emperor and Francis had m,ade peace, and this did not suit with
the Cardinal's taste or prospects. His enmity to the former now ex
tended to his aunt, the wife of his own Sovereign ; and therefore an
embassy, with Sir Thomas Oheyney, as principal, must, in the month of
March, be sent into France. This had for its design a double object,
namely, to induce Francis to Ireah his oath to the Emperor, and to try
and secure the Duchess of Alen^ on, the sister of the King, as a suitable
Queen for Henry, at a convenient opportunity. Thus early was the
Cardinal insinuating scruples into his King's mind as to the morality or
legality of his marriage -fl and though in the latter object he failed,
in the former he succeeded ; for by the month of June, Francis was
again in hostility to the Emperor. As for Wolsey, he was ascribing to
his own government the merit of having so advised ; because this peace
was not only unreasonable and impracticable, but " tending to the pre
judice and danger of all Christendom 1"
The chief author of this new war, however, was our former Bishop of
Worcester, the Roman Pontiff himself, who had been actually more busy
than any other to produce it. Having once sent his ambassadors to
France, England, and Venice, our Cardinal had most willingly intrigued
with France as his abettor ; Clement, the Pontiff, had sent Francis a
release from his oath, and " the holy league of Clement" was the result !
But never were two men more infatuated ; as " in few instances have
the authors of mischief brought down on themselves the retributory
punishment more signally, or more to the advantage of manhind, than
Clement and his coadjutor, Wolsey, did, by the hostilities which they
thus united to produce."^^
The Pope had announced his new league to the Emperor, in June,
who replied, by a state paper of twenty-four sheets, in September. In
that month the Pontiff had sent to Henry VIII. desiring him to be
" Protector'' of his league. The King declined, while Wolsey stood by,
dreaming, no doubt, that he had the balance of Europe in his hands : but
lo ! on the 20th of this same month, Clement himself was attacked by
one of his own Cardinals ! Hatred between the parties having risen to a
great height, the Bishop of Rome had said that he would " take away his
red hat;" on which the Cardinal threatened, if he did so, he would "put

27 See Turner',s Henry VIII. chaps, xvi. and xx. 28 Turnei'.

l.')2G.] PERSECUTION RESUMED. 115
on an helmet to overthrow his three crowns f and now, without waiting
for the indignity, he had fulfilled his threat. The Pontiff had no more
than time to retire, with his attendants, and chief citizens, into the
castle of St. Angelo, but with no more provisions than would last for
three days. Apprehensive of dying from famine, he was forced to
capitulate and bow to Cardinal Colonna. Although even this was but
small humiliation to that which followed, there was enough here to
have shewn both Clement and Wolsey, that, in the hands of an over
ruling Providence, their " turning of things upside down, was esteemed
as the potter's clay." The Bishop of Bath, who, in February last, had
sat in severe judgment upon Barnes, was no longer singing the same
song. He was now ambassador at Rome ; and in a letter to Wolsey,
dated the 5th of October, he says — " They cry and call upon the King's
highness, and your Grace, as them in whom is now all the help and stay
of Christendom ; for the Pope, and all the affairs of Italy, they are in
ruin and at nothing l"^^ Here, therefore, we must pause, to enquire
after the state of other matters at home.
From March to October, whether the friends of truth had
enjoyed a breathing time or not, as it regards the prudential
importation and circulation of Tyndale's precious volumes,
certain events show, that, though living in perilous times,
they had zealously improved them. Thus, when the " Sup
plication of Beggars " was scattering about in London, at and
before Candlemas, the author, Mr. Fyshe, it is presumed,
was not in England, otherwise he must have run the hazard
of being amongst the first victims. Return, however, he did,
and to London, where he not only sojourned for a season
during this summer, but was useful and active in the circula
tion of Tyndale's New Testament. It seems as if he had come
for the purpose. He may have brought over copies with him ;
but, at all events, when we come to the disclosures upon oath
in the spring of 1528, we shall find, that, at this very period,
he was a confidential agent, importing the Testament from
Mr. Harman of Antwerp, and dealing it out for sale to such
as travelled through the country and sold them. After Tun
stal's return, he again fled abroad, not returning for about
two years and a half.
Mr. Rodolph Bradford, a Fellow of King's College, Cam
bridge, coming to London, by the help of Mr. Jeffrey Lome,
the Usher of St. Anthony's school, and confidential agent of
29 MS. Calig. D. ix. p. 263.

1 ; 6 PERSECUTION RESUMED. [bOOK I.
Mr. Forman of Honey Lane, the colleague of Garret, " he
met with certain New Testaments, translated into English
by Tyndale, and went to Reading with them, out of a godly
zeal to disperse them.''^" There he delivered them to a cer
tain monk, who being apprehended, made known the names of
him and others from whom he had them. Whereupon letters
were sent over to Cambridge to apprehend this Bradford, now
returned, together with Dr. Smith of Trinity Hall, Simon
Smith of Grenville Hall, Hugh Latymer, and Segar Nicolson,
a stationer there. Bradford escaped to Ireland, but was taken
and imprisoned two years. He afterwards returned to Cam
bridge, passed as D.D. in 1534, and lived and died Chaplain
to Latimer when Bishop of Worcester.^'
As the year advanced, however, the alarm continued to
increase. The Pontiff himself seemed to be in jeopardy —
Luther's rash letter was not forgotten — Henry was printing
his Latin reply, and translating it also into English for the
press, with a preface to his people — the Bishops were consult
ing — Tunstal had now come home, and something must be
done. In what particular month of this year Tunstal had
arrived from Spain, does not appear. Wolsey heard in
March, says Lord Herbert, that he was on his way home
wards, so that it must have been some time after this ; and
then, however annoying it certainly proved to such a man, he
could not remain long in London, before he found it necessary
to look into the state of his diocese ; for so widely were both
editions of the Testament now circulated, that even the Arch
bishop of Canterbury must examine his province. The Bishops
were assembled, and, according to Strype, at the instigation of
Wolsey. Of this consultation we have no record, but one
curious account of it may be glanced at from the famous
Satire of William Boye against the Cardinal. Being abroad,
he could, of course, only write according to the report that
reached him — and this was incorrect as it regarded Wolsey
— but still it may be noticed as one proof, by the way, of the
deep interest felt in all the public proceedings of the time.

30 The books at Cambridge, it maybe remembered, were concealed in time, before Wolsey's
'• secret search." They had been dispersed, and Bradford comes to London for more !
31 Foxe,first and following editions, compared with Strype. The latter, by mistake, in one
place speaks of Lome as servant to Dr. Farman of Cambridge, instead of connecting him with
Forman of Honey Lane in London ; and ascribes the Testament to Fryth, bnt meaning Tyndale.

1526.] RECORDED IN RHYME. 117
According to Roye, it was Henry Standish, once Guardian
of the Franciscans, and now Bishop of St. Asaph, already
mentioned, who first informed Wolsey of the Testament being
in the country, imploring him most earnestly to prevent its
circulation; This informer Roye designates Judas, and mak
ing Wolsey sustain the part of Pilate, he represents him as,
at the first, paying but little regard to the fury of Standish,
and even saying — " I find no fault therein." But when once
the Bishops had assembled as a body, and he with them, to
examine and determine what was to be done ; no sooner did
Tunstal, Bishop of London, (or Caiphas,) deliver his opinion,
than the Cardinal assented, and, of course, all the rest —
giving judgment that the book should be sought for, and
committed to the flames. In Roy e's estimation, however, it
was now all in vain, either to " give judgment against the
Gospel," or try to prevent its circulation. Thus, in one
place, alluding first to the Saviour, and then to the book it
self, he says, iu his own uncouth, but nervous rhyme —
" God, of his goodness, grudg'd not to die,
Man to deliver from deadly damnation.
Whose will is, that we should know perfectlie
What he bore hath done for our salvation.
O cruel Caiphas ! full of crafty conspiration,
How durst thou give then false judgment.
To burn God's word— the holy Testament.
"The lewdness of living is loath to bear
Christ's gospel to come unto clear light ;
How be it, surely it is so spread far and near.
That for to let it, thou hast little might ;
God hath opened our dark dimmed sight
Truly to perceive thy tyrannous intent,
To burn God's word— the holy Testament."^^
Let the other particulars here given, with the exception of
Wolsey's indifl'erence, be as they might, we know that the
Bishops did assemble and consult : and that some prohibitory
instrument was issued by Wolsey himself, there can be no
doubt, as we find Fisher, Bishop of Rochester, acting on the
strength of it, in January 1529.^ Whatever it was, how
ever, this was in his own name, not that of the King, nor
does there seem to l)e any trace of it remaining in existence.

3E See the original edition in the British Museum; or Harleian Misc., vol. ix. pp. 77, 81.
Edit. 1812.
33 Thus in the Consistorial Acts at Rochester may be seen a rigid process against the precen
tor of the Benedictine Priory, Dr. William Mafelde, for retaining an English Testament, iu
disobedience to the general injunction of Cardinal fVolsey, to deliver up these prohibited books
lo the Bishops.

118 INJUNCTION OF TUNSTAL. [[BOOK I.
The first instrument generally known to have been pub
lished, was the prohibition sent out by Cuthbert Tunstal ; in
which it will be observed, that both editions of Tyndale's
Testament, already dispersed in great number, are now, at last,
denounced, and Luther's sect falsely employed, as the con
venient word of terror.
As the reader may be curious to know in what terms the
volume was first spoken of by men professing to have spiritual
authority, and since many will be astonished at the language
of a man calling himself, " by the permission of God, Bishop
of London," we cannot refrain from giving the injunction
entire. After the usual introduction, addressing his Arch
deacons, he thus proceeds : —

" By the duty of our pastoral office, we are bound diligently, with all our
power, to foresee, provide for, root out, and put away, all those things, which
seem to tend to the peril and danger of our subjects, and specially the
destruction of their souls ! Wherefore, we having understanding, by the report
of divers credible persons, and also by the evident appearance of the matter,
that many children of iniquity, maintainors of Luther's sect, blinded through
extreme wickedness, wandering from the way of truth and the Catholic faith,
craftily have translated the New Testament into our English tongue, intermingling
therewith many heretical articles, and erroneous opinions, pernicious and
offensive, seducing the simple people, attempting, by their wicked and perverse
interpretations, to profanate the majesty of the Scripture, which hitherto hath
remained undefiled, and craftily to abuse the most Holy Word of God, and
the true sense of the same ; of the which translation there are many books im
printed, some with glosses, and some without ; containing in the English
tongue, that pestiferous and most pernicious poison, dispersed throughout all our
diocese, iu great number : which truly, without it be speedily foreseen, without
doubt will contaminate and infect the flock committed unto us, with most
deadly poison and heresy, to the grievous peril and danger of the souls com
mitted to our charge, and the offence of God's Divine Majesty : Wherefore we,
Cuthbert, the Bishop aforesaid, grievously sorrowing for the premises, willing
to withstand the craft and subtlety of the ancient enemy and his ministers,
which seek the destruction of my flock, and with a diligent care to take heed
unto the flock committed to my charge, desiring to find speedy remedies for the
premises, Do charge you, jointly and severally, (the Archdeacons,) and by
virtue of your obedience, straightly enjom and command you, that, by our
authority, you warn, or cause to be warned, all and singular, as well exempt as
not exempt, dwelling within your archdeaconries, that within thirty days' space,
whereof ten days shall be for the first, ten for the second, and ten for the third
peremptory term, under pam of excommunication, and incurring the suspicion
of heresy, they do bring in, and really deliver unto our Vicar- General, (Geoffrey
Wharton,) all and singular such books, as contain the translation of th.e New
Testament in the English tongue ; and that you do certify us, or our said Com
missary, within two months after the day of the date of tliese presents, duly,
personally, or by your letters, together with these presents under your seals.

1526.] MANDATE OF WARHAM. 119
what you have done in the premises, under pain of contempt ! Given uuder our
seal, the four and twentieth day of October, a.d. ) 526, in the fifth year of our
consecration." 34
Tunstal's orders being thus issued on Wednesday the 24th
of October, a copy was sent to the Archdeacons of Middlesex,
Essex and Colchester ; and eleven days afterwards, or the 3d
of November, a " Mandate," in nearly the same terms, was
given out by Warham, Archbishop of Canterbury, to search
his entire province. Both instruments refer simply to the
New Testament of Tyndale, of both editions, and in wide cir
culation ; no other book being referred to, or prohibited at the
same moment. Tyndale, therefore, though not yet expressly
named, enjoyed the honour of being thus exposed alone, and
as though he had been the great offender of the day ; while it
will be observed, that the work here carved out for the Arch
deacons, instead of being finished in two months, occupied
ofiicial attention for years to come.^°
After two such injunctions as these had been issued, it was
not to be supposed that these enemies of divine truth either
had been or would remain inactive. Accordingly, whether
we regard the Bishops at home, or the King and Cardinal
in their exertions abroad, they are all alive, and equally on
the alert.
With respect to proceedings at home, Barnes, it must be re
membered, had not yet left the country ; but he had been
so far released as to be now a free prisoner at St. Augustine's ;
and Garret, though he had endured penance sufiicient at Ox
ford, had not been so publicly cross-examined. This might
elicit some farther information. Articles having been, there-

34 Foxe says, 23d Oct., and Collier baa it the 18th ; but this would have been the fourth year
of Tunstal, as he was installed the 19th Oct. 1522. The above date is from the Register
itself, xxiiij.
3fi The injunction of Tunstal is in Foxe, vol. ii., p. 284, ed. 1631 ; and the Mandate of War
ham in Wilkin's Concil., vol. iii., p. 706. There are said to have been various other books
prohibited by the same Mandate, but this is a mistake, as no other book is named in it ; and as
for Foxe, it must be observed, that he is now recapitulating under 1530, as he often does. Even
Mr. Todd, iu his excellent " Vindication," says, — " It may be proper to inform some readers of
the title of other English books prohibited at the sa7ne time, and in the following order, — " The
Supplication of Beggars — Revelation of Antichrist— the New Testament of Tyndale— Tfte
ffTicked Mammon — TJie Obedience of a Christian mdn— Introduction to Paul's Epistle to the
Romans," &c. But Mr. T. knows well, that the books here printed in italic, yteje not in esnstence,
and that, therefore, they could not be denounced by anttcipation. The mistake has been re
peated by many, bat fresh alarms were the occasion of other denunciations, when all these and
other books were included, which ^vill come before us at their respective seasons. The intro
duction to the Romans we have not excluded, as we shall have occasion to show that it was
already in existence, though not as yet denounced.

120

PERSECUTION CONTINUED, [book I.

fore, vamped up against him, he had been brought up from
Osney prison, and about this time stood before Tunstal and
his fellows, as already narrated. Following the sad example
set him by Barnes, he at last abjured.36
Between Oxford and Cambridge, however, there has ap
peared as yet one material difference in point of the number
of convictions. True, the students at Cambridge, being fore
warned, had more dexterously concealed their books, and so
escaped detection ; but there were Latimer aud Bilney, not to
say others, as notorious as Barnes ; nay, the two named were,
in every respect, far more so. It may have seemed strange,
therefore, that they at least were not ordered up to London at
the same time. It must, however, be remembered, that
Barnes had rendered himself most obnoxious at that moment,
by his unceremonious exposure of Wolsey personally : yet
engrossed as he was with political affairs, after a season,
neither these men, nor some others, had been overlooked.
As for Latimer, his adroitness of reply, and vein of humour,
were often of service to him, and to these, perhaps, he was
now somewhat indebted. Various complaints had been made
against him ; but though they had not, it is evident that the in
terdict of West, the Bishop of Ely, could not remain unnoticed,
however unsupported it might be by other authorities.^
Wolsey, therefore, sent for Latimer, to appear before him at
York House, where he himself examined him. Upon his
first entrance, the Cardinal seemed surprised, on observing ,
him to be so far advanced in years. Finding him also to be

3'f Thomas Garret, perhaps the very first receiver, but certainly the first distributor, of these
dreaded books, was originally a student at Oxford ; having entered in 1517, taken his degree of
B.A. in 1518, and that of A.M. afterwards. Upon obtaining these volumes, he appears to have
immediately thought of his former abode, with which he still kept up correspondence, " for he
took them down," says Foxe, " to such as he knew were lovers of the Gospel." After escaping
from Tunstal, he went from place to place for eight or nine years ; but, in better times, he was
very differently regarded. The first notice to be found of him is in 1535. At that period the
Marches of Calais belonged to the crown of England, and, in a letter from Cranmer to Lord
Crumwell, dated the 8th of October in that year, there is the following passage, — " Inasmuch as I
am advertised that the parsonage of St. Peter's beside Calais is like shortly to be void, and in
the King's Grace's disposition, I beseech you either to obtain the same for Master Garret, whose
learning and conversation is known to be right and honest, or else for some other, as is so able
and wiUing to discharge the same as he is."— MS. Chapter House, Westminster. Queen Anne
Boleyn also solicited preferment for him, Todd's Cranmer, i., p. 138 ; and, what was singular
enough, on the 14th of Juno 15.37, according to the Register, he was inducted, though under
Stokcsly, ajid as Rector, into the very same church in which ho had been Curate, in the days of
Wolsey ! He was 80, also, in consequence of the resignation of Laurence Cook, the man who,
in 1533, behaved so brutally at the martyrdom of .Tohn Fryth. Here, however. Garret was
to remain only three years. The crown of martyrdom awaited him, as he perished in the
same flames with Dr. Barnes, on the 30th of June 1540, or two days after Lord CmmwelL
s? See page 102.

1526.3 BUT IN VAIN. 121
at once acute, learned, and ready in his replies ; surpassing
in accuracy of learning, either of the Doctors, Capon and
Marshall, now in Wolsey's presence ; he requested him to
give some account of that sermon which he had preached
before Dr. West, the Bishop. Latimer did so. " Then,"
said the Cardinal, " if the Bishop of Ely cannot abide such
doctrine as you have here repeated, you shall have my license,
and shall preach it unto his beard, let him say what he will."
Accordingly, after a gentle admonition only, the Cardinal
discharged Latimer, actually giving him his license to preach
throughout England ! A most singular interposition in
favour of the truth, at once raising the man above the malice
of his enemies, and the interdict of any Bishop in the land I^^
With regard to Bilney, who had preached with such effect,
not only at Cambridge, but in Suffolk and Norfolk, and even
in London, whose case at last became so affecting, he made
two appearances. The first has been generally overlooked,
perhaps partly owing to one passage in the first edition of
Foxe having been omitted, and the fact coming out incident
ally only in the subsequent editions. But of the fact itself,
there can be no doubt, or that he did not escape as Latimer
had done ; for alas ! he then first got entangled, aud first let
go his integrity ! At the close of this first appearance he had
been enjoined " not to preach any of Luther's opinions, but
to impugn them everywhere ; " yet afterwards, taking refuge
merely on some supposed informality in the oath administered
to him, he had gone on much as before. It was on this
account that we shall find him come before them in November
1527, or next year, charged with having relapsed. More than
this, we shall find afterwards, that, at whatever period this
first appearance of Bilney took place, there was another man
along with him, Thomas Arthur, in the same situation. As
for any other Cambridge men, they seem to have been merely
admonished. The mildness hitherto shown to men, must have been most

38 MS. Harleian, No. 422, fol. 85-86. This must have answered the purpose of Latimer for the
present. At a future period, when the authority of Wolsey was gone, having been called up by
Stokesly, Bishop of London, he took still higher ground :— " The University of Cambridge," said
he " hath authority A[iostolic to admit twelve yearly preachers, of the which 1 am one : and the
King's Highness, God save his Grace ! did decree that all admitted of Universities, should
preach throughout all his realm, as long as they preached well, without distretne of any man—
my Lord of Canterbury, and my Lord of Durham, with such other standing by and hearing the
decree, nothing gainsaying it, but consenling to the same."

122 THIRD EDITION OF [boOK I.
annoying to some of these persecutors ; and it was afterwards
to be visited on the head of Wolsey, when impeached, that he
had been the disturber of " the dMe and direct correction of
heresies ;" but as for zeal in the burning of books, the Cardi
nal was certainly not one whit behind any of them. By the
end of this year, therefore, many copies of the New Testament
must have been consumed in the flames, for it has been al
together a mistake to confine this to one or two great occasions.
On the contrary, in the very first month of next year we
shall presently hear the ambassador of Henry, in the Low
Countries, bringing it forward as an argument for burning
others there, that this had been doing in England daily !
In the midst of all this determined, though vain fury,
against the reception of the word of God into England, it is
most gratifying to find that the friends of truth abroad had
been so active. It was there that the King and the Cardinal
had been playing their part in this tragedy, and to them we
must now turn, after a few words of explanation ; for we are
not yet done with this notable year, 1526.
The editions of Tyndale's Testament have been hitherto di
vided into two classes, styled the genuine and spurious ; mean
ing by the former such as he himself edited, and by th# latter,
such as were printed from his, by others. The latter were
not so correct, but still they nobly and effectually served their
purpose, enlightening and consoling many an immortal spirit.
We have already given the history of the first and second
editions printed in ] 525, and issued from Worms. We now
come to the first printed at Antwerp by Christopher of End
hoven, or the third edition. The whole history of it is curious,
giving such a display of opposition to the entrance of the
Word of God into our native land, as is nowhere else to be
found, though it has never before been even noticed in any
printed publication.
The two months formally specified in Tunstal's injunction
for calling in books at home, were not permitted to expire
before it becomes evident that the King and Wolsey, as well
as the Bishops, had entered fully into the subject. Finding
that, somehow or other, copies were importing, they resolved,
if possible, to cut off the supplies from abroad. Well aware
that it was from the Low Countries, Brabant, that all these
hated Testaments had come, no stone must be left unturned

1526.] THE NEW TESTAMENT. 123
to find them out. All the energy of the English ambassador
at the court of Lady Margaret, must be put to the stretch,
and we shall now have one striking illustration of how much
in earnest were all parties — King, Cardinal, and Bishops —
to arrest the progress, and prevent the triumphs of divine
truth. 0 how joyfully would they have consigned the last leaf
to the flames ! And this, assuredly, they would have done,
but for this most annoying and hated " new invention of
printing." While, however, they were burning at home, others
were busy at the printing press abroad, and, therefore, the
frenzy of the enemy must extend from England to Brabant.
How providential was it, that, by this time, the power and
the terror of Wolsey's name were upon the wane ! Only a
few years before, the Lady Eegent of these countries, Princess
Margaret, had whispered in his ear the sweet sound of the
Popedom, and her own wish to see him in the Papal Chair ;
nay, and proposed to write to the Emperor, her nephew, in
his favour.^ Now, however, she had found good reason to
suspect the man.'"' High words had passed between the parties,
and also with Count Hoogstrate, one of the Lady Margaret's
Council, to whom application was about to be made. Wolsey,
mored^^, had insulted, by the insolence of his language.
Monsieur Bever, the Lord of Campvere and Admiral of Flan
ders, the Emperor's ambassador to England, now returned to
the Low Countries. Added to all this, it had been a favourite
project of the Cardinal, to withdraw the English merchants
and " the mart for goods," from Antwerp to Calais. All these
things were against him ; and " the Lords of Antwerp," who,
at one period, not long past, would have at once crouched
before him, by the good providence of God, will now prove
neither so pliant nor obsequious.
Wolsey, however, fully aware of all these circumstances,
had resolved that the search for books upon the Continent
should commence with the highest authority ; and he must,
therefore, have the King on the throne, called the " Defender
of the Faith," to command the destruction of the Sacred
Volume ! The ink of Tunstal's injunction was scarcely dry,
before Henry had signed his letters ; one addressed to Princess

39 MS. Cotton, Galba, B. vii. p. 353, 354. b. And the Emperor then, iu Dec. 1521, at least profess
ed readiness to serve him in the election, after the death of Leo X.— Galba, B. vi. 80, b.
•10 Galba, B. vi. fo. 3, !), 10.

124 PERSECUTION CARRIED ABROAD. [bOOK I.
Margaret, and the other to the Governor of the English House
at Antwerp. Wolsey's letters, also, dated the 31 st of October
and 3d November, were directed to John Hackett, the Agent
for the Crown and English Envoy at that court, and all were
conveyed by the same messenger.*^ At a formal audience,
on Saturday the l7th of November, Hackett delivered the
King's letters to the Lady Margaret, in presence of the Lords
of her Council; and, on the 19th, the Princess herself replied
to Henry — " She cannot sufiiciently praise his Majesty's
virtuous intentions ! She had consulted with Hackett, and
since the reception of the King's letter, she had pointedly
commanded her officers to search the country for these books,
intending to proceed in all rigour against those whom they
found culpable."*^ Two days after this, Hackett informs
Wolsey of his cordial reception at court, and that he had
" delivered the King's letter to the Governor of the Merchant
Adventurers, who promised that on the first day at Barrow,*^
he would shew the King's highness and the Cardinal's mind
and pleasure as touching these new imprinted books, and shall
do his best, (and so will I,) utterly to destroy, and bring them
to nought." Hackett is very warm in the cause, for if it
did not succeed, he thought that " every fool would think
to be a doctor!"^*
But in negociating this business, our ambassador had no
easy task assigned to him. Books were to be sought for in the
large and busy city of Antwerp. As Envoy, he lived fifteen
miles distant, at Mechlin, where the reigning Princess held
her court. In Antwerp itself, the Margrave, as representative
of the Emperor, resided ; but as that city enjoyed its own laws
and privileges, of which the " Lords of Antwerp" were the
guardians, their authority was paramount to all others.
Hackett eagerly desired to gratify the Cardinal and his
English Bishops, but then he was about to meddle with the
citizens of " no mean city." ''*

*' The first letter, it will be observed, was written the week immediately after Tunstal's in
junction, and the second on the same day as Warham's mandate.
42 Galba, B. ix. fol. 33, b.
43 Barrow, Barois, Barrough, all refer to the same place, now known as Bergen-op-Zoom, Vien
in immediate contact with the water.
M Galba, B. ix. fol. 36.
45 Antwerp was then, in fact, the emporium of the world ; Bruges having declined for the
last ten or fifteen years, while Antwerp was increasing daily. AH the Kngiish merchants had
removed to it by 1516. According to Guicciardini, 500 craft would sail and arrive in one day;

1526.] PERSECUTION IN ANTWERP. 125
On the 11th of December, Henry's Secretary, Mr. Brian
Tuke, sent off copies of Tyndale's Testament, as an index to
the others, now sought to be destroyed ; and the first letter,
reporting progress, is directed to him for the King, dated the
17th, before Hackett had received the books. The second,
expressing great anxiety to receive them, is five days later,
and addressed to Wolsey. This seems to be an instance
of those double despatches which the Cardinal uniformly re
quired ; and, as it presents additional information, we give
the passage entire. —
" By my last letters, dated the 17th day of this month, I wrote to Mr. Brian
Tuke, how that the Lords of the town of Antwerp showed me that they had
submitted themselves as touching the correction of this new book in English ;
to be ordered after the discretion and advice of the Lady Margaret and her
Council ; and after this conclusion taken, the foresaid Lords came to the Court
where I was present, and showed to the said Council how that I made great
diligence to see the foresaid books burnt, and the (imprimurs) printers to be
criminally punished, according to their merits, and that they have had in part
the examination of the said imprinter.
" But considering that such business as this is, touches both life and goods,
the said Lords of Antwerp declared unto the foresaid council, that they thought
not, in no wise to judge upon the example of another judge's judgment, without
they have perfect knowledge upon the foundment and reason, that they may do
it : Desiring the said Council that they might have the said (book) translated
into Latin or Dutch, so that they might understand the language — whereupon
that they may contrive the sentence, to the which the Lords of the Privy Council
would lightly (readily) agree. But I answered upon this article, that it were
not convenient to permit that such translation should be done on this side of
the seas, for, lawfully, I would suspect him that would meddle in the same.
They answered me, that they ought not to judge without they knew the found
ment of the cause. I answered them, that the King my Sovereign Lord and
very different from its present state, when in the course of the year there may only be about
1000. Then 2500 vessels might be seen lying in the Scheldt before the city at one time; ten
thousand carts were in constant employment, besides hundreds of waggons daily with passengers,
and 500 coaches used by persons of distinction.
Merchant Adventurers. As early as the year 1296 our Merchant Adventurers are said to
have established a factory ; but, at all events, the Magazine of Wool at Antwerp is distinctly
noticed in 1314.— Foedera, iii., p. 482. The English House there, where our ambassadors were
lodged on their journeys, and to which the English in times of danger ajtd disturbance resorted,
was therefore a notable spot in its day. In what part of Antwerp it stood, before the Hotel
Van Lyere in Rue Neuve was ceded to them in 1658, we cannot state, but that is a building of
85 feet in front, by 60 in height, with windows 4 feet broad by ten high. It is at present a
Military Hospital in the street now named the Rue des Princes.— Burgon's Life of Gresham.
King's Merchant. The office of Agent for the Crown, or King's Merchant, was one of the
highest trust and importance. One of the earliest men who sustained it was Wm. de la Pole,
father of the Earl of Suffolk, who, in 1338 from Antwerp, lent Edward III. a sum equal to four
hundred thousand pounds of our present money. This office, as already stated, was now filled
by Hackett, sometimes styled Sir John Hackett, with the additional appointment of envoy to the
court of Mechlin or Brabant. But both Sir John himself, and the English merchants abroad,
with our higher powers at home, were about to he instructed in one of their earliest lessons as to
t!ie liberty qf the subject; and all, be it remembered, in immediate connexion with the New
Testament of Tyndale.

126 PERSECUTION IN ANTWERP. [boOK I.
Master's letters were sufficient enough for the defence of such a cause, and for the
condemnation of these books, and all such other like heretic Scriptures as have
been condemned and burnt in England. They answered me again, that if that
the King's highness or your Grace had sent them hither of every work one of
such like as ye have burned there, that finding such like books here, they would
do such like justice. Yet there has been one of them that said — ' every country
have their own laws, and that the judges of these coimtries ought as well to
know whereupon they shall judge, as our judges know what they have judged,
and upon what ground it stands.'
" But to come to a conclusion, after many arguments, not as in form of Coun
cil, but mediately to bring our matter to an effect ; I took upon me to write
unto your Grace, and that within short time you shall send to the Lady Mar
garet, or to the foresaid Lords of Antwerp, sufficient certification, with one, or
two, or three, of such like books as were condemned and burnt in England ; as I
suppose ye have kept some for such an intent ; and hereupon the Lords of the
Privy Council deferred the translation of the foresaid book, and required me to
write unto your Grace to have the same ; and that tliey would as fain do the
justice upon such like causes, as we are to desire it ; and that as soon as your
Grace's answer comes, that they will administer the justice in such form and
manner, that there shall be sufficient correction done upon them that do offend ;
which surely I certify your Grace, it is very necessary and time to be done, before
the end of this Barrow market. But the first beginning and execution must be
done in the town of Antwerp, which is the fountain of such things, and here
with, all other places will take an example. Considering that the business re
quires diligence, I send this per post purposely unto your Grace, to have your
gracious answer and instructions, when ye think the time. And if it has hap
pened that your Grace had not received some other books of this translation, as
I have sent you here before now, at all adventures, I send you with this inclosed,
one of such like as has been imprinted iu the said town of Antwerp; of the which
be arrested in the Justice's hands, nigh a three hundred, abiding sentence. If
your Grace have any other of such hke books, it were necessary to send me
one of every sort hither, to the condemnation of all such others as we can find
in these parts. — From Mechlin, the xxii day of December 1526." 46
Along with this letter, a second to Brian Tuke, was also
sent by Hackett. His zeal was probably in part professional,
but the authorities at home were in full earnest as to their
anxiety for the destruction of the books. Copies of the Testa
ments had therefore been sent, before he wrote for them, and
they had arrived a few days after his letters of the 22d. He
then addressed the following, " to Mr. Tuke, one of the King's
Secretaryes," dated the 4th of January 1526, i, e. 7.
" My last writing unto your Mastership was dated the 22d day of December,
with letter directed in post to my Lord Legate's Grace, only for the recovering
of such books as ye have sent me now, with your writing, dated the 1 1th day of
the foresaid month, which be eome to my hand on Monday last was (28th Dec),
at after dinner ; and suddenly the same day, betwixt four and five of clock, I

46 MS. Cotton, Galba, B. ix. fol. .¦)?.

1526.] PERSECUTION IN ANTWERP. 127
came to audience in the Privy Council. And after I shewed them a part of
the substance of your writing to me by my Lord Legate's commandment ; and
shewing them the foresaid books, awant47 signed with my Lord of London's
handwriting ; the Lord of Hoogstrate and Monsieur de Palermo, ordained and
concluded, that my Lady should write to the Margrave and Council of the town
of Antwerp, to do justice and correction upon all such like books as they can
find in their limits or jurisdictions. And so it has been done, and I delivered
myself the said Lady's letters to the foresaid Margrave, in presence of the
whole Council of the said town of Antwerp. And after that they had the read
ing of the said letters, they answered me in good manner, that they should do
their devoir, according to right and reason ; and that within four days I shall luiow
how they shall proceed in the business. My trust is, that they shall do well."48
His anticipations, however, after all, were far from being
fulfilled. Matters did by no means proceed so smoothly as
he had expected ; and therefore a long and curious detail must
be forwarded to Wolsey, after the delay of another busy week.
" Please your Grace to understand, that my last letter unto your Grace was
dated the 22d day of Dec, and since, I have received a letter from Mr. Bryan
Tuke, dated the 1 1th day of the said mouth ; and with the said letter 1 received
such like books as I desired, by my last writing unto our Grace. The which
books, likewise, I have written to the said Mr. Tuke, the 4th day of this present
month, and true it is, that by the advice of these Lords of the Privy Council, I
delivered them {three distinct editions, as wUl appear presently), with the Lady
Margaret's letters unto the Lord Margrave of Antwerp, in presence of all the
Lords that administer the laws now in the said town of Antwerp. And after
that they had read the said Lady's letters, and visited (viewed) my Lord of
London's verification in the first leaves of the foresaid books, with great honour
and reverence ; they made answer unto me that they would gladly do their
devoir, and that within three or four days thereafter, I should know their
resolute answer.
" Whereupon I desired them, i» the King my Sovereign Lord and Master's
name, for the increasing and preservation of our Christian faith, and for the
annihilation and extirpation of the malicious sect Lutheran, that inasmuch as
it appears by one of such original books as were condemned and burned in
England, which was there present before them ; and that it appears plainly
that there is no difference, neither difficulty, but that in the text of their books
that be imprinted in this town, there contains all such error and heresies as
are contained in the text of the foresaid condemned and burnt books ; requir
ing them that they should do upon the said books that be here, such correction
and punition aa there lias, and daily is done upon such like heretic books in
England. The said Lords answered me again, that within the space aforesaid,
T should know their entire resolution.
" In the space of the which time, the Margrave aforesaid, as the Emperor's
officer, de[manded] justice to be done, declaring to the said Lords how that it
appeared by the verification of my Lord the Bishop of London, that the text of
the books that be imprinted in this town, contains all the same errors and
heresies, as is contained in the text of the original books, that were condemned

47 Sic. query, a warrant or attestation ? 48 MS. Cotton, Galba, B. ix. fol. 38.

128 PERSECUTION NOBLY RESISTED. [bOOK I.
and burnt in England, as it may appear by one of the said original books, which
is now here present, and ought to be sufficient proof and certification to colla
tion the one by the tother. Wherefore, and considering that the Emperor had
commanded upon pain of banishment, and to lese the third part of his goods, that
should imprime such erroi-s or heresies as this be ; that the imprimer of the
said book, named Christopher Endhoven, ought to be banished out of all the
Emperor's lands and countries, and that the third part of all his goods should
be confiscated in the Emperor's hands, and all the foresaid English books burnt
in the fire, according to the Emperor's last mandment upon such like heresies.
" And there being present the inprimure of the foresaid books, his attorney
or procurator spoke for him, saying : — ' That he had not offended the Emperor's
mandment ; that he had not inprimed no (any) book with heresies. And more
said forth, that the Emperor's subjects, being in the Emperor's countries, and
in a land oi justice, ought not to be judged, neither condemned, by the sentence
or condemnation of the laws or judgment of any other countries : concluding,
by the law, that the judges of these countries ought not to give any blind sen
tence, to banish, dishonour, or confiscate any man or his goods, without they
knew right well themselves, the very foundment and cause. Sustaining like
wise, that without that the Lord Margrave, as the Emperor's officer, can shew,
or do skew, some particular articles in the said books, where these foresaid errors
and heresies have been found ; that the foresaid Christopher, inprimure, ought
tu he enlarged out of prison, and to do his pleasure with the foresaid books!'
" And for a conclusion, after many other replies and duplies done on both
sides, betwixt the Margrave, and the said malefactor and his procurator — ^not
withstanding the promises that the Lords of the Privy Council made unto me,
when I sent you my last post — which promises were, that with condition that I
might shew them here any of such like books as have been condemned and burnt
in England, that they, as then, should order and command altogether, that all
other such like books, or with such like heresies, as might be fomid in these
countries, to be condemned and burnt in like wise. But yet, for all this,
neither for my Lady's first, second, nor third letter, which were written in
meetly good form, the Lords of Antwerp have given for their sentence — that
before the banishment of the said inprimure, the confiscation of his goods,
or the burning of his books, that the Margrave aforesaid, as officer for the
Emperor, shall shew and declare some articles contained in the said books,
where these errors and heresies be found. And iu this manner, the Margrave
told me, that he could proceed no further in iliis business !
" Wherefore I have turned to the Court again, from the said town of Antwerp,
to show my Lady, and the Lords of her Privy Council, the denigation of justice,
that they of the town of Antwerp has done unto me at this time. Thereupon,
I have had great communication with the foresaid Lords of the Privy Council
—showing them, with fair words, that I had great mai-vel of the first deniga
tion of justice, that they of Antwerp did unto me : I showing them the effect
and substance of the King my Sovereign Lord's letters, presenting them the
letters of my Lady Margaret, conforming (agreeing) to my commission,— and
now that, according to the representation that they made unto me, which was
like as aforesaid is,— That if I had here to show any such book or books as
have been burnt iu England, and finding any such like books in this country,
that they should do such Uke justice of them. And like as it appears of truth
that they have had the visitation of the said books, and liave seen my Lord the
Bishop of London's verification in the first leaves of those same ; which books,
with the Lady Margaret's second and third letter, to them of Antwerp, I did
deliver,— yet for any reason that I might show beside, neither for any letter

1526.] PERSECUTION NOBLY RESISTED. 129
that the said lady could write, nor for any af .... of justice that the Mar
grave of Antwerp did desire — yet could I have no other justice of them, but
like as aforesaid is.
" Whereupon some of the said Lords answered me, that it is as great reason
that the judges of these countries ought as well to know what they shall judge
here, as the judges of our country know what they judge there. I answered again,
that it was very hard to make a man understand the English tongue in general,
that cannot speak it, or never has learned it in particular ; and that I could
find no difference in giving of correction to him that has first forged or coined,
far more by him that secondly has forged or coined the such like.
" They answered me, that it is because they have not the perfect knowledge
whether the frst or second be false or not, and that they will do their best to
know the verity in this country ; and that they will as fain do good justice in
this country, as we can or may desire it. I answered them, that I know not,
neither I am assured, that there is not in all the Emperor's hands on this side
the seas, such sufficient or better learned men to determine the English tongue
from the Latin, and Latin from English, than such Prelates, Doctors, and
learned men of the King's Council, that have found the errors and heresies
of such books as have been condemned and burnt in England.
" Hereupon my Lord of Palermo, besides my Lord of Hoogstrate, and others
of the said lords, required me to be pleased that these matters might be spoken
of yet once again among themselves, and after that they may know the Lords
of Antwerp's accusations, which be here come to Court for such an intent.
That as then, by my Lady's advice and deliberation of Council, they trusted to
give me such answer, that reasonably I should have no cause to complain ; but
what it shall be, I cannot tell. Knowing the resolution, I will send your
Grace the whole declaration.
" Certifying your Grace that I was once so displeased with them of Antwerp,
that I was purposed to have bought up cdl the foresaid books, and to have sent
them to your Grace, there to burn and destroy them at home, Uke as all such
malicious books meritably and worthy are to be done ; but afterward that my
choler was descended, and by counsel of a good friend of mine, I thought it was
better to advertise my Lady and her Coimcil first, to know and see finally what
remedy they should do, upon my complaint. And if their resolutions Uked me
not, that as then / would buy all the foresaid books, or as many as I could find,
and send them you there, to do your Gfrace's pleasure, like as I will indeed; if they
do not here better justice.
" It shall please your Grace to understand, that where there was two inprimurs
taken prisoners, there is but one of them that was found guilty in the inpriming
of the English books, which is named Christopher Endhaven, as aforewritten is."
How degraded was the condition of London then, compared
with that of this city ! The Lords of Antwerp stand here, de
servedly, on very high ground. The name of the reigning Prin
cess, or even that of the Emperor himself, though backed by
the orders of the " Defender of the Faith," and his mighty Car
dinal, could not intimidate them. The citizens of Antwerp
were not to be priest-ridden so easily, and, for a season at least.
Fair liberty, pursued and meant a prey
To lawless power, here turn'd, and stood at bay.

130 PERSECUTION NOBLY RESISTED. QbOOK I.
The establishment of those cities which, in return for their
opulence or commercial power, obtained for themselves certain
invaluable privileges, has been styled " the commercial
phenomenon of the thirteenth century." It was one of those
providential arrangements of human society, which infinite
wisdom occasionally employed afterwards, for the protection
of civil rights, or staying the vengeance of the oppressor.
But, added to this, there was yet another arrangement, and
in favour of Britain, — the establishment of English factories
within those cities, known by the title of " the English house,"
or Company of " Merchant Adventurers." These were, in
one sense, Normal Schools, where our countrymen first came
to understand and value the liberty of the subject. The
English merchants resident in Antwerp became citizens, and
to more than one of them, England stood greatly indebted for
the importation of the Sacred Scriptures. The printer now
incarcerated, Christopher Endhoven, a respectable citizen, was
well known to some of them, and had printed frequently other
books for the English market.'*^ But Hackett has not yet
finished, for there is more valuable information contained in
this same letter.

" I have received a letter from the Governor of our Merchant Adventurers,
dated from Barrow the 6th day of this month, making mention that he has pub
lished the King's letters at Barrow, the 20th day of December, among all them
that were there of the Company at that time ; and that as soon as the ships
should come, (which be arrived six days agone,) that he should publish the
same yet once again, to the generality of the said nation, according to his
Highness' commandment, and your Grace's instruction unto me.
" I have written to my Lord of Barrow, requiring him, in the King's High
ness and your Grace's nam-e, that, for the preservation of the Christian faith,
and the extirpation of the abominable sect Lutherian, that he would see justice
to be done in his town upon all such English books, entitled " 2%e New Testa
ment," and all such hke books as I have informed the Governor of our nation,
(i. e. the head of " the Merchant Adventurers,") which shall show his Lord
ship the effects of all such business.
" My Lord of Valleyne came yesternight to this town, (Mechlin,) and showed
me by mouth that my said Lord, his father, recommended him unto me, and
that he has promised surely, that he will see such justice to be doue, that the
King's Highness, neither your Grace, shall have no cause to be but well pleased
with him. Desiring me that I might come myself to Barrow as soon as I

49 Thus, in 1525, he had printed a beautiful edition of Lindwood's Constitutions for Francis
Byrkman, St. Paul's Church Vard ; and this very year 1526, " Manuale — Sarum— optimis typis,
non sine singulari hidustria Antwerjn impressum," &c., for Peter Kaetz, London.— Herbert's
Ames, iii., p. 1826-isa7.

1526.] TESTAMENTS BURNT ABROAD. 181
shall know how that the matters between me and the Lords of Antwerp shall
be determined.
" I have begun the writing of this letter at Antwerp, and finished it here at
Mechlin, the xiith day of Jenner IS26, (i. e. 12th Jan. 1527.) After this letter
was written, I have spoken with my Lady Margaret touching these English
books, and she promised me surely, that afore five days to amend, that there
shall be such justice done of them, that 1 shall be pleased there as then. —
' p. yor hummyll Bedesman, John Hackett.' "60
In the abundance of his zeal, Hackett not only visited
Antwerp, Barrow, Zealand, and other places, but made " privy
inquisitions" at Ghent and Bruges, at Brussels, Louvaine, and
elsewhere, after books, which was all in obedience to Wolsey's
instructions ; so that he thinks forty marks, which he had
just received, should be allowed him for " expenses extraordi-
nary."'' Yet, in the end, notwithstanding all this toil, it is
gratifying to observe, that so far from Christopher Endhoven
being banished, they could not even touch his goods. Thanks
to his residence in the free city of Antwerp ! The books,
however, so far as detected there and at Barrow, were burned,
though happily they had found out only a part. Of all this
Hackett did not fail immediately to inform the King's Secre
tary ; and in his second despatch to Wolsey, dated from Mech
lin the 20th of February, he alludes to the subject again —
" Please your Grace to understand, that since my last writing to your Grace,
I have received none of yours. I trust by this time your Grace has ample
information of such execution and justice as has been done in the towns of
Antwerp and Barrow, upon all such English books as we could find in these
countries, similar to three such other books as your Grace sent unto me with
my Lord the Bishop of London's signature." 62
That no doubt whatever might remain as to the species of
justice to which Hackett refers, he speaks afterwards, in the
same letter, of having caused a good fire to be made of the
Testaments. Even this much, however, had been accom
plished, it is evident, with no small difiiculty, and it was, in
the end, only by a stretch of power. Our envoy, therefore,
felt himself under the necessity of adding —
60 MS. Cotton, Galba, B. ix., fol. 40, 41, 42.
61 Forty marks, or £26, 138. 4d. Observe this. It was more than double the sum which
Tyndale had from Munmouth. It was equal in value to £400 sterling of the present day, for
travelling expenses, in hunting after English New Testaments, to burn them, as soon as they
had been printed for our native land !
62 " Three such books" is an expression worth notice. Why three, if by this time they were
not in possession of three distinct editions ? viz. Tyndale's quarto, and smail octavo of 1525, and
the Antwerp edition of 1526.

132 THREE EDITIONS THUS EARLY. [bOOK I.
" The Margrave of Antwerp, and the Drossard of Barghys, required, and
pray you, if it were possible, to cause them to get out of England a translation
of some particular articles of heresies contained in the said book, by the which
notification, they may lawfully not only burn such books, but also to correct
and punish the imprimurs, buyers, and sellers of them, both in body and in
goods, for else, according to the laws of this (place,) they may not punish, nor
make correction upon the foresaid men, neither upon their goods, as they say." 63
In conveying this earnest request, Hackett did not foresee
the consequences to himself afterwards, otherwise, perhaps, he
would have been silent, for we are not done with him yet ;
though we have slightly trespassed on 1527, only that we
might finish the account of this business, and bring to a con
clusion the important transactions of the preceding year.
All this turmoil is entirely new to the English reader, and
certainly it lends an additional and peculiar interest, not only
to the two first editions of Tyndale, but to the first imitation
of his book, or the third edition. No printer would have
ventured on such a thing, without the prospect of a ready
sale, even in the face of royal indignation. For could a copy
of this first print at Antwerp now be identified, then might
we say of it — Here is the volume, printed by Endhoven,
which so agitated our authorities at home and abroad ; and
engrossed our ambassador as eagerly as if he had been intent
on preventing the plague from entering into England. We
have, however, yet to see whether this interference was to his
honour or disgrace. Meanwhile, although we can by no
means afiirm that we have found out the book, since the fol
lowing collation refers to one of the earliest editions, we
give it entire —
" A copy is in Bishop Cosin's Library at Durham, which may turn out to be
some one very early and unknown. The title is in a small compartment of
four parts, with top and bottom scriptural subjects. On the top, the creation
and birth of the Saviour ; at the bottom, Adam and Eve beguiled, and the
crucifixion. The volume consists of 446 leaves, on the last of which is the
Revelation of St. Judas, Jude. There are 26 lines in a full page. Matthew
begins on folio 1 1 ; and the volume extends to R r in eights. The chapters
are marked into portions by large letters on the margin ; and there are a few
marginal notes. It has ornamented capitals ; the first T, two boys carrying on

63 MS. Cotton, Galba, B. vi. fol. 4. The entire impression of this book must have been from
two to three thousand, as this edition and the next, we shall find, amounted in all to five thou
sand. Many may havo been exported before Hackett seized the printer-and the delay was
favourable to their being put out of tho way-so that probably, after all, but a smaU proportion
was actually burnt.

1526.] THREE EDITIONS THUS EARLY. 133
a stick a dead stag, with the head upwards." For tliis account, the editor is in
debted to Dr. Bandinel of the Bodleian Library .64
Should this, however, prove to be one of the edition now
under consideration, there is another copy, and of a more ex
traordinary character, in the collection at Norwood-hill. Not
only is i^ in the original hog-skin binding, which would be
curiosity enough, but, to this hour, many of the leaves re-
main not )jet cut open ! — a peculiarity not to be expected in a
book nearly three hundred and twenty years old, and one
which, it msy be safely presumed, will stamp the volume as
unique, amongst all these rare early editions.
The following pages will throw still farther light on this
interesting period, but we have now done for the present with
the memorable year 1526.
Instead of having to be satisfied with only one edition of
the New Testament, and that of doubtful or hitherto disputed
origin, we have had three distinctly before us, besides, as will
be more fully proved, a separate impression of Matthew and
Mark, circulating through the country. We have seen all
the authorities, from the King downwards, roused in opposi
tion, and the people, though in secret, were reading with
avidity. It was the season of entrance to Britain's greatest
earthly treasure ; and one should have imagined that it would
have been marked in our calendar, with a red letter, or
fully understood, long ere now. Viewing these first printed
volumes in their ultimate efiects, the year may well be re
garded by all British Christians, as by far the most import
ant, in the long and varied history of their native land.
A fire was then kindled by the Almighty, through the in-

54 Lowndes' Bib. Manual. Following the authority of Lewis, the editor has dated this book
in 1527, which, if it turn out to be the first after Tyndale, is a year too late. George Joye has,
in his own way, professedly given an account of these early editions; and it has been the only
anthority by which others have been guided. Adopted as being correct, by Lewis, he has in
serted certain years, by his own conjecture, as the dat£S of printing. We need scarcely add,
that these are incorrect, or that Joye's account is, at the best, confused. It must ever be re
membered, too, that the testimony of Joye was given in a very lame vindication of his having
altered another, and subsequent copy of Tyndale's Testament, with nothing more than the
vulgate before him. But his words may be quoted—*' Anon, after," says he, " the Dutchmen
(Germans) got a copy, and printed it again in a small volume, adding the calendar in the be
ginning, concordances in the margin, and the table in the end. But yet for that they had no
Englishman to correct the setting ; they themselves having not the knowledge of our tongue,
were compelled to make many more faults than there were in the copy ; and so corrupted the
book, that the simple reader might oftimes be tarried, and stick." It is still questionable
whether this small volume be not as creditable to the printers as that which was corrected by
Joye himself, seven years later.

134 TYNDALE'S PROGRESS. [book I.
strumentality of his servant, which, in the highest exercise
of his lovin^kindness, He has never sufiered to be extin
guished ; light was then introduced, which He has never
withdrawn ; and a voice was then heard by the people, which
has sounded in the ears of their posterity to the present hour.
For whatever may be said of men, as men, it is to the word
of truth in the vulgar tongue that we owe everything in this
highly-favoured country I
Many of these volumes, it is true, were consigned to the
flames ; and the wonder is that any of them escaped detec
tion. But every one knows with what avidity men will read
an interdicted book, while the call for its deliverance up
would only make certain minds grasp it harder still. Be
sides, though in part detected, in such places as London and
Oxford — for in Cambridge they were not — copies had gone,
far and near, into the hamlets and towns in the country,
where, no doubt, they were enjoyed by stealth, and hid with
anxious care.
The preceding statements are not hypothetical ; the reader
has been entertained neither with mere conjectures or proba
bility only ; and as subsequent events will both illustrate and
confirm the preceding, we presume it will now be conceded,
as not a little extraordinary, that more than three centuries
should have been allowed to pass away, before a year so full
of incident, nay, of peculiar favour to Britain, has been in
vestigated. We have said Britain, because it will appear, in
its proper place, that, at this very period, Scotland was merci
fully visited with the same favour.

SECTION IV.
THE translator's PROGRESS — HIS EARLIEST COMPOSITIONS  AGITATION
or EUROPE — SACK OF ROME  CONSEQUENCES  PERSECUTION IN ENGLAND
— OPPOSITION TO THE NEW TESTAMENT  WARHAM AND THE BISHOPS
BUYING IT UP  rEESH IMPORTATIONS  THE POURTH EDITION  SCRIP
TURES SINGULARLY INTRODUCED ONCE MORE.
In returning to Tyndale, whom we left alone at Worms,
after having completed his New Testaments, we do so with

1527.] TYNDALE'S PROGRESS. 135
abundant evidence, that he had not laboured in vain. Much
has vaguely been ascribed to Latin works then imported from
the Continent, and in consequence of even their efi"ects, the
" spirituality" of the day no doubt dreaded almost every leaf ;
but the history already given clearly shows, that the New
Testament in the vulgar tongue was the great object of appre
hension. While yet in his native land, Tyndale " had per
ceived by experience how that it was impossible to stablish
the lay people in any truth, except the Scriptures were
plainly laid before their eyes in their mother tongue, that
they might see the process, order, and meaning of the text :"
and so now, as the Word of the Lord was enlightening the
minds, " converting the soul, and making wise the simple," it
had proved also " like a fire or a hammer," and was breaking
the rocks in pieces.
Very soon, through whatever medium, Tyndale was made
intimately acquainted with the storm that raged in England,
and, amidst all its tumultuous howling, he had ample en
couragement to proceed with his Old Testament from the
Hebrew ; but in the year 1526, he must have been also
very busy in preparing for the press, as we shall find that
the year 1527 was distinguished by the first appearance of
two publications, namely, his exposition of " the Parable of the
Wicked Mammon," and his " Obedience of a Christian man."
Sometime, however, before the appearance of anything else
in print, we may now safely assert, that Tyndale had been
favoured by the company, consolation, and assistance of his
devoted Christian friend, John Fryth, who had fled from
Oxford to the Continent about September 1526, and no doubt
fully reported progress. An affection subsisted between these
two eminent men, akin to that between Paul and Timothy of
old, though in one point the parallel fails — the youngest died
first. Fryth was not only Tyndale's own son in the faith,
but he had no man so dear to him ; and as all parties, even
his enemies, agreed in bearing testimony to the attainments
of Fryth as a scholar, nothing could be more opportune than
his arrival ; but before saying more of him, some notice must
be taken of William Roye, whom Tyndale had found it
necessary to dismiss from his service in 1525.
In 1526, as already hinted, circumstances having suggested
to our Translator, the necessity of encouraging those to whom

136 TYNDALE'S PROGRESS. [bOOK I.
it had been sent, by some exposition of his own views of
Divine Truth, he commenced by writing out " The Parable
of the Wicked Mammon ;"' but before it appeared, there had
come to his possession the copy of a Dialogue, translated
out of Latin into English, which had been printed at
Strasburg by his late amanuensis, with a prologue of his
own composition.
This singular character, Roye, as well as another named
Jerome, were two Franciscan friars from the noted monastery
at Greenwich, close by the favourite palace of Henry VIII.
The inmates of this monastery, as well as of another at Rich
mond, with whom they were occasionally in league, were a
great annoyance to the King. Thus the residence of Roye
and Jerome, in immediate vicinity to the Court, and to all
the gorgeous feats of Henry and his Cardinal, afforded such
opportunities as fully account for the very graphic poetical
satire already quoted, and to which we now refer. After
leaving Tyndale's service, Roye had proceeded to Strasburg,
where he published his " Dialogue between the Father and
the Son," about the end of 1526. Soon after this came his
" Rede me, and be not wroihef or Satire on Wolsey and the
Monastic orders, frequently denounced as " The burying of the
Massf — one of the most extraordinary satires, it has been
said, of this or any other age. It was first published in small
octavo, black letter, with a wood-cut of the Cardinal's coat-of-
arms. Wolsey was so annoyed by it, that he spared neither
pains nor expense to procure the copies, employing more than
one emissary for the purpose. Hence its extreme rarity ; a
copy of this original edition having been sold for as high a
sum as sixteen or twenty guineas ! It is reprinted, however,
in the Harleian Miscellany by Park.^
1 The prologue to the Romans, already in England, will come before us afterwards.
2 Vol. ix., p. 1.— In the second edition printed at Wasel iu 1546, the edge of its satire is
blunted, by transferring to the entire prelacy, -Buch charges as were originally designed only for
Wolsey. It is there said to have been printed 16 or 17 years before, which places its first ap
pearance in 1529 or 1530. But this is a mistake. Sir Thomas More, when writing his "Dialogue,"
in 1628, was well acquainted with it, so that it must have been printed by 1527. See note S.
Boye's rhymes unquestionably went the length of sinful excess, and are not all to be justified
in denouncing any man, however wicked ; but they are not to be confounded with those " godly
rhymes" which, though so uncouth, were productive of great effect, some years after, at least in
Scotland. Besides these, Roye was certainly the author of other publications. Sir T. More
has, by mistake, ascribed to him, an exposition of 1 Cor. viith chapter, (which waa by Tyndale ;)
and the Psalter, after the text of Feline or Bucer, under the feigned name of Francis Foxe, not
Foye, as it has frequently been copied from Lewis. There is, however, no doubt of his having
been the author of a book against the Seven Sacraments ; and these four publications were all
included among the books early denounced in England. Whatever may be said of the man— for

1527.] WITHOUT ROYE. 137
With a modesty and prudence, highly characteristic, our
Translator had put forth the New Testament without his name,
and he earnestly wished to have gone on, through life, with
anonymous publication ; but the sight of Roye's Dialogue
and Prologue, in connexion with his previous conduct, had
fully convinced Tyndale that there was an imperative neces
sity, not only for affixing his name to what he now published,
but for his disclaiming all connexion or even intercourse with
Roye, after a certain period. This accounts for the pointed
style of the following passage, which we must repeat more
fully ; and for his very marked reference to a period of two
years previously to the publication of his " Parable."
" The cause why I have 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 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 I am compelled otherwise so to do.
" While I abode (at Hamburgh ?) 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, 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
Buffered all things, till that was ended which I could not do alone without one,
both to write and to help me to compare the text together. When that was
Tided, I took my leave, and bade him farewell for our two lives, and, as men
say, a day longer. After we were departed (separated,) he went and gat him
new friends, which thing to do, he passeth all that I ever yet knew. And then,
when he had stored him of money, he gat him to Argentine (Strasburg) 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 work,
came one Jerome, a brother of Greenwich afeo,3 through Worms to Argentine,
(Strasburg,) 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 Uve 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
his character appears, at the best, to have been questionable- these were more than sufBcient to
mark him out as an heretic, and, as such, ho is said to have sufiered at the stake in Portugal, the
year after Wolsey's death, or 1531. Yet we shall find him in England, if not in London, next year !
3 In a recent account of Tyndale, prefixed to the reprint of his New Testament, this expres
sion is quoted, and as a proof of Tyndale himself having been a friar ! But there is here evidently
no reference whatever to himself. "First came Boye, then cam* Jerome, a brother of Gi-eenwich
also," i. e. as well as Roye. This, however, is decided evidence that they were two friars from
the same monastery, as well as that Tyndale in 1526 was in Worms, and not at Wittenberg, aa
so loosely asserted.

138 TYNDALE'S PROGRESS. \JBOOK I.
of Roye's boldness, and exhorted him to beware of him, and to walk quietly,
and with all patience and long-suffering, according as we have Christ and his
Apostles for an ensample ; which thing he also promised me.
« 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. Paul saith, ' the servant of the Lord must not strive, but be peaceable
unto all men, and ready to teach, and one that can suffer the evil with meek
ness, and that can inform them that resist ; if God at any time will give them
repentance for to know the truth.' It becometh not then the Lord's servant
to use railing rhymes, but God's word, which is the right weapon to slay sin,
vice, and all iniquity." *
It is a curious fact, that, notwithstanding the above distinct
explanation, and decided disapprobation of all such rhyme,
Tyndale for a year, if not two, lay under the imputation of
being actually the author of Roye's Satire. He was now, by
anticipation, endeavouring to prevent this, and the event fully
justifies all the pointed severity of his language.^
Here, however, in Tyndale's own words, we have the com
mencement and termination of Roye's intercourse with him
very distinctly noted. He had craved employment in 1 524,
and being retained, only till Tyndale could proceed without
his aid as an amanuensis, he left his service at Worms, in
the summer of 1 525. The precise period of two years, count
ing backward, so particularly stated in the above quotation,
depends on the time of publication, and we have stated the
summer as indubitable, since this sufficiently agrees with facts
which have been already narrated."

4 Preface to the Parable of the Wicked Mammon.
5 Thus, in the Dialogue of Sir Thomas More, which was written in 1528, and left the press in
June 1529, having alluded first to the New Testament, and then to the Satire, this question is put
— " But who made that second book ? Forsooth, quoth I, it appeareth not in the book ; for the
book is put forth nameless, and was in the beginning reckoned to be made by Tyndale ; and
whether it be so or not, we be not yet very sure. Howbeit, since that time, Tyndale hath put out
in his own name, another book entitled Mammona — and yet hath he, since then, put forth a worse
also, named ' The Obedience of a Christian man. ' — In the preface of his first book, called Mam
mona, he saith that one J'riaj- Hierome made the other book that we talk of, and that afterward
he left him, and went unto Roye, who is, as I think ye know, another Apostate ;" that is, another "
Trijar as well as Jerome. Such was More's language then, but by the', time that he came to
publish his " Supplication for souls in Purgatory," in reply to Fyshe's Supplication of Beggars,
though as abusive and unfair as ever, his tone is altered, and he gives Tyndale full credit.
Enumerating the books in order, be says—" Sending forth Tyndale's translation of the New
Testament— the well-spring of all their heresies ! Then came, soon after, out in print, the
Dialogue of Friar Boye and Friar Hierome, between the Father and the Son, against the Sacra
ment of the Altar, and the blasphemous book, entitled, 'the Burying of the Mass.' Then came
forth Tyndale's wicked book of * Mammona ;' and after that his more wicked book of Obedience."
" In Wood's Athenae, Oxon. by Bliss, vol. i. p. 95, the date of tho Parable is stated to be the
8th of May 1527. Lewis gives the same date. Tanner in his Bibl. Britannico, p. 40.5, gives the

1527.] THE WICKED MAMMON. 139
Tyndale had already given a specimen of his scholarship.
It remained now to be discovered, whether he was to be at all
distinguished as a judicious man ; a character from which a
mere scholar often stands at a great distance. One is curious
to hear, what he had got to saj first, and especially, if to
England, from the city of Worms. In his deliberate judg
ment, it becomes evident, that most of the evils with which
his native country was now infested, were to be traced to the
love of money. Hence, even the title of this, his very first
treatise — " The Wicked Mammon." The " Spirituality" of
the day, so called, appeared to him as the " Successors of
Simon Magus,'''' " who would have bought the gift of God to
have sold it much dearer." Bred up as Tyndale had been in
Gloucestershire, it was quite natural that he should feel deeply
for the people, as ground down or pillaged, by exactions, and
" spiritual alms," falsely so denominated. It was not, how
ever, that he had now commenced, by a lecture on covetous-
ness. Far from it. But the title having once attracted the
reader's eye, as it was very likely to do, he found himself at
once addressed on the only genuine origin of all vital religion.
Commencing with the great and fundamental subject of a
sinner's acceptance before God ; believing the gospel to be the
ministration of righteousness and of the Spirit, and Christ
alone " the great store-house of mercy ; " he magnifies divine
revelation as the ground of all certainty in matters so import
ant.^ A few of his own expressions must not be omitted.
" This is a plain and 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 more
precious thing than all the good works in the world. That precious thing is
the Word of God, which in the gospel preacheth, proffereth, and bringeth unto

title, — " The Parabole of the vpycked Mammon, Script. 8th Mail, mdxxvii." As, however, there
were second editions of the Parable and the Obedience published on the same day, by Hans Luft,
viz. the 8th of May 1528, it is not improbable that this may have led Lewis, and Tanner, and
Bliss, to give the same day in 1527 ; though it is curious enough, that Lewis at the same time, in
a note, asserts that Tyndale's own edition was in quarto, without any printed date. The month,
however, is of less moment, as, besides these authorities, we have other proof of the year. The
" Parable " preceded the " Obedience ;" now Tyndale himself has informed us when the latter
was published. In the conclusion of his "Practice of Prelates," dated "in the year of our
Lord, Mccccc and xxx." we have these words, — "And let them remember, that I well toward
three years agone, sent forth ' the true Obedience of a Christian man,' " that is in 1527 ; and so
Ames expressly mentions an edition of it, dated 11th December 1527. But then the Parable pre
ceded even this ; being the first thing to which Tyndale affixed his name. We incline, therefore,
to think that the " Parable " must have been issued sometime in the summer, at the latest, if
not in its first month, as already noticed, 8th May 1527.
7 Hence the edition of this tract in 1536, the year of his death, by J. Nycholson Southwark,
is entitled, "a Treatise of Justifycacion by Faith only."

1 40 THE WICKED MAMMON. [book I.
all that repent and believe, the favour of God in Christ. — Therefore it is called
the Word of Life, the Word of Grace, the Word of Health, the Word of Re
demption, 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.
" Christ is our righteousness ; and in him ought we to teach all men to trust,
and expound unto all men the Testament, that God hath made to us sinners in
Christ's blood. — By the natural order, first I see my sin ; then I repent and
sorrow ; then believe I God's promises, that he is merciful unto me and for-
giveth me, and will heal me at the last : then love I, and then prepare myself
to the commandment.
" When the gospel is preached unto us, we believe the mercy of God, and in
believing, we receive the Spirit of God, which is the earnest of eternal life, and
we are in eternal life already, and feel already in our hearts the sweetness
thereof ; and are overcome with the kindness of God in Christ, and therefore love
the will of God ; and of love are ready to work freely, and not to obtain that
which is given us freely, and whereof we are heirs already.
" As a whole man, when he is athirst, tarrieth but for drink, and when he
hungereth, 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 — interpreting 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."
Selecting a great variety of passages, the interpretation of
which involve a deep and intimate acquaintance with divine
truth, though in one or two instances he has not hit the sense ;
yet Tyndale shows, with no common discrimination, how
they all perfectly coalesce, and agree with the general doctrine,
that a man is justified before God by faith in Christ Jesus,
and not by the works of the law. The corruption of certain
passages by the Doctors of the day is not forgotten. Thus,
for example : —
" The good Samaritan helped the poor Jew, and shewed mercy as long as he
was present, and when he could be no longer present, he left his money behind
him ; and if that were not sufiicient, he left his credence to make good the rest,
and forsook him not as long as the other had need. Then said Christ, "Go and
do thou hkewise." Neighbour is a word of love, and signifieth that a man should
be ever nigh and at hand, and ready to help in time of need ! But, they that
will interpret parables word by word, fall into straits oftimes, whence they
cannot rid themselves — and preach lies instead of truth. As do they who in
terpret by the two-pence, the Old Testament and the New, and by that which
is bestowed, opera supererogantia. Howbeit, super arrogantia were a meeter
term. That is to say, deeds which are more than the law requireth, — against
which exposition I answer ; first, a greater perfection than the law there is not.
A greater perfection than to love God and his will, with all thine heart, with
all thy soul, with all thy strength, with all thy mind, is there none ; and to love
a man's neighbour as himself is like the same.

J527.] THE CHRISTIAN OBEDIENCE. 141
" Again, the saying of Christ — ' Make you friends of the wicked Mammon,'
and so forth, ' that they may receive you into everlasting tabernacles,' pertain-
eth not unto the saints which are in heaven, but is spoken of the poor and needy
which are here present with us on earth. As though he should say — What !
buildest thou churches, foundest abbeys, chantries, and colleges, in the honour
of saints — to my Mother, to St. Peter, Paul, and saints that be dead, to make
of them thy friends^? They need it not ; yea, they are not thy friends, but theirs
who lived when they did, of whom they were holpen. I'hy friends are the poor
which are now in thy time, and live with thee ; thy poor neighbours who need
thy help and succour. Them make thy friends with thy unrighteous Mammon,
that they may testify of thy faith, and thou mayest know and feel that thy faith
is right, and not feigned."
It is worthy of notice, that Tyndale, even thus early, had
fully laid his account with martyrdom.
" Some man wiU 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 be so." Thus he expressed himself, nine years before his death. It was
spoken from Worms, in the year 1 627 ; and reminds us of him who said —
" Yea, and if I be offered up for the sacrifice and service of your faith, I joy
and rejoice with you all."
This publication, however, in Tyndale's estimation, was not
sufficient. He intended to be open and explicit, not only as
to doctrine, but the Divine precepts ; not only as to faith,
but obedience, in its full extent. He saw, and deeply felt,
that, in his native country, the whole foundations were out of
course, — that there were men reigning there, falsely called,
nay, and calling themselves " spiritual," who not only had
taken away the very key of knowledge, and taught for
doctrines the commandments of men; but who had broken the
bonds of all human society, beggared the nation by their exac
tions, and sunk it into a state of pollution and depravity.
This accounts for his able exposition of duty incumbent on all
parties — the obedience of children to parents, of servants to
masters, of wives to their husbands, of subjects to their
sovereign ; not forgetting the obligations of all the superior
parties, including the duty of kings, of judges and officers of
the land. That false and usurped spiritual power which
undermined and destroyed all other, is then particularly
examined and reprobated. In his compendious rehearsal at
the end he says —
" I have described imto you the obedience of children, servants, wives, and
subjects. These four orders are of God's making, and the rules thereof are

142 THE CHRISTIAN OBEDIENCE. [bOOK I.
God's Word. He that keepeth them shall be blessed : yea, is blessed already,
and he that breaketh them shall be cursed. If any person of impatience, or
of a stubborn or rebellious mind, withdraw himself from any of these, and get
him to any other order, let him not think thereby to avoid the vengeance of
God, in obeying rules and traditions of man's imagination.
" All bodily service must be done to man in God's stead. We must give
obedience, honour, toll, tribute, custom aud rent, unto whom they belong. — I
shewed you of the authority of princes, how they are in God's stead, and how
they may not be resisted, do they never so evil — they must be reserved unto
the wrath of God. Nevertheless, if they command to do evil, we must then
disobey, and say. We are otherwise commanded of God : but not to rise against
them. They will kill us, then, say you. Therefore, I say, is a Christian called
to suffer even the bitter death for his hope's sake, and because he will do no evil.
" I proved also that all men, without exception, are under the temporal
sword. The Priests of the old law, with their High Bishop Aaron, and all his
successors, though they were anointed by God's commandment, and appointed
to serve God in his temple, and exempt from all offices and ministering of
worldly matters, were yet, nevertheless, under the temporal sword, if they
brake the laws. Paul saith — ' All souls must obey.' Here is no exception, Paul
himself is not exempt. God saith — ' Whosoever sheddeth man's blood, by man
shall his blood be shed again.' Here is no exception.
" As God maketh the king head over his realm, even so giveth he him com
mandment to execute the laws upon all men indiff'erently (impartially ;) for
the law is God's, and not the king's. The king is but a servant, to execute the
law of God, and not to rule after his own imagination. — I declared how the king
ought to rid his realm from the wily tyranny of the hypocrites, and to bring the
hypocrites under his laws : yea, and how he ought to be learned, and to hear
and to look upon the causes himself, which he will punish ; and not to beheve
the hypocrites, and give them his sword, to kill whom they wUl. — I warned
the judges that they take not an ensample how to minister their offices of our
spirituaUty, which are bought and sold to do the will of Satan ; but of the
Scripture, whence they have their authority. Let that which is secret abide
secret, till God open it, who is the Judge of secrets.
« On the other side, I have also uttered the wickedness of the spirituality,
the falsehood of the Bishops, and juggling of the Pope ; and how they have put
out God's Testament, and God's truth, and set up their own traditions and lies,
in which they have taught the people to believe, and thereby sit in their
consciences as God ; and have, by that means, robbed the world of lands and
goods, of peace and unity, and of all temporal authority ; and have brought the
people into the ignorance of God, and have heaped the wrath of God upon all
realms ! I showed how they have ministered Christ — King — and Emperor, out
of their rooms ; and how they have made them a several kingdom ; which they
got at the first in deceiving of princes, and now pervert the whole Scripture to
prove that they have such authority. And lest the laymen should see how falsely
they allege the places of the Scripture, is the greatest cause of this persecution.
For there is no mischief or disorder, whether it be iu the temporal regiment,
or else in the spiritual, whereof they are not the chief causes, and even the very
fountains and springs, and, as we say, the well-head."
This publication Tyndale entitled " The Obedience of a
Christian Man, and how Christian Rulers ought to govern :

1527.] AGITATION OP EUROPE. 143
wherein also (if thou mark diligently) thou shalt find eyes to
perceive the crafty conveyance of all Jugglers."
Such, with his name affixed, was the manifesto of William
Tyndale, published, too, at the very season in which God was
pleading with Britain by the voice of his mouth, and had
risen up in judgment on the city of Eome. After this, no
man could affirm that he did not plead emphatically for prac
tical religion, or the fruits of faith. Nor is it wonderful if
Henry VIII. himself was, at one moment, moved by this
publication, as we shall see afterwards ; for, to every impartial
mind, it must have been evident that Tyndale was not only a
genuine lover of his country, but one of the most enlightened
and loyal subjects of the crown.
Leaving, however, this eminent man, for the present, to his pursuits
abroad, and before alluding to the effect of his labours, now so visible in
England, we must first revert to the state of the world in general. The
distinguishing feature of this year, (1527,) was agitation and perplexity,
of various kinds, throughout Europe, including oui own country. The
" holy league of Clement," one of the most unprincipled of combinations,
now broke with vengeance on his own head. The double policy of Wolsey,
which had begun to be practised by both Prance and Spain, produced
all that perplexity which it deserved ; but amidst all, one event occurred
which, as the effects remain to the present hour, fixed in amazement
the whole civilized world. It was the dreadful sack of Rome, and the
close captivity of its Pontiff. The humiliation of the Pontiff, last year,
by Cardinal CoUoni, was a trifle compared with the present, and feeble
are our conceptions now of the deep sensation which it must have pro
duced. The Man of the Vatican, or St. Peter's Chair, had, for ages,
reigned as no common sovereign. Kings were said to be as inferior to
him, as the moon is to the sun ; he reigned in what was called " the
Eternal City ;" nay, he had opposed and exalted himself above all that
is called God, or that is worshipped ; so that the fear and the dread of
him had not only sent dismay into every cabinet in Europe, but the
hearts of the people had often moved before his voice, " as the leaves
of the trees are moved before the wind." His curse was then regarded
as omnipotent, his person irmiolaUe.
A mixed multitude, differing from each other ia language and manners,
discontented, and ready to revolt for want of bread, was the army des
tined to invade and plunder the City, so long held to be most sacred.
It was far from being formidable, except in the person of its commander,
the Duke of Bourbon. Without money or magazines, without artillery
or carnages, they were distant from Rome ; interrupted by snow and

144 SACK OF ROME. [^BOOK I.
the crossing of rivers, they mutinied on the road ; but rallied and
united once more, through the powerful influence and skill of their
leader, they at last marched to the prey, at the rate of forty miles a day.
Starving, wearied, but fearless and desperate, they arrived before this
proud city to the number of about thirty-three thousand. But Rome
was at that period a strong walled place, and the invading army had no
provisions — no artillery ! Bourbon had once before performed wonders
at Pavia, but that was a battle in the open fields ; this was an assault,
and without the means.
It is very remarkable that almost every nation in Europe was repre
sented in this exploit. The army itself was composed of Germans,
Spaniards, Italians, and a mixed multitude, to the extent of thirteen
thousand, who had joined them on the road.^ Their skilful leader, a
Frenchman, but for whom the enterprise had failed, was succeeded in
the command by PhUibert, a native of Burgundy. This was an army of
Catholics, too, by profession, though the Pontiff, in his terror, adopted
the foolish expedient of pronouncing his curse on the whole army, under
other characters — the Germans as Lutherans, the Spaniards as Moors !
Divine Providence having summoned these men together, as so many
witnesses of the event, seems also to have intended that the system which
had held Europe in moral bondage for ages, should put forth all its
strength, and stand out, in full display, to all who should either see, or
afterwards hear of the catastrophe. On Saturday evening, the 4th of May,
just before the setting of the sun, Bourbon had appeared in view, yet
so secure were the people of Rome, that no one apprehended any serious
danger, when they saw his troops marching into the meadows around
them. On that day the Pontiff had discharged his loudest thunder, ex
communicating Bourbon and all his army, and the next day he was
himself to perform high mass at the altar. All within the city has been
compared to presumption sleeping on a bursting volcano.
The army lay down for repose, but by the da-mi of the morning, just
as the stars were fading from the sight, they rose to the attack. Bourbon
addressed them before they began, and these, according to Bourdeille,
from his Spanish authorities, were some of his expressions : — " My Cap
tains ! all valorous and brave ; and you, my soldiers, whom I love !
Since our grand destiny has led us here, to the very post we have so
long wished for ; after such vUlanous roads, such vast snows and intoler
able cold, such torrents of rain and bogs of mud ; amid enemies who
allowed us no rest ; amid hunger and thirst, without a penny to buy the
means of allaying them, and enduring all the wants that nature could

8 In this mixed multitude it is quite possible there may have been Englishmen, but, though it
has been often asserted, Thomas Crumwell was certainly not there. He was in Wolsey's service
as early as 1624, and in August of this year, 1627, we shall find Coverdale, then at Cambridge,
addressing him in London.— See Ellis's orig. Letters, i. 218 ; and Gov. State Papers, 1830, p. 261.

1527.] SACK OP ROME. 145
make us suffer. Now is the time in which we may shew, by achieving
this splendid and noble enterprise, the courage, the spirit, the strength
of your bodies. Gain what you see, and every hope of comfort, honour,
and glory, will be realised by your victory ; for then, there is not one
of your enemies, there wUl not be a foreign nation, that will not tremble
at your names. If you ever desired to sack a City for its wealth and
treasures, behold one now in your sight ; the richest of them all, tlie
Lady of the World ! Win this triumph, and you will be, for life, opulent.
Lose it, and disgrace, misery and ruin, that none can remedy, will be
your immediate fate."
They began by attempting assaults in various parts, while Bourbon
directed the main attack in the vicinity of St. Peter's Church. A thick
fog, rising with the dawn, the artillery of St. Angelo within, could no
more be guided by the eye. This was in favour of the besiegers ; but
still in attempting to scale the walls, several thousands were slain.
Bourbon had thrown over his armour a white vestment, that he might
be more distinctly seen by the soldiers, and, as a specimen of daring
resolution, he himself seized a ladder, and placing it vrith his left hand
on the wall, with the other beckoned to all who saw him to foUow his
example ; when the shot of an arquebuse, but too well aimed, struck his
left side, and passing through his body, extended him on the ground, a
dying man, at the early age of thirty-five !^ He was carried off, and
desired to be buried at Milan ; but his men, so far from being dispirited,
now rushed on with desperate revenge. Philibert, Prince of Orange,
took the command, but in the heat of the conflict the assault began to
fail ; when, near an angle of the wall, a port-hole, which had been used
for a window to a lower room, was caught by a Spaniard's eye. It was
but slenderly blocked up, and only required the pick-axe. An opening
was soon made, a body of Spaniards entered, and the day was gained !
Renzo, the very commander of the defence, was panic struck ; and ex
claiming aloud, " the enemies are within us," the panic spread. Car
dinals and prelates, ladies, nobles, and merchants, great and small — all
made a general rush to the Castle of St. Angelo. The Pope himself was
actually at mass, when the German soldiers entered the church, and
slaying some of his guard, he made his escape by a private way, also
to St. Angelo.
It is not unworthy of notice, that this was Sunday, or rather the
day of the Lord, literally so called, but the day of the Lord in more
senses than one. The cup which Rome had fiUed, was now filled to her
double. How much she had glorified herself, and lived deliciously, so
much torment and sorrow were given. The revolting atrocities we
cannot describe ; they were terrific and most excruciating ; and the

9 The shot has been ascribed to Benvenuto Cellini, the celebrated Florentine ai-tist.
VOL. I. K

146 PALL OF KOME. [|b00K I.
noise within, at last became so dreadful, that one historian has affirmed
— " even thunder would have rolled unheard."'" Such was the day of
Jehovah's vengeance ; a time of recompense for the controversy of Zion ;
a day that looked back on cruelties known only to God himself ; that
looked forward to blessings which are yet enjoyed ; — it was the battle of
the emancipation of the human mind. In a work even of this nature, it
could not, therefore, be passed over in silence, more especially as the event
had a material bearing on the Sacred Scriptures being laid open to the
people in their vernacular tongue. At such a period it was fit that the
Lord should lift his arm in the sight of all the nations, and that " the
throne of iniquity which had framed mischief by a law," should receive
one decisive blow.
Nor should it ever be forgotten, that this was a day which Clement
had brought upon himself, and he now, as Pontiff, became the habitual jest
of the soldiery. The whole ceremonial of his system was, day after day,
turned into ridicule by military men, pretending to perform mass in
priestly robes, or compelling priests and prelates to do so, at their
pleasure. Clement, kept in rigorous confinement in his castle till the
8th of July, was then obliged to yield, from the fear of starvation.
Com began to fail, and pestilence ensued. The army withdrew, but
the Pontiff remained in bondage till the last month of the year. He
escaped from the Castle of St. Angelo, in the disguise of a merchant, but,
there is no doubt, with the cognizance of the Emperor, and took his way
to Orvieto on the 10th of December.'^
Shall we now turn away from this scene, to the other states of Europe ?
Then do we see little else than the reign of infatuation ; and, in its
full strength, the general prevalence of duplicity. Before the fall of
Rome, the policy of Wolsey had so affected our country, that he was in
formed, his master could no longer be trusted by the Spanish Court ;
though, at the same time, the Cardinal's double-dealing had become the
order of the day, both with France and Spain ! If he wished to foment
division between these two powers, this was met by the Emperor contriv
ing to shake the supposed ties between England and France. Only
six days before Bourbon's assault, the English Government, who had
been offering itself as impartial arbiter between the Emperor and
Francis, signed a treaty of perpetual peace with the latter, the conditions
of which, if not gained, involved united war with the former ! Nay,
only a fortnight before this treaty, Wolsey, through the English am
bassador, Dr. Lee, had been paying his court to the Emperor !
But the fall of Rome bred new and unprecedented thoughts in the
minds of all these politicians. It was like a blow at head quarters, and

io Bourdeille, the Abbot of Brantome.
'1 See Halle's Chronicle, but particularly Turner's account, grounded on the histories of
Guicciardini and Brantome, and the Cotton MSS.

1527.] FALL OP ROME. 147
was felt not only by the three great powers, but by the others who were
under their sway. It is instructive to observe the change.
On the arrival of this intelligence in England on the 28th of May,
which was fully confirmed on the 2d of June, the King, and many
prelates, lamented over the event. As for Wolsey, in horror, he addressed
his master, and Halle, in his chronicle, has preserved the expressions.
" Sir," said he, " by the only calling of God, you be made Defender of
the Christian Faith : Now, consider in what state the Church of Christ
standeth : See how the Head of the Church of Rome is in captivity :
See how the holy fathers be brought into thraldom, and be without com
fort ! Now, show yourself an aid, a Defender of the Church, and God
shall reward you." But the King answered, — " My Lord, I more
lament this evil chance than my tongue can tell, but where you say that
I am Defender of the Faith, I assure you, that this war between the
Emperor and the Pope, is not for the faith, hut for temporal posses
sions and dominions. And now, since Bishop Clement is taken by men
of war, what should I do ? My person, nor my people, cannot him
rescue ; but if my treasure may help him, take that which to you seemeth
most convenient." On his knees the Cardinal thanked the King, and in
July took special care to avail himself of th'B offer now made. Mean
while, he enjoined solemn processions, fasting and prayer, but neither
priests nor people paid regard to his orders ! The show of obedience
was little else than a mere farce. Opposition to the papal dominion
was rising, and had gained considerable strength, especially among the
common people. " The commonality," says Halle, " little mourned for
it." Nay, in their own blunt way they said, " that the Pope was a
ruffian, and not meet for the room, — that he began the mischief, and so
he was well served." Wolsey, however, had long conceived that he was
perfectly " meet for the room," and it should seem that, the surprise
being over, a new idea struck him.
" As soon," says Tyndale, " as the Pope was taken, the Cardinal
wrote unto the Emperor that he should make him Pope. And when he
had got an answer that pleased him not, but according unto his deserv-
ings toward the Emperor, then he was furious mad, and sought all means to
displease the Emperor, — and wrote sharply, with menacing letters, that
if he would not make him Pope, he would make such ruffling between the
Princes, as was not this hundred years, to make the Emperor repent :
yea, though it should cost the whole realm of England ! " In the
Emperor's reply, printed both in Spanish and German, among many
other articles, he repeats Wolsey's threat verbatim, and then adds, " Ye go
about to give your King another wife, which, if ye do, it may be the
next way to cost you the realm of England,"!^ — a shrewd prediction, and
literally fulfilled, so far as Wolsey was concerned.

12 Tyndale's " Practice of Prelates;" to be noticed in due time.

148 WOLSEY IN PRANCE, [book I.
In the course of the spring, before the captivity of Clement, there is
no question that Wolsey's restless mind had suggested to him his embassy
into France ; and that subjects connected with Henry's divorce, formed
an important part of his intended business there, is equally certain.
Not then aware of the preference to be afterwards given to Anne
Boleyn, and the Duchess of Alen9on having been married in January
to the King of Navarre, he had thought of Renee, the sister of the late
Queen of France. But now that the Pope had fallen, the historical
allusion of Tyndale more fully accounts for that enmity, both to his own
Queen, and the Emperor her nephew, to which the Cardinal, before he
embarked, had unquestionably wrought up his feelings.
By the destruction of Clement as a temporal prince, the Emperor's
power, though not greatly in the ascendant, was now rising ; and Charles
no doubt intended, that whoever was Pope, he should never again re
sume his wonted sway. In one sense he never could, and never has.
Par from being the terror of Europe, as he had often been, this Pontiff
was now in the view of the world, only a poor mortal, degraded, insulted,
and threatened daily. In June, therefore, we find the King of France
negociating with Charles privately, for his ovm interests, notwithstand
ing his treaty with England ! The critical question began to be mooted
on the Continent, whether obedience to a Pope in captimty, was bind
ing ; and the Spanish Cabinet found out, that Francis even speculated
on throwing off the yoke, establishing a new system in France, and talked
of Wolsey being its Patriarch or Pope. To frustrate this, the Imperial
Minister suggested to the Cardinal, through the English ambassador,
though no doubt in Vain show, the Patriarchate of Lower Germany.
After panting so long for the See of Rome, Wolsey was not yet so sunk,
as to leap at any such bait ; but at all events, Henry VIII. was now
alarmed at the growing power of the Emperor, and Wolsey, bent upon
one bold and final effort to rise amid the confusion of Europe, was re
solved to make the most of the Pope's thraldom.
Into France, therefore, in the beginning of July, he went with a pro
digious train, in all that pomp and foolish extravagance, which need not
here be described ; providentially, however, carrying with him out of the
kingdom, among others, two opponents of divine truth, as determiaed as
himself, namely, Tunstal, Bishop of London, and Sir Thomas More.^^
Clement had, from his prison, on the 6th of June, written to Wolsey,
that on him alone he rested all his hope of deliverance, through his in
fluence with Henry ; and as the King had offered money, the Cardinal
now carried with him to the amount of .£120,000 sterling, or equal to
one million eight hundred thousand of our present coin ! With this he
intended of course to display his own personal magnificence, as the
King's Plenipotentiary, and Lieutenant-General, for he actually an-

13 They were all sent ofFto be out of the way.

1527.]] WITH MORE AND TUNSTAL. Ug
nounced himself as a military character ; but the design of the mission
was to confirm the peace with France, to effect the Pope's rescue to
oppose the Emperor, and, as the poor Cardinal dreamt, to aid his Master,
another day, in the affair of his divorce.
« My Lord Cardinal," says Tyndale, « with More, his sworn Secretary, and
the Bishop of London, that still Satan, the imaginer of all mischief, went to
France to juggle secretly, and carried with him more than he hrought home
again. This is of a truth, that he carried great treasure with him. The French
gallies lay long in Thames' mouth, and not for nought. The fame went plain,
yea, and I know also one that saw in my Lord Cardinal's court,, letters sealed
with the King's great seal, wherein was contained, that the French King should
have of us, money sufficient for to find twenty thousand men against the Em
peror in Italy, from the 2d day of July in the year of our Lord 1527, forward."!*
But where was the negociation, without any exception, in which Wolsey
ever forgot himself ? Thus, if he could not actually reach what was called
St. Peter's chair, he must make the nearest approach to it, which any
man ever did ; and the Pope being a prisoner, was in favour of his ambi
tion. WhUe in France, therefore, he applied to Clement to appoint him
" the universal Vicar of the Papacy in France, England, and Germany."'^
This was asking more than Clement could probably convey ; but at last
it was a positive article of one treaty, signed on the 19th of August, that
the Cardinal should be 'Hhe Vicar-Qeneral of all the English dominions,"
in other words, the Pope ; for which he received a bull, before returning
home.'® Having paid the French army two months in advance, and
settled other matters, he confirmed, as he supposed, peace with France.
After landing in England, about the 12th of October, he boasted of his
wonderful negociation ; and shewing his treaty, signed and ratified, with
its beautiful seal of gold, to aU the Nobility, Prelates, and Judges, the
Lord Mayor, and Aldermen, he told them in the Star Chamber, that this
was a peace, in secula seculorum ! ''' The only reply of many was a smile
of contempt. Francis, however, to keep up the farce, sent his ambassa
dors, in great style, into England. Henry was made Knight of the order
of St. Michael, and he in return made Francis Knight of the Garter.
The ambassadors being entertained at a rich banquet, and as an appro
priate conclusion, at a play, returned.
The King of France had proved more than Wolsey's rival, and all
14 Practice of Prelates. '5 Guicciardini, L. 18, p. 78. le Halle, p. 782.
17 This document, which Wolsey handed round for admiration, may still be seen in the Chap
ter-House at Westminster. Written on ten leaves of vellum, signed " Francoys," it has been
represented as one of the most beautiful manuscripts of the age ; and this it certainly is, with its
illuminated first page, and finely ornamented margins. We havo also admired the exquisite
workmanship of this seal— the great seal of France, inclosed in a magnificent box of pure gold.
Still, one cannot look on this splendid manuscript and seal, without remembering that we have
before us the very document which led the way to one of the most baneful results, namely, the
challenge of Francis to the Emperor to fight with him in single combat. The duel, it is true, was
never fought, but the example thus set, had a prodigious influence in promoting the absurd,
cowardly, and worse than brutal practice of duelling throughout Europe.

150 WOLSEY RETURNED. [bOOK I.
along had been fighting him with his own long practised weapons. The
fact was, that during the whole three months of the Cardinal's residence
in France, and even now, its King was carrying on his negociations with
the Emperor ! Nor was the Pope one whit behind any of the civU
powers in duplicity.
« When we consider," says Mr. Turner, " the double-dealing and hypocrisy
which the one ecclesiastical and the three great civil powers of Europe were
alike acting towards each other, and with reciprocal knowledge of each other's
practices, we are surprised that no one discerned the real inutility of the simu
lating system. What could be gained by such duplicity, which, as each side
was practising, each suspected and discerned, and which, therefore, never, (or
but seldom), deluded the mutual deceivers 1 If any part of modern history can
make us disgusted with dissimulation and duplicity, it must he the statesman
ship and diplomacy of the first portion of the sixteenth century. Ancient history
presents no adequate parallel to the cabinet transactions of that period in Italy,
France, Spain, and even England, while under Wolsey's administration."l8
These reflections are just, though the reader must be left to judge,
whether the last named individual did not sustain the nearest resemblance
to the father of lies. To describe fully the labyrinth referred to, is more
than sufficient to baffle the skill and patience of any human pen, and the
mind would grow weary in tracing such tortuous policy, were it not, that
in the end we have such striking evidence, that there was One above
overruling all for his own glory. The powers of Europe having arrived at
a certain pitch of wickedness, were judgment-stricken by the Sovereign
Ruler of nations ; and this memorable year, as well as others that follow,
are best described in that blessed Book which they all despised. " With
him is strength and wisdom : the deceived and the deceiver are his : He
leadeth councillors away spoiled, and maketh judges fools : He removeth
away the speech of the trusty, and taketh away the understanding of the
aged ; He taketh away the heart of the chief of the people of the earth,
and causeth them to wander in a wilderness wherein there is no way.
They grope in the dark without light, and He maketh them to stagger
like a drunken man."
Upon returning home, the Cardinal came robed in a higher character
than even that in which he had left England. He was now literally at
the top of all his earthly glory. However profane the application was
to such a man, nay, or to any man, that we may better understand his
descent into ruin and disgrace, let us, for once, clothe him in the titles
now ascribed to him — " The most Reverend Father in God, Lord Thomas,
of the title of St. CicUe, Priest Cardinal, Bishop of Durham, Archbishop
of York, Primate of England, and Chancellor of the same, of the See
Apostolic Legate a Latere," and, to crown all, " the Vicar-General through
out all the King's dominions ! " Yet seldom, if ever, in the whole com-
18 Turner's Henry VIII.

1527.] FIRST TOKEN OF DECLINE. 151
pass of English history, has there occurred a more impressive illustration
of that passage in Sacred Writ — " The triumphing of the wicked is but
short, and the joy of the hypocrite but for a moment ! " Long feared
by all, and loved by none, Wolsey's solitary support lay in the fascinating
influence or power which he had for many years possessed over the King ;
but the first instant that he came into collision with his passion for Lady
Anne Boleyn, the staff on which he had long leant, a broken reed at
best, began to fail him. During his absence in France, the preference of
Henry for this lady had settled into a feeling, not no w to be shaken by any
human being. Wolsey himself, having been engrossed abroad, was not fully
aware of this, and hence the very month of his arrival had not expired
before he met with proof, that even his power of persuasion was gone !
Here was the turning point, for this first shock happened to him soon
after the 20th of October, when the French ambassadors visited this
country.'^ Thus, the chief agent in the inception of the divorce, through
the Bishop of Tarbes, and which was begun and at first pursued without
any reference whatever to Lady Anne Boleyn, was the first man who felt
the effects of the idea suggested.^"
As Vicar-General, however, he must now try to give some demonstra
tion of his power. To carry his purpose over Warham, the Archbishop of
Canterbury, (no friend of his,) as well as all the other clergy, he had
taken care to authorise or bind himself, by an article in one of his
treaties, to regulate all ecclesiastical affairs. In the month of November,
therefore, he called all the clergy to Westminster, saying, that now " all
the abusions of the Church should be amended ! " Accordingly, it was on
the 27th of this month that he presided, in form, in the Chapter-house
of Westminster, at the second or public examination of Thomas Bilney ;
Warham, Tunstal, and other Bishops being present. But no wonder,
now, that he remitted all further proceedings to Tunstal ; for he it was,
who, by his art of ingeniously tormenting, inveigled and harassed that
worthy man, and brought that horror of mind upon him under which he
groaned for many a day ! It has been said, indeed, that Wolsey now
abjured Bilney, Arthur, Foster, and others, but all this was done by
Tunstal and other Bishops, as the Commissaries of his Legantine or
Vicar-General's Court. The Cardinal merely opened his court and began
with Bilney, but he was too busy for such affairs now, and had other
cogitations to fill his mind. Awaked from his long dream of worldly
power and splendour in the end of October ; by the 5th of December, in
his despatches to Rome, he was straining every nerve to hasten the
divorce of Queen Catherine ; ^^ though, as to fully reinstating himself
in the breast of Henry, it was all in vain. No, the tide had turned in
September when the full extent of the instructions to Rome, through Dr.
IS Cavendish, p. 139. 20 See Turner's Henry VIII., chap. xx.
21 MS. Cotton Vitell, B. ix., fol. 203 ; or see Burnet and Fiddes.

152 THE WRATH OF THE ENEMY. [[boOK I.
Knight, Henry's own ambassador, was concealed even from Wolsey !
Had he foreseen all, he would never have left the ear of his master ; but
now there was no remedy. This ambitious man must descend step after
step to a miserable and ignoble end.
Having noticed the leading features of a tempestuous world ; it is
time to enquire after the progress of the Word of God in our native
land ; though, after aU, it is now but retiring from one species of tempest
to another, — yet another, of a far higher character.
Throughout the year 1527, it might seem next to impossible
that any moment was left to attend to the suppression of.
Tyndale's New Testament, or the persecution of those who
possessed it. But if there was, we can now more fully esti
mate the extent of that apprehension and anxiety which
agitated, even at such a time as this, not only the Bishops
of the day, but all the votaries of " the old learning."
It was but one short year since the Sacred Volume had
arrived in the country ; and yet see how deeply its enemies
were moved. The first inveterate opponent who excites
notice, was " an ancient doctor, called, as I remember," says
Cavendish, " Doctor (Robert) Ridley, a very small person in
stature, but surely a great and excellent clerk in divinity ! "
He was celebrated as a canonist, and had been consulted by
Wolsey, years before this, respecting the prevention of
Lutheranism. Related to Cuthbert Tunstal, he, in the year
1523, had made him Rector of St. Botolph's, Bishopgate, in
1524, Prebend (Mora) of St. Paul's, and more recently Rector
of St. Edmond's, Lombard Street. Was it wonderful that
this little man should wax warm in the service of the
hierarchy \ The bitterness of his zeal would exceed belief,
could we not present a specimen from his own pen. Yet was
he no other than the uncle of the learned and amiable Nicholas
Ridley, the future martyr ; and gave him, at his sole expense,
his fine education at home and abroad I The uncle and
nephew have occasionally been confounded, though no two
men could form a stronger contrast.^^
The following singular letter of Robert Ridley's, which has
never been printed before, we give entire, with the exception
of a very few words, which cannot be deciphered in the
original manuscript. It is extremely valuable, not only on
2^ Even Sir James Mackintosh had mistaken the one for the other ; imagining the advocate
of Queen Catherine to have been Nicholas, his nephew.— Hist, of Eng. vol. ii., p. W^.'~Note.

1527.3 TYNDALE FIRST EXPRESSLY NAMED. 153
account of the information it conveys respecting Tyndale's
first publications ; but as a specimen of the spirit of the times,
and of that precious criticism, which no doubt was then hailed,
as at once masterly and acute. The letter is dated 24th
February, and, as will appear presently, in the year 1527.
It is addressed to Henry Golde at Knolle, and as chaplain to
Warham, Archbishop of Canterbury.
" Master Golde, I heartily commend me unto you, as concerning this common
and vulgar translation of the New Testament into EngUsh, doue by Mr.
William Hichyns, otherways called Mr. W. Tyndale, and Friar William
Roye, manifest Lutheranes, heretics, and apostates, as doth openly appear,
not only by their daily and continual company and familiarity with Luther
and his disciples ; but much more by their commentaries and annotations in
Matthew and Mark in the piest print — also by their preface (prologue) in the
SECONn print — and by their introduction into tlie Epistle of Paul to the Romans
— altogether most poisoned and abhorrable heresies that can be thought. He
is not a son of the Church of Christ, that would receive a gospel of such damned
(condemned) and precised heretics, though it were true ; like as Paul, and our
Saviour Christ, would not take the true testimonial of evil spirits that praised
Christ, saying that he was the Son of God, aud that Paul himself was a servant
of the true God.
" As for errors, if ye have the first print with annotations, Matthew and
Mark ; and the preface, all is mere frenzy. He saith that the Gospel is
nothing else than the sweet promise of grace — so that, by that means, ' Do
penance' is no part of the Gospel — the Pater Noster is no part of the Gospel
— ' Depart, ye cursed, into everlasting fire,' is no part of the Gospel — but
only such as ' The kingdom of heaven is at hand' — ' Ye shall find rest to your
souls.' Also, he saith, in that preface (the prologue) and annotations, that
there is no difference between virginity aud a whore of the stews, if she
come to repentance. Also, that like as no man doth evil to the intent that he
should be punished or hanged therefor ; so no man should do good to have
any reward therefor." [We take no account of Ridley's inaccuracies through
out, but the doctrine involved being above his sphere of judgment, he then
regards all this as contrary to other passages.] " To that in the Hebrews con
cerning Moses, ' for he had respect to the recompense of reward ;' and that,
' Make to yourselves friends of the mammon, that when ye fail, they may re
ceive you into everlasting tabernacles.' Also, he saith, that by good works we
do nothing merit, in opposition to that in the Corinthians, — ' that every one
may receive the things done in the body, according as he hath done, whether
good or evil,' — and that to Abraham, ' because thou hast done this thing,' &c.
Also that in Matthew, ' Because I was athirsty, and ye gave me di'ink,'. — also
that, ' Come ye blessed of my Father,' &c. Also, he saith, ' that he that doth
anything to have a higher place in heaven, he is proud as Satan and Lucifer.'
" I have none of these books, but only I remember such things I read in the
preface and annotations. As for the text of the Gospel, first, the title is
heretical, saying that ' it is printed as it was written by the Evangelists,'
while it neither agrees with the ancient translation, nor with Erasmus."
After quoting, but inaccurately, Tyndale's version of Matthew i., 1, 19, and
Romans v. 12, he repeats that he had rendered " penitentiam agite," most
foolishly — Repent.
" By this translation shall we lose all these Christian words — penance.

154 PERSECUTION [bOOK I.
chcmty, confession, grace, priest, church, which he always calleth a congregation ;
as if so many Turks, or irrational animals, were not a congregation, except he
wishes them also to be a church. Idolatria, calleth he * worshipping of images/
«I would that ye should have seen my Lord's (Tunstal's) hooks. As for the
translation in French, without any postile, it is, for certain, condemned in
Paris, by public decree, though it be there done : condemned, I say, that it
shall not be lawful to publish it to every layman, but by the priests, whose lips
keep knowledge — aud so it was in the old law, and in the time of the Apostles.
Vide ' iSutorem de translatione Biblice.^^^
" I certify you, that if ye look well, ye shall not look three lines without
fault in all the book, but I have not the book to mark them out, — ye should
haoe had leisure yourself to have done it. Howbeit, it becometh the people of
Christ to obey their rulers, which hath given study, and is learned in such
matters, as their people should hear aud believe. They should not judge the
23 He refers to Pierre le Cousturier, better known by the name of Peter Sutor, a Dootor of the
Sorbonne, and author of many works, one of which was entitled " De translatione Bibliorum,"
iu folio, 1525. And go would this little virulent man, Ridley, dispose of the labours of the
venerable Le Fev7% the translator of the New Testament into French, of which the'first edition
had been published iu 1523, and two editions in 1534, if not another iu 1525. But Jacobus Faber
Stapulensis, as he latinized his name, was possessed of both genius and learning far above his
time. Even after having opposed him in controversy, it was of him that Erasmus said in 1517,
to Cuthbert Tunstal, then on the Continent, — " A man who, for integrity and humanity, has
scarcely his equal among thousands — for whom it is my desire that all should entertain the ut
most esteem." True, he was persecuted by the Doctors of the Sorbonne, as might have been
expected. *' It was a thing almost natural to them," says Sleidan, "to teaze and molest men
of learning, because they saw themselves despised for their ignorance." But that excellent
woman, Margaret Queen of Navarre, acquainted her brother Francis, the king, and he, though
then a prisoner in Spain, wrote and stayed the proceedings. No wonder than such a man as
Ridley hated him. In the preface to his New Testament he had said—" Who is there but will
esteem it proper and conducive to salvation to have the New Testament in the vulgar tongue ?
What is more necessary to life whether temporal or spiritual ? If, in the different * religious
orders,' they ordain, that if any one be ignorant of Latin, he shall have the rules of his order in
the vulgar tongue, carry it about him, and commit it to memory ; and in their les-pectiye chapters,
frequently explain their rules to them ; with how much more reason ought the unlearned
among Christians to possess the Word of God, the Scripture full of grace and mercy, which is
their rule, and which al07ie is necessary, for only one thing is needful. This Holy Scripture is
the Testament, the last will of Jesus Christ, the Testament of our Father confirmed by his death
and by the blood of our Redeemer, and who is he that shall forbid the children to have, and see,
and read their Father's will ? It is then highly expedient to possess it, and read it, and-hear it,
not only once, but often, in the c/iopier* of Jesus Christ, which are the churches where all the
people, unlearned and learned, ought to assemble, to hear and honour the Word of God.
And such is the intention of our gracious king, (Francis was then favourable ;) a design which
ought to inspire all in the kingdom, ^vith courage to advance in true Christianity, by following,
understanding, and believing, the quickening Word of God. And blessed be the hour when it
shall be ¦accomplished ; and blessed be all those, both male and female, who shall procure it to
be carried into effect, not only in this kingdom, but through all Vie woi'ldJ"
The King of France, however, like our Henry, changed hia mind, for on this subject, both
were fickle as the reed shaken by the wind ; and Le Pevre, like Tyndale, had to print iu
AntwerjJ- His version of the entire Bible was published there in 1530, printed by the same man
whom Tyndale employed in 1534. It was not unfrequently called the Emperor's Bible, from
the printer's name, Martin Emperour. In 1530, the Queen of Navarre, his constant friend, in
vited Le Fevre to Nerac, where he lived till he had entered into the IG2d year of his age, in 1537 !
There is but one subject of regret. He was deficient in that moral courage to which he had
exhorted others in the days of Court favour ; a defect, which cost him such agony on his dying
day. " On the day of his death, being apparently as well as usual, while dining with the Queen
and some learned men, whom this Princess frequently invited to spend the day with her Le
Fevre appeared pensive and melancholy, and was observed to shed tears. The Queen desii-ed
to know what was the cause of his sadness ; when he answered, — ' I am distressed because of
the enormity of my crimes. I am now a hundred and one years of age ; and though I have lived
a chaste life, and have been preserved from those excesses into which many are hurried by the
violence of their passions, yet I have been guilty of this heinous offence— I have known the truth,
and have taught it to many who have scaled it with their blood, and yet I have had the weak
ness to hide myself in those places where the crowns of martyrs are never distributed.* Having
said this, he dictated his will, vivd voce, went and lay down on his bed, and died in a few hours !"
—Bruysset Diet. Hist ; Clarke's BihUog. Diet. iii. i»p. 226-228 ; Townley's Bib. Lit ii. 228-234,

1527.] EARNESTLY ADVISED. 155
doctrine of Paul, nor of Paul's vicars and successors, but be judged by their
learning, as long as they know nothing contrary God's laws, — as Saint Bernard
saith, most goodly and clerkly, in his book,. ' De dispensatione et precepto.'
Vale, in all haste, your own, " Robert Ridley, Priest"
"Item, that of Paul, — ' stultas questiones devita,' &c., — ' beware of foolish
problems or questions in the schools.' This, without doubt, is said in hatred
of the scholastic divinity, and of the Universities !" Such a thing is in the
translation, though it be not in the same words.24
** Shew ye to the people, that if any be of so proud and stubborn stomach,
that he will believe there is no fault nor error, except it be declared to him
that he may see it, let him come hither to my Lord, which hath profoundly
examined all, and he shall hear and see errors, except that he be blind, aud
have no eye." " 2ith Febritary.
" Ye shall not need to accuse this translation. It is accused and damned
(condemned) by the consent of the Prelates and learned men ; aud commanded
to be burnt, both here and beyond the sea, where is many hundred of them burnt;
so that it is too late now to ask reason why that be condemned, and which be
the faults and errors.25 Luther and his school teacheth, ' that we do not co
operate with the grace of God, but are only passive as stones or blocks.' Be
cause of that, this text, ' non ego, sed gratia dei mecum,' thus is translated —
' not I, but the grace of God in me ' — which how heretically, wickedly, sediti
ously, and falsely it is translated, he who does not perceive is stupid ! 26
" My Lord, your master, (Warham,) hath of these books given and sent to
him, by my Lox'd, (Tunstal,) my master. Shew the people that ye be come to
declare unto them that certain books be condemned by the council, and profound
examination of the Prelates, and fathers of the Church.27
" To Master Henry Golde, Cliaplain to my Lord qf Canterbury, at Knolle."28
24 He quotes, he tells us, from memory, and, of course, is inaccurate, but this, as far as the
t&rt was concerned, is a vile aspersion. The rendering of Titus 3, 9, 10, is—" Foolish questions,
and genealogies, and brawlings, and strife about the law avoid, for they are unprofitable and
superfluous. A man that is the author of sects, after the first and the second admonition, avoid."
Tyndale, however, was no friend to the scholastic divinity of the day, where sects abounded, and
if there was any allusion to the " foolish questions in the schools," as well there might, then
this must have been by a gloss in the margin of the quarto edition. As Ridley has not refeiTed
at all, to the octavo, without glosses, this is the more probable, and if so, this may be regarded
as a collateral proof that he had gone over the entire quarto, or, in other words, that he had in
his eye the quarto Testament complete.
2S He was evidently well informed of the first burning at Antwerp, already explained.
26 But this, though no wickedness, much less sedition, be visible, was only another aspersion.
Hia translation of 1 Cor. xv. 10. was as follows—" But by the favour of God, I am that I am. And
his favour, which is in me, was not in vain : but I laboured more abundantly than they all, —
not I, but the favour of God, which is with me." Tyndale very frequently had preferred the
term/avour before that of grace, because of the strange and hurtful sense in which the latter
had been employed.
27 See the original MS., Cotton, Cleopatra, E. v. fol. 362, b. Ridley, who took such a deep
interest in opposition to the English Scriptures, both now and hereafter, was anxious to rouse
his correspondent to the same pitch with himself, and thus urge on the Archbishop. But all
this was quite unnecessary, for though Warham did not belsh out in this manner, he was as
zealous ; and as for Golde, he proved a more reckless opponent than even Ridley himself. He
was at last deeply implicated, with five others, in the affair of Elizabeth Barton, attainted for
high treason, and executed along with her on the 21st of April 1534.— See Halle, Foxe, and Bur
net. Besides being the confidential agent and Chaplain of Warham, Golde is designated on his
trial as B.D. and Parson of Alderniary, in Watlirg Street. The modern reader may know this
building as the spot where the venerable Mr. Wilkinson so long ministered every Sabbath after
noon ; while on Tuesday morning his voice was heard iu St. Bartholomews, where Coverdale's
body lay interred. It may be added, that the supposed bones of the latter have been moved to
St Magnus Church, in consequence of the Exchange being burnt, and Bartholomews taken down.
28 In the British Museum Catalogue, the preceding letter is supposed to have been written in

156 THE NEW TESTAMENT. [booK I.
This man quotes from memory and at random. It is al
together unnecessary to trace his mistakes, whether wilful or
not ; and yet this strange farrago, however inaccurate and
calumnious in its blind criticisms, is still of great value, as a
link in our narrative, and as lending to it a degree of pre
cision, hitherto unobserved, if not unknown. Even from this
document alone, there can be no question now, that in the
year 1526, Tyndale's quarto Testament, with the prologue
prefixed, was circulating in England. We now learn, how
ever, that there was an edition of Matthew and Mark sepa
rately, which he designates the first print. That he was
correct in this, in 1528, there will be but little doubt; to
say nothing more of its giving such emphasis to the language
of Foxe, already noticed. ^' William Tyndale first placed
himself in Germany, and there did first translate the gospel
of St. Matthew into English, and after, the whole New Tes
tament.'" The invaluable fragment, however, of the quarto
New Testament, lately discovered, and now in the possession
of Mr. Grenville, is not, as before hinted, a part of this pub
lication. It extends, indeed, no farther than the 23d chapter
of Matthew ; but then it has the preface or prologue prefixed,
with the pages, or rather letters, running on ; and, besides
this, the list of all the canonical books of the New Testament
at the beginning. There is, however, little or no necessity
for pointing out this distinction, when the reader once ob
serves, that Ridley has been quoting, or rather misquoting
from Corinthians and Titus — a decisive proof that he had
had the quarto Testament entire before him. From this
letter we also learn to a certainty, that the Introduction, or
Prologue to the Romans, by itself, was already in circulation.
Herbert was therefore correct in his conjecture, when he
placed this under the year 1626.^^ What proofs were these,
15.37. and by fiome person it has been so marked ; but, by tliat timej Golde had been nearly
three years in his grave, and Ridley also was dead. When compared with another letter ad
dressed to Warham on the 14th of June 1527, and about to be quoted, it will be evident that
this sing;ular effusion of Ridley's was written previou.'.ly, on the 24th of February, or only four
days after he had been appointed Rector of St. Edmunds. Next year he was one of the counsel
for Queen Catherine, and must have been a favourite of Tunstal's. Thus his prebend of Mora
he resigned on the 3d April this year, and was on that day collated to that of Pancras. This
he resigned about the 30th October 1629, being on that day appointed to his prebend of Isledon,
and had no less than the sinecure Rectory of Fulliam at the same time ! Both these, as well as
the Rectory of St. Edmund, he retained to his dying day, in June 153(5.
S9 " A compendious introduction, prologe, or preface vnto the pistle off Paul to the Ro-
mayns."— fle»-Sa-('i Ames, iii. p. 163B, anno 1526. The late Bishop of Peterborough, Dr. Her
bert Marsh, profoundly ignorant of Tyndale's history, took for granted that this was a transla
tion from the German ; but there was no occasion for Tyndale to acquire that language, since
the preface had been translated into Latin by Justus Jonas, as early as 1622-3, and was to be

1527.] TO BE BOUGHT UP 167
that Tyndale, for his country's best interests, must have been
labouring night and day I^"
Notwithstanding the solemn and pointed injunctions of
the Bishop of London and the Archbishop of Canterbury,
issued in the close of 1526, calling in both editions, both
Bishops had found that the possessors of the Sacred Volume
were by no means disposed to surrender it, merely for being
threatened ; and as for the copies still abroad, if the influence
of Wolsey over Brabant was last year less than it had been,
in this, of course, it was lower still. His political leanings
were now better known, not only to the Emperor and the
Lady Margaret, but to the Lords of Antwerp, and all the
merchants. Hackett the ambassador, it will be remembered,
had implored a list of heresies, taken out of the Testament,
to be translated into German, that he might proceed at Ant
werp or other places with more rigour and despatch ; but
Providence intervening, Wolsey was engrossed in far diffe
rent employment ; and so now, it seems, if any more Testa
ments are to be obtained, they must be bought, not seized.
The ambassador either dared not, or could not, play the same
game a second time.
At his wits' end, as we have already seen, Hackett was
the first who suggested the idea of purchasing and burning,
in order to prevent the circulation ; and all preceding ac
counts hitherto printed, without exception, hold up Tunstal
as the only man who adopted it. But this, like too many
others, is a general mistake, as for two years to come he did
nothing of the kind. The purchasing began with a higher
ecclesiastical authority than that of Tunstal ; nor should the
step be represented as merely foolish, even although it actuallv
furthered the work it was meant to crush. The fact was, that
these Bishops were in a frenzy, yet none of them were so

had everywhere. To the original, Tyndale added nearly one-half. The truth is, that taking
Luther's preface to the Romans, he translated it with such additions and variations, that he
en\iiTy;e& a.\mo5t every paragraph, and adding additional observations, fitted it for circulation
in England. Like any other man, he could avail himself of whatever had already been said ;
but in thus acting, he is not likely to have been confederate with his German contemporary,
and much less under his eye. The fact, however, of this prologue being so early in circulation
throughout England as 1626, has not been before substantiated. It appears to rank, in point of
time, next to the New Testaments of 1525, and must have been printed in Worms.
80 It is, however, curious enough, that in this strange epistle, no distinct mention is made of
the octavo edition, so long regarded as the first. This, according to his way of reckoning, would
have been the third print, or the second of the New Testament ; but this defect will very soon
be supplied, and that through no less a personage than the primate Warham himself, the
master of this Henry Golde. As for Ridley's name, it has occurred before, page 102.

158 BY WARHAM AND THE BISHOPS. [bOOK I.
far gone, as to purchase without a reason. Any one of them,
as we shall see presently, was not disposed to be at more ex
pense than what was absolutely necessary: but they were
certainly in great haste, because the haste of fear, and so the
purchase became a matter of necessity, not of choice ; since
the rights of the subject were, at this moment, far better
understood at Antwerp than in England.
It was Warham, the Archbishop of Canterbury, who, in
the spring of ]527, had busied himself in procuring what
copies could be found out abroad of Tyndale's New Testament;
and he succeeded in purchasing a part of Tyndale's original
editions in quarto and octavo, though there might be some of
the third Antwerp impression among them. Wolsey and
Warham were not far from being as much at variance, as
were Herod and Pontius Pilate, in the days of old ; but, as
opposition to the Saviour made them friends for the moment,
so, in opposition to His Word, these modern authorities were
cordially united. One curious letter, never printed, still re
mains, affording a most miserable picture of the whole fra
ternity at this period. It is from the Bishop of Norwich to
the Archbishop of Canterbury, dated the 14th of June 1527.
" In right humble manner I commend me unto your good Lordship, doing
the same to understand that I lately received your letters dated at your Manor
of Lambeth, the 26th day of the month of May, by the which I do perceive
that your Grace hath lately gotten into your hands all the books of the New
Testament translated into English, and printed beyond the sea ; as well those
with the glosses joined unto them, as the other without the glosses ;3l by means
of exchange by you made therefor, to the sum of Lxvi. Ii, ix. s., iiii. d.32
" Surely, in mine opinion, you have done them a gracious and blessed deed,
and God, I doubt not, shall highly reward you therefore ! And when in your
said letters ye write that m so much as this matter and the danger thereof, if
remedy had not been provided, should not only have touched you, but all the
Bishops within your province ; and that it is no reason that the whole charge
and cost thereof should rest only on you ; but that they and every of them, for
their part, should advance and contribute certain sums of money toward the
same, and for that intent, desire me to certify you what convenient sum I, for
my part, will be contented to advance in this behalf, and to make payment

31 Though exulting in the idea, this will turn out to be a great misapprehension ; it was a
part, or it might indeed be aU they found in that particular place ; but the stock was wisely
divided into various parcels, ready for exportation from different points ; and some of them, nay,
not a few, owing tu the sale of the surreptitious editions, still remained more than two years
after this to be purchased by Tunstal.
32 £^, Ss. 4d. If we multiply only by ten, this would be f 664, 13s. 4d. ; but this is far too
low an estimate. We have throughout, as a medium, fixed on fifteen as the multiplier, agreeing
with Sir James Mackintosh, and others. The sum paid, therefore, by Warham was equal to
no less than £997 of our money !

1527.] TUNSTAL SENT ABROAD. 159
thereof to Master William Potkyn, your servant ; Pleaseth it you to understand,
that I am right well contented to give and advance in this behalf ten marks,
and shall cause the same to be delivered unto the said Master Potkyn, shortly ;
the which sum I think sufficient for my part, if every Bishop within your said
province make like contribution and advancement, after the rate and substance
of their benefices.33 Nevertheless, if your Grace think this sum of ten marks
not sufficient for my part in this matter, your farther pleasure known I shall
be as glad to confoi-m myself thereunto in this, or any other matter concerning
the Church, as any other subject within your province — as knows Almighty
God, who long preserve you, to his most pleasure, and your heart's desire. At
Hoxne, in Suffolk, the 14th day of June 1527. — Your humble obediencer
and bondman." 3i
Such was the letter of Eichard Nikke or Nix, dictated in
all probability, for he was literally blind for a considerable
time, and now about seventy-seven years of age ! His signa
ture has all the appearance of a blind man's mark. Few in
dividuals in England were more annoyed by the circulation
of the Scriptures than he was. We shall find him persecuting
and consigning Bilney to the flames ; for he lived nine years
longer, and died, as he had lived, blind in every sense, in
January 1536, at the advanced age of at least 86 ! But we
shall meet with him more than once, before his death.
If Warham was busy abroad, Tunstal was not less so at
home ; if the one was eager to prevent importation, the latter
had not relaxed in anxiety to obtain all those books that were
in use. He seems, however, to have been annoyed by a double
suspicion ; that his Archdeacons were either remiss in obey
ing his injunctions, or the people were too knowing for all
their research. Both suspicions were, in fact, not without
foundation. Tunstal, therefore, instead of waiting longer for
the owners of the Testaments delivering them up, resolved
upon a strict visitation of his whole diocese this summer.
But see again the kind interposition of a gracious providence !
This man, as well as Wolsey and Sir Thomas More, must all
prepare in June to embark for France, where they are to re
main till the month of October. The consequence was, that
although the visitation was remitted to Geffrey Wharton, as
his Vicar, little, or rather nothing, was done in the way of
persecution till Tunstal's return.
33 Witness the zeal and the alarm of the Bishop of Norwich. His donation was equal to
£100 of our time; and no doubt there were others equally alarmed.
34 MS. Cotton, Vitell, B. ix., fol. 117, b. This letter is in the catalogue inadvertently assigned
to the Bishop of St. David's ; but the date fi.\es it. The Lordship of Hoxne belonged to the
Bishop of Norwich down to the year 1546, when it was aliened to Sir Richard Gresham, father
of Sir Thom&e.~Tanner's Notitia : Suff. xxvii.

160 BILNEY CALLED UP. [book I.
After his return, however, he had received some written
information against certain individuals ; and in November, as
already explained, the bishops were summoned by Wolsey, as
Vicar-General of all England, to meet him at Westminster.^
He opened his court in this character, and commenced the pro
ceedings, " but because," says Foxe, " he was otherwise occu
pied with affairs of the realm, he committed the hearing of the
matter to the Bishop of London, and to other Bishops there
present, or to three of them, to proceed against all men, as
well spiritual as temporal, as also against writings and books
— ^giving them full power to determine upon them."^
" Bilney and Arthur, being leading characters, the court was opened with
their examination, and this was their second appearance. Bilney, as noticed
last year, had taken refuge merely in some legal informality in the oath admin
istered to him, and was now to be charged with its violation. Barnes, before
him, had led the way, and then left his followers in. the lurch ; for, poor good
man, Bilney's ' salvo jure,' or subterfuge, was now of no avail. Wolsey had a
perfect knowledge of circumstances, and when therefore Bilney was called in,
at the very commencement, the Cardinal asked him before all the Bishops, —
' whether he had not once made an oath before, that he should not preach, re
hearse, or defend any of Luther's opinions, but should impugn the same every
where ? ' To this Bilney answered, that ' he had made such an oath, but not
judicially.' Whether this was because of his swearing before the Cardinal
alone, or any other informality, Wolsey warmed at the reply, and immediately
' caused him to swear, to answer plainly to the articles and errors preached and
set forth by him, as well in the city and diocese of London, as in the diocese of
Norwich, and other places ; and that he should do it, leithout any craft, qualifying
or leaving out any part of the truth."SI
35 Page 151.
36 Besides many other divines and lawyers, the Bishops present were, Fisher of Rochester,
West of Ely, (the persecutor of Latimer ;) Vesey or Harman of Exeter, ithe predecessor and
successor of Coverdale, for Vesey was restored by Mary, and lived to about the age of one hun
dred;) Longland of Lincoln; Clark of Bath and pf^ells, lately returned from Rome; aud
Standish of St. Asaph. Warham did not obey the Vicar General's summons ; and whatever
may be said of his cruelties in earlier life, confessedly severe, or of Tunstal being more mild than
he was, Warham never appears as a persecutor after this. Notwithstanding his Mandate, it
is certain that he held no such courts at this period, within his province, as Tunstal did in his
diocese. This might be partly in resistance to Wolsey's high claimed authority, yet such was
the fact. Indeed, by the next month Wolsey and he quarrelled about a case of persecution ;
merely, however, because Warham thought that the Cardinal was usurping his authority, or
neutralising it.
37 Foxe, vol. ii. p. 259, Ed. 1631 . Referring to this appearance :— " The whole process," says
Burnet, "is set down by Foxe in all points according to Tunstal's Register, except one fault in
the translation. When the Cardinal asked Bilney, whether he had not taken an oath before,
not to preach or defend any of Luther's doctrines, he confessed he had done it, but notjudiciaUy,
—jiidieialiter, in the Register. This, Foxe translates, not lawfully. In all the other particulars
there is an exact agreement between the Register and his Acts." In Foxe, however, there is at
least another allusion to this first appearance. On the 13th of September, 1627, or above two
months before this second examination, in the written accusation given in by Edmund Peerson
against Richard Bayfield, he affirms that Bayfield, "about the Mth of October, last past, had
said, that Arthur and Bilney were better men than he (Peerson) was, or any of them that did
punish Arthur and a«neg/,"— plainly referring to the apprehension and the oath exacted in
l&id.— Foxe, vol. ii. p. 325, Ed. 1631.

1527.3 INVEIGLED BY TUNSTAL. 161
Arthur was then called in, and Wolsey " caused him to take the like oath
that Bilney had done, for he had acted in the same way." He then asked him,
" whether he had not once told Sir Thomas More, that in the sacrament of the
altar, there was not the very body of Christ ? " This Arthur denied, when
Wolsey, giving him time to deliberate till noon, retired, leaving all the rest to
the Bishops.
To show their zeal, Tunstal, West, and Fisher, met the same afternoon, in
the house of that bitter persecutor, the Bishop of Norwich, of whom we have
heard enough already. When Arthur was charged by the Bishops, with having
said, — " I may preach, first, by the authority of my Lord Cardinal, for 1 have
his license," he confessed that he " so spake : " one proof, among others, that
through such men as Latimer, Bilney, and Arthur, the Cardinal had been either
counterworking the sway of the Bishops, or showing off his own — perhaps he
might intend both. On Monday, however, the 2d of December, these men
again met, when Arthur abjured, nor do we ever hear of him again. With
Bilney it was otherwise. He seems to have imagined, that he could mollify
Tunstal by calm and tender representations in writing. The beautiful and
afiecting letters which he had written to him from prison, and which may be
read in Foxe, were sufficient to have melted a heart of stone ; but no, Tunstal
coolly delivered them all up as so much evidence against him, and then iorfour
days in succession, enjoyed the opportunity of exercising his art of ingeniously
inveigling and tormenting the conscience of this eminent man ; but we must
refer to Foxe for further particulars. The sequel is well known, Bilney ab
jured on Saturday the 7th, bare a faggot on his shoulder at St. Paul's next day,
and was remanded to " a prison appointed by the Cardinal, till he should be by
him released." Like Peter of old, he fell, but like him he also repented, though
not so soon ; and like him he then also " wept bitterly." The amount of his
distress can never be estimated, but some account of it will come before us
afterwards, at the proper time.

It has never been before observed, and it may now scarcely be
believed, that these proceedings were going on in London amidst
general and extreme misery, through the very high price, and,
in many instances, the absolute want of food. Such, however,
was the fact ; and so burning hot, as Foxe would say, was
their zeal. What with the distress of the people for the
necessaries of life, and this formidable array of men, calling
themselves Bishops, sitting in judgment under their lately
promoted Vicar-General, as if the power of Kome had now
been concentrated in England ; so far as it regarded the pro
gress and circulation of the Divine Word, the horizon could
scarcely become darker. The hand of God was certainly not
unseen in its first introduction ; but then these blind and cruel
authorities were scattered by the plague ; and though they
had been forewarned by the common enemy, they were not
then upon their guard. Now they are " gathered together,"
and literally " taking counsel " on the very subject. But let
VOL. 1. L

162 FRESH IMPORTATIONS. [bOOK 1.
US see what happened ; and observe also, whether the God of
Nature, and the Governor among the Nations, be not also
the God of the Bible.
Nothing, it is true, could be more unlikely, than that any
more copies of the Sacred Volume should arrive in this country
at such a crisis ; it might seem altogether impossible. We
have already seen, that throughout the whole year, England,
under Wolsey's influence, was fomenting war with the Em
peror, and consequently with the Low Countries or Flanders,
but courting alliance with France. In the latter, there were,
of course, no English Scriptures ; in the former, copies were
lying ready for being introduced here confidentially, with
secrecy and silence. But if there should be a bar to mer
chandise in general, and the merchants of Flanders and
England cannot exchange goods, how was there any chance
of conveying the " Book of God " with them, or under their
cover? It had come through this medium before, but how
could it by any possibility do so now 1
The reader may recollect, that the year 1527 was intro
duced by severe disease. Immediately after this, in conse
quence of " the great rains which fell in the sowing time," by
the fall of the year, bread advanced to such a price, that the
people were in danger of starvation. Wheat, at last, not
only had risen from sixteen shillings, to one pound six shillings
and eightpence the quarter, but ere long it was not to be ob
tained for money. Commissioners were sent into every county
to enquire what wheat remained in the realm ; but at the same
time to enjoin, that none should be conveyed from one county
to another. The consequence was, London at last so felt the
pressure, that the Mayor and Aldermen came to Wolsey on
his return from France, and told him, " either the people
must die from famine, or else they, with strong hand,
will fetch corn from them that have it." He cared little for
any man's life, when his path was crossed, and put them off
with, no doubt, a daring falsehood ! — that the King of France
had said to him, that " if he had but three bushels of wheat,
England should have two, so much he loveth and regardeth
this realm ! " This was at least acknowledging, that while
he was abroad, the scarcity was well known to him, amidst
all his gorgeous parade. The people then, from day to day,
looked for French wheat, but none came ; and what is more

1527.] SINGULARLY INTRODUCED. 163
observable, even such as the English merchants had bought
and shipped in Normandy and other places, was there re
strained, so that all relief from these parts entirely failed !
And what then ? Let the old contemporary chronicler of the
day, tell the rest : —
" But the gentle merchants of the Stilyard brought from Dantzic, Bremen,
Hamburgh, and other places great plenty ; and so did other merchants from
Flanders, Holland, and Frisland, so that wheat was better cheap in London,
than in all England over. Then the people said, — ' See how we had been served
by the Frenchmen in our necessity, if the Emperor's subjects had not holpen
us.' For this kindness, the common people loved the Emperor the better, and
all his subjects., Henry the VIIL, however, hearing of the stoppage of the
French wheat, lent the city a thousand quarters. ' Then within short space,
the merchants of London so diligently made provision in all places for wheat
and rye, that after Christmas they lacked none, and all the parties adjoining
to them were fain to fetch wheat of them, and none to them was denied, not
withstanding the unkind commandment given, that the Londoners should none
have of them."
And thus it was, that a way was opened for the introduction
of more books ! On board of these vessels with grain, there
must have been various importations of Tyndale's New Testa
ment ; but one is too remarkable to be passed over in silence,
as it included not less than five hundred copies by one man.
Yes, notwithstanding all the fury of Hackett, and the impri
sonment of Endhoven, another printer in Antwerp had already
finished another edition ! This was now the second in that
place, or the fou/rth in all. The fact comes out, incidentally,
about four months after this, in the examination of a distri
butor, before Tunstal. He had been charged with going about
to buy a great number of New Testaments, when he emits the
following answer ; — " That about Christmas last, (Dec. 1527),
there came a Dutchman, being now in the Fleet prison, which
would have sold this respondent two or three hundred of the
said New Testaments in English, which this respondent did
not buy, but sent him to Mr. Fysh."^" Connect this with the
following entry in Foxe's list of persons abjured in 1528.
" John Eaimund, a Dutchman, for causing fifteen hundred of
Tyndale's New Testaments to be printed at Antwerp, and for
bringing five hundred into England." There is but one mis
take here, in the name of the Dutchman, as he is called. Every

38 Halle, p. 736. 39 Fysh seems to have paid another flying visit.

164 FOURTH NEW TESTAMENT. CbOOK 1.
one at all acquainted with Foxe, knows how inaccurate and
irregular he is in the orthography of proper names. Hans
van Boemundt is the name of the Antwerp printer as given
by Panzer and Le Long. The name in English ought to have
been John Ruremonde.*"
One distinguishing feature of this edition consists in certain
woodcuts. It is thus referred to by Joye, as the second Dutch
edition — " They printed it again, also, without a corrector, in
a greater letter and volume, with the figures in the Apocalypse,
which were much falser than their first ;" and alluding then
to the former impression, he adds, " there were of them both
about five thousand books printed." One copy of this book,
which appears to have been reprinted from the quarto edition
of Tyndale, is supposed to be in the library of Emanuel
College, Cambridge.
" There is a copy of this edition," says Dr. Waterland to Mr. Lewis, " be
longing to Emanuel College, marked i. B-66. I have it now in my hand. I
make this judgment from the figures, that is cuts, drawings, m the Apocalypse.
It is imperfect, both beginning and end, torn out. It is a large I2mo, if it
may not be called a small 8vo. The titles and chapters are in red letter.
There is a part of ' the prologe unto tlie New Testament,' at the beginning."4i
Another account states — " It is printed in black letter, within border lines of
red ink ; and the head line throughout, the head of each book and chapter, the
notation marks, and most of the initial letters, are also in red. The volume
has marginal references, a small woodcut at the beginning of most of the books,
and larger ones in the Revelations, also glosses at the end of the chapters. It
commences on iii., in the middle of ' A prologue unto the Newe Testament.'
It has no folios, and a full page contains 37 lines, exclusive of the head line."*2
The fact was, and it is ajiiimating to discover it even noW,

40 In those early days, men were very often named after the town or place of their birth.
Myles Coverdale, in our own country, seems to be an instance of this. Eyndhoven and Rure-
monde, (where Mercator the geographer was born), were two considerable towns in the Nether
lands, as well known then as they are now. Christopher Eyndhoven, therefore, already men
tioned, and John and Christopher Ruremonde, must have been natives of these towns. Having
come to Antwerp, they were all printers there at the same period ; intimately connected in h^usi-
ness, and printing other things for the London market. Hence in 1525, we find the name^ of
both attached to the same book. Both of these Christophers left widows, who continued their
respective presses. As for John, the fact is, he had been printing at least two editions of the
New Testament in 1.526, one in German, and the above in English. Compare Panzer, vi. pp.
11-13, with Herbert's Ames, iii. pp. 1634, 1827-8-9-33.
41 Cotton's List, App. p. 129.
42 Lowndes' Bib. Man. p. 17.93. Dr. Cotton and Mr. Lovrades, following the supposition of
Lewis, gave for the year of this edition 1528 or 9. The time of printing, it will appear presently,
was the spring of 1S27. With regard to Christopher Ruremande, he also was printing. There
is now before the writer a Dutch New Testament of this period, only four inches by three in
size, and 36 lines in a page, having the wood-cuts in the Revelation ; with this colophon, " By
my ghreduct Christqffel van Ruremund op dye Lombard viste," 1528. Without glosses or
prologue.

1527.] BY OTHER PRINTERS. 165
that such a book was printing in Antwerp at the very time when
Endhoven was suffering ; for so early as the preceding May,
and just about the time that Warham was rejoicing, over his
purchase of Testaments, the printer had completed the volume !
Thus, after all the toil of Master Hackett, he was then the
subject oi fresh alarm. On the 23d of May 1527, therefore,
he wrote to Wolsey as follows : —
" And now it shall please your Grace to understand that the 21st day of this
mouth, at Mechlin, I was advertised for truth that notwithstanding any cor
rection that has been done in these parts before, yet now of the new, some
new printers of the town of Antwerp have brought to be sold to this Barrow
market divers English books entitled ' The New Testament ; ' for the which
cause I have come hither, to see correction and punishment to be done upon
the said books ; of which I have found 24 in one man's hand. We seek for
more, and, doubtless, I trust shortly to see them burned, and as many such like
as I can find in these countries."
He then urges once more the necessity for a specific list of heresies to be
sent him, that he might punish the printers personally, as well as burn the
books ; and, by way of enforcing this, he has more heavy tidings to convey —
" I hear say that there has been at the last Frankfort (spring) market, more
than two thousand such like English books ! but there, like as 1 hear say, they
favour greatly Luther's acts, and sustain that he writeth the truth ! and leave
all good old customs." *3
Under all these circumstances it is now almost evident that
part of this fourth edition had found its way into England, by
the end of 1 527 ; for that Testaments did arrive at this gloomy
and necessitous period, there can now be no question. Men
are but too apt to overlook the footsteps of a particular pro
vidence, but the arrival of books through such a medium,
and at such a period, was too remarkable an event to be passed
over in silence. Could it fail to be observed with gratitude at
the time ? After turning " a fruitful land into barrenness,"
and the people were " brought low, through oppression, afilic-
tion, and sorrow;" with bread corn came the bread from
heaven. Through these very channels, the Sacred Volume
had come before, and now, notwithstanding all the wrath and
rage in high places, it came again. The bread that perisheth
must rise in price, and finally fail, that the bread of life may
come. He who appointed a way for his anger, was at the
same moment preparing a way also for the reception of His
Word. In wrath he remembered mercy. Well might the

s Galba, B.ix., 56-8.

166 TYNDALE AND FRYTH. [^BOOK I.
people have said — " Whoso is wise, and, will observe these
things, even they shall understand the loving kindness of
the Lord."

SECTION V.
TTKDAIjE AHD FRYTH — ENGLAND AND SPAIN  ENGLAND AND ITALY  UE-
TROSPBCT  PRESENT PERSECUTION IN ENGLAND  ARRESTED BY PRE
VAILING DISEASE— PERSECUTION IN ANTWERP  NOBLY WITHSTOOD AND
DEPEATBD  WOLSEY's PURSUIT AFTER TYNDALE AND OTHERS  ALL IN
VAIN.
In the course of the year 1528, we have no distinct account
of any thing new having issued from the press, translated or
composed by Tyndale ; although some of his smaller tracts,
without date, may have been printed. There were, however,
fresh editions of his two publications, already mentioned. Of
" the Parable," there was one if not two editions, and of " the
Obedience" certainly two, the first of which is dated in May,
and the second in October of this year. That the books had
been read or purchased with avidity, and were in growing de
mand ; this, especially in those early days, is proof sufiicient ;
but not one of these were printed at Worms. Tyndale and
Fryth had now certainly removed elsewhere. All these pieces
were printed at one place and by the same man — Hans Luft,
a favourite printer " at Malborough in the land of Hesse," or
Marburg, the capital of Upper Hesse. To our Translator,
within the last eighteen months, this place must have become
strongly attractive. There is no intimation or even hint of
any visit yet paid to Wittenberg; it was still 200 miles
distant, and it becomes more than doubtful whether Tyndale
was ever there. Marburg, the ancient Mattium, is situate on
the right bank of the Lahn, a tributary of the Rhine, 41 miles
north from Frankfort.
A school of learning, of a new or unprecedented character, had been estab
lished here ; in fact, a University which is still in existence. Many colleges
had been founded even in the fourteenth century, and the fifteeuth'had been so
distinguished for tho formation of Academical foundations, that, according to

1528.] TYNDALE AND FRYTH. 167
the account given by Zopt, the number of Universities, after that of Turin in
1405, had amounted to twenty-seven. But the University of Marburg was the
fi/rst of a class differing from all preceding it. However, it may have gone on
since then, and however unpretending it was in its origin, it was by no means
the object here, " to set learning against learning," in the sense which was pro
posed at Cardinal College, Oxford. The result of individual zeal, and thirst for
mental improvement, it owed nothing whatever to Royal or Pontifical favoiu-
or countenance. That of the Pontiff was never to be sought. Founded in
1 526, by Philip, the Landgrave of Hesse, next year various Professors had
been appointed, and among these were men, who, so far from frowning on
Tyndale aud Fryth, were sure to bid them God speed. Not to name others,
here were Lambert, Lonieerus, aud, before long, Rudelius.l The art of print
ing also had been introduced at Marburg last year, or 1 527 ; and the only
press known to have existed, is that which Tyndale and Fryth employed,
throughout this year, and part of the following — a circumstance which indi
cates that they were on the spot. From the number of things issuing from
the same press, in English, even the printer seems to have been more inter
ested iu the design than any other that had been yet employed. But, above
all other men at Marburg, here also was one youth of no common promise,
deeply interesting to Fryth and Tyndale, as coming from the same island.
This was no other than Patrick Hamelton from Scotland, the proto-martyr ;
aud but for the strong affection felt for him by Fryth, we might have known
but little about him, as will appear afterwards. In short, Marburg held out
advantages, inviting, and far superior to the mere protection which had been
happily enjoyed at Worms. 2
Nor are we at any loss to understand how Tyndale was
here engaged. It must have been a mighty addition to his
comfort, for such a man as Roye to be succeeded by John
Fryth. The former once dismissed, in 1526 Fryth had
reached his friend and father of the same opinions. Equally
interested in the translation of the Scriptures for their native
land, from day to day this subject had fully engrossed their
minds. But at present we refrain from saying more till the
' Francis Lambert of Avignon, an eloquent preacher, and author of various expositions of
Scripture, is well known. After being at Wittenberg, he was now Divinity Professor at Mar
burg. Ahout a year after Tyndale's removal from the place, he died in 1530, aged only 43.
But John Lonieerus survived to the age of 70, in 1569. For forty-two years he taught here as
Professor of Greek, aud for fourteen years from 1636, also the Hebrew tongue. Nor should
John Rudelius be forgotten, as he left behind him one monument of his industry and scholar
ship, too little known. At the press of Quentel in Cologne, it will he remembered that Tyn
dale was succeeded by his foe Cochlaeus ; but Rudelius, last year, succeeded him, and to far
better purpose, by a beautiful folio Latin Bible, "juxta Hebi'aicam et Grteeam veritatem." It
has been praised for its correctness ; but by the copy now before the writer, there is another
circumstance more remarkable. It is dated from Cologne as early as the 8th of April 1627, or
above nine months before the first edition of Pagninus at Lyon, and seven years before the
version of Sebastian Munster. Some farther notice may be taken of this book when we present
an impression of the wooden block of the Evangelist Matthew, used by Quentel in the service
of all the three.
2 While the University of Cologne is now reduced to a gymnasium, and that of Wittenberg
was in 1816 almost broken up, or r.ither merged in the University of Halle, that at Marburg still
remains. We cannot give its present state ; but in 1829, the students were above 350 in number,
and the library contained above 100,000 volumes. Its annual revenue being nearly £6000, the
half is supiilied by the Government of Hesse Cassel.

168 TYNDALE AND FRYTH. [BOOK I.
books of the Pentateuch were printed. As Fryth, however,
is the only man who can certainly be associated with Tyndale
in his present engagements, it is necessary that he should be
now more fully introduced to the notice of the reader.
John Fryth was born in J 503, at Westerham, a market-
town in Kent, near the head of the Darent, a tributary of
the Thames. His father, Richard, as an inn-holder, lived
afterwards at Sevenoaks, near the same stream. It was al
lowed, even by his enemies, that Fryth was an excellent
scholar, after the advantages he had enjoyed, first at Cam
bridge, and then at Oxford, thus reversing the order of Tyn
dale's education. As Fryth, however, received his Univer
sity education at King's College, Cambridge, he must, of
course, also have been a scholar at Eton. It was while pro
ceeding in his studies, that Tyndale was at Cambridge, and
through his instrumentality, as Foxe expresses it, Fryth
" first received into his heart the seed of the gospel, and
sincere godliness." Such being the case, it is a circumstance
not to be forgotten in our future history, that Fryth had for
his tutor no other than Stephen Grardiner, the future Bishop
of Winchester. Some time in 1523, when Tyndale was in
London, it is next to certain his much-loved friend must have
been with him, since before they were separated, and Fryth
remained behind, it has been stated, that they used to con
verse respecting the necessity for the Scriptures being "¦ turned
into the vulgar speech, that the poor people might also read
and see the simple plain Word of God." In this case, Fryth
must have looked and longed for success to attend the enter
prise of the man he most loved upon earth.
Tyndale, however, sailing for Hamburgh, Fryth was, ere
long, selected, for his acquirements, as a Cambridge scholar ;
and called away to Oxford by Wolsey, became, as we have seen,
a canon in Cardinal College. Having already proceeded as
B.A. at Cambridge, he was admitted to the same degree at
Oxford in December 1525.^ Fryth could not have been idle
in advancing his opinions, for those young men from Cam-

3 " Conceditur D'no Fryth, questionistfe in artibus, ut admissio sua stet pro completo gradu,
eo quod electus in socium collegii Cardindlis Oxon. proximis comitiis intercsse non potest sic
quod satisfaciat ofSciariis."— Be^. Acad. Cantabr. "December 7, 1526," says A. Wood, "he
was, with other Cantabrigians, {Sumner, Coxe, Betts, Allen,) incorporated in the same degree
of Batchelor."

1528.] TYNDALE AND FRYTH. 109
bridge, already mentioned, were much of his mind. But in
two months, even to a day, after he had taken his degree,
not only he, but they, had incurred high displeasure. These
men might have been styled " the hope of the nation," though
we have heard old Warham rate them, in his letter to
Wolsey, as nothing more than " a number of young uncir
cumspect fools." Fools they might be called by the Primate
of England, but uncircumspect was not the right word.
Generally speaking, they were looking in one direction, and, at
the moment, saw farther than their calumniator. Here at least
was Fryth ; but little did Wolsey imagine, that in selecting
him, and most probably by his tutor Gardiner'' s recommenda
tion, he had laid his hand on the ardent admirer of that man
whom he was afterwards so eager to apprehend on the
Continent. Left behind in England, Fryth had proved,
among his fellows, an expectant of whatever Tyndale should
be able to accomplish ; and one can more easily conceive than
express how he must have hailed the arrival, and the very first
sight of the New Testament at Oxford. It certainly had
been longed for, and it came at last.
Fryth was then twenty-three years of age, and not only a
lover of learning, but acute and eminent in talent. Yet, once
aware of the cruelties practised on Dalaber and Garret, as
already detailed, and being so far at liberty, he effected his
escape, and landed, like his forerunner, on a foreign shore.
This could not possibly be before the autumn of 1526, so that
the undivided credit of translating the New Testament, and
forwarding it to his country, remains with Tyndale alone.
The flight of Fryth has been placed much later, even in
1528, but it is evident that he durst not have remained so long.
That he ever revisited England before he came to die at the
stake, we have no certain evidence ; but we now see him as
the able coadjutor of his elder brother for years.
When we turn away from these two men, the greatest benefactors of
Britain then living, to the disgraceful and offensive state of public
affairs, a general idea of the whole year may be attained by observing
the policy of England, first in connexion with Spain and the Low
Countries, and then with Italy.
The Emperor Charles V. was unquestionably ambitious, and now more
than ever anxious to reach his own pinnacle of earthly glory ; but no

170 ENGLAND AND SPAIN. [bOOK I.
one can charge him, at this period, with the same duplicity which Wol
sey practised, to his own permanent disgrace.
By the treaty of Madrid, when the King of Prance was allowed to re
turn from captivity, his two sons were sent into Spain, as hostages for
its fulfilment. Charles was now willing to relax, and even set these
children at liberty, provided that Francis would restore Genoa, and
withdraw his army from Italy. The Emperor had vrritten, demanding
a definite answer by the 3Ist of January ; but, before that day arrived,
the French ambassadors had shown to him the articles concluded with
Wolsey at Amiens, in August last ; and what wonder that Charles im
mediately fired, and was in great fury ? His remonstrating with the
English ambassador availed nothing, for he " discreetly" professed
ignorance ! The Emperor complained loudly of his uncle Henry's
hostility to him, but he remained inflexible. So at last, on the 22d of
January, by the express counsel of our Cardinal, Guienne for France,
and Clarehcieux, as King-of-Arms for England, bade defiance to the
Emperor in open court. When the defiances were made, the nobles of
Castile drew their swords, and replied — " Sire, if the despite of this de
fiance be unrevenged, the infamy and rebuke thereof shall remain to us
and our heirs for ever." The Spaniards, in general, were averse from
war with England — blamed only the Cardinal and Francis — " but wrung
themselves by the beard, and sware that their lands and goods should
be spent for the honour of the Emperor." " God grant," said the
Emperor, " that I may not have better reason to defy Henry, than he
has to defy me. Can I pass over the indignity with which he threatens
my aunt, by his application for a divorce, or the insult which he has
offered to me, by soliciting me to marry a daughter, whom he now pro
nounces to be a bastard 1 But I am perfectly aware from wliom these
suggestions proceed. I would not satisfy the rapacity of the Cardinal
of York, nor employ my forces to seat him in the chair of St. Peter ;
and now in return, he has sworn to be revenged, and now seeks to fulfil
his purpose. But if war ensue, let the blood that must be shed fall on
the head of him who is the origirwl iiistigator of it." *
The English merchants in Spain were of course attached, and put in
safe custody. The ambassadors were honourably treated ; but a rumour,
real or pretended, reached England, that the Emperor had acted other
wise, and even thrown them into prison. Wolsey in his fury, on the
I2th of February, imprisoned Don Mendoza, the Spanish ambassador, and
the next day, in the Star Chamber, gave a long address, by no means
palatable to those who heard it. Some, indeed, scrupled not to say " he
lieth ;" and as for the people, in general, they deeply lamented and
deprecated any war between Henry and the Emperor. Such was the
<• Le Grand.

1528.] ENGLAND AND SPAIN. 171
result of Wolsey's pompous and expensive embassy to France ! The
" golden seal" could not now be held up to admiration, and that " per
petual peace" of which he boasted, thus ended in war, at the distance
of less than five months !
The ships of Flanders at our ports were immediately arrested ; and
the declaration of war, once known to the Lady Margaret, she caused
the English there, with their goods and ships, to be restrained. But a
very short time had elapsed before it was known that the Emperor had
all along acted most honourably to our ambassadors, when Wolsey re
leased the Spanish representative. Mendoza felt the indignity, but
concealed this, and remained. At this crisis, strong suspicions rested
on the Cardinal with regard to all this confusion. By way of apology
to Mendoza, he had the effrontery to affirm, that " the King was in
formed by the French ambassador, that the ambassadors of both princes
were put in prison," and then, with the most cruel audacity, he added —
" that Clarencieux had made the defiance of the Emperor without the
King's commandment — that he did it only by the motion of the Frmuh
ambassadors, to accompany the French herald — and that for this pre
sumptuous act, he should suffer death, at Calais, on his return I" All
this Mendoza wrote down and sent : his letters, providentially for
Clarencieux, were opened and copied at Bayonne, as the post passed that
way. " When Clarencieux was returning homeward, the Captain of
Bayonne," says Halle, " gently shewed to him the copy of the letters
that the Emperor's ambassador had written." Dismayed, he went on,
however, to Boulogne, when hearing again of his danger, without going
to Calais, he immediately sailed from thence to Rye, got to Hampton
Court secretly, and through Sir Nicholas Carew, Master of the Horse,
obtained audience of Henry, before Wolsey wist of his return ! When
he showed the th-ee letters which the Cardinal had sent him, charging
him to make the defiance — he then declared how courteously he had
been treated, and exhibited his chain of gold, valued at 500 ducats,
given him by the Emperor.^ When the King had heard all, he mused
for a great while, and then, not without profanity, exclaimed — " 0
Lord Jesu, he that I trusted most, told me all these things coiUrary!
Well, Clarencieux, I will be no more of so light credence hereafter ; for
now I see perfectly, that I am made to believe the thing that was
never done."
The invention of Wolsey was now nearly exhausted. He had in one
sense finished his career ; for he never again, with all his address, could

5 Cotton MS. Vespas., c. iv. p. 231.
e This Clarencieux, King-of-Arms, was Thomas Benolt, afterwards befriended by Henry.
He died in 1634, " and his monument," says Stowe, " remains at this day, 1st May 1703, in St.
Helen's Church in Bishopsgate Street." In the Harleian Collection, his figure as Clarcncicux
may be seen, as taken from the tomb.

172 ENGLAND AND ITALY. [bOOK I.
regain what was gone for ever. He might, and he did, continue near
the person of the King for eighteen months longer ; but Henry retained
him merely to accomplish a selfish and determined purpose, in pursuing
which the Cardinal only sunk himself deeper still. It was a lingering,
but a just judgment, that this proud, unprincipled, and ambitious man
should live for a season in habitual apprehension and chagrin, and in
the very sphere where his influence had been so powerful. " The King,"
says Halle, " sent for the Cardinal, and privily talked with him ; but
whatsoever he said to him, the Cardinal was not very merry, and after
that tvme, (February 1528,) the King mistrusted him ever after."
If the reader feel any surprise at this nefarious conduct of Wolsey, on
turning to his negociations with Italy, he must not expect to meet with
anything less revolting.
The Pontiff, after being reduced to such extremity that he had to live
on asses flesh, had been released from confinement by the Emperor in
December 1527, but, of course, not without a full understanding between
the parties as to future proceedings. The Cardinal, on hearing this, was
filled with transport, not fully aware that the Pope now, was nothing
more than a prisoner at large. He must, however, in usual mockery,
sing " Te Deum" on the 5th of January at St. Paul's ; representing that
Clement had escaped, and that this was the effect of the prayers of good
Christian people ! But as soon as the people knew that the deliverance
was simply the effect of " composition," they said of Wolsey that " he
could not leave his lying."
The Cardinal's documents, drawn up last December, in four distinct
and artful papers, sent with two envoys, John Casalis and Dr. Knight,
to procure the divorce of Henry and his Queen, only required the Pope's
signature. He at last subscribed with a trembling hand, but through
fear of the Emperor, restricted Henry from acting at present ; and im
ploring the King and Wolsey not now to precipitate him for ever ! The
fact was, that before being released from prison, he was bound by the
Emperor, not to sanction any such procedure. But what was to be
done ? Wolsey himself began to be as much afraid of being " precipitat
ed" as the Pope ; at least so he pretended, and not a moment was to be
lost. On the 10th of February, therefore, having despatched Stephen
Gardiner, his Secretary, and Edward Pox, then the King's almoner, they
went by way of France, and secured the concurrence of Francis, as well
as his influence with the Pontiff ; they had arrived at Orvietto, on the
20th of March. Wolsey wished such a commission to be obtained as
would enable him to rise in favour, and to secure, by one stroke, the gra
titude of Henry and his intended Queen ; and if he could only be ap
pointed Judge to try the divorce for which his Master panted, such
might be the effect of his intended decision. Gardiner and Fox had
therefore been selected, and especially the foi-mer, to use intimidation if

1528.] ENGLAND AND ITALY. 173
necessary. Accordingly, with all the determined energy of his charac
ter, Gardiner at length not only drew tears and regret from the Pontiff,
making him at other times to "sigh and wipe his eyes," but wrung from
him his signature to a commission, which, when Fox had brought it
home in May, after all did not answer the wishes of our Cardinal ! And
to what low and deceitful expedient wUl he now resort ? Immediately
addressing Gardiner and Bryan, he orders them to pretend that the
Pope's policitation had been so obliterated and spoiled by water in the
carriage, that a duplicate must be sent forthwith. They were, after this,
to allege that they remembered the very words of the former document,
and so could dictate them to the officer, who was to prepare it again ;
but in doing this they were then to introduce such expressions of en
larged power as Wolsey had marked ! ! Accordingly the Pope actually
signed this fresh document ; but still, after all this labour time and ex
pense, the biter was bit. Within a few months, and without any hesita
tion, Clement violated the whole subscribed engagement !
The change as it regarded what was called St. Peter's Chair, was now
certainly most glaring, and sufficient to have opened the eyes of all, save
the wilfully blind. The same man, whose predecessor had impiously
styled himself " Sovereign of the Universe," is now openly degraded, and
in bondage still. During these negociations he actually wished, for
the wealth of Christendom, that Queen Catherine was in her grave ; and
at another time, though no prophet, he added these emphatic words, " I
think, like as the Emperor hath destroyed the temporalities of the Church,
so shall she be the cause of the destruction of its spiritualities" — and such
was the event, as it regarded England. It was fit and proper, that the
power which had so long been distinguished by arrogantly "forbidding
to marry," should be tamed, tormented and abased, even by a licentious
Monarch, disturbing all Europe for years about himself and his wife, —
the Queen all the while remaining a devoted adherent of the Roman
See, and the King, her husband, as vain as ever of his title, received from
Rome — the Defender of the Faith !
The farce, however, pmst proceed, by Gardiner bringing with him
another Legate, Campeggio. He and Wolsey, two most licentious men,
were to sit in judgment on the legality of Henry's marriage ; but the
former, who though commissioned in April did not set off till July, then
affected to be so infirm and diseased on the road, that even Gardiner
could not drag him on. They were not less than three months in jour
neying from Italy. The real cause of the delay was simply this, that
Clement and his Cardinals had not yet exhausted all their wit and cun
ning. Campeggio had been urged, again and again, to delay his jour
ney as long as possible, so that before his arrival in England, his secret
instructions were to try and reconcile the King and Queen ; or endea
vour to persuade the latter that she should retire and spend what they

174 ENGLAND AND ITALY. [bOOK I.
called a " religious" life ! in other words to enter some nunnery ; but at
all events, he was to decide nothing ! And why so ? Merely because
Clement, like all the rest, had been watching on the times. When Cam
peggio left home, a French army remained in Italy ; the predominant
power of the Emperor there, was therefore not finally decided ; so that
till the middle of August this disgusting and litigious process of divorce
seemed to hang in suspense, on what ? Merely the capture of Naples !
Should the Emperor's arms, defending it, be defeated, then the Pope
might once more do as he pleased : but, in thirty days, not less than
twenty-one thousand of the French army died of disease ; on the 17th of
August, Lautrec, the French General himself expired, the remainder
dispersed, Charles was triumphant ; and therefore Campeggio must de
cide nothing !
After this it is curious enough to see the mock-trial commence on the
28th of October. On the 8th of November, Wolsey's speech against the
Emperor seemed to please his Master. The just indignation of Cathe
rine burst out aloud upon the Cardinal, but the drama went on ; and not
withstanding all this, the Monarch and his Queen, with such a scene be
fore them both, were together "keeping open festivities" still, at the end
of the year !
It is true, that during the summer months, while waiting for this
Italian Cardinal, the King and his subjects with him, had got something
else to think of, as both the court and the country had been thrown in
to consternation, by the prevalence of disease ; but this will be noticed
with more effect afterwards, since it followed in immediate connexion
with the persecutions of this year, to which therefore we first attend.
At the commencement of 1528, according to the preceding
history, the New Testament of Tyndale had now been intro
duced into England for the space of two years, a fact which
will be abundantly confirmed by the disclosures of the present
period. Speaking generally of these times, Strype has said,
— " the New Testament translated by Hitchen, that is Tyn
dale, was in many hands, and read with great application and
joy ; and they had secret meetings, in which they instructed
each other out of God's Word ;" but after carefully examin
ing the minute, though scattered details, a far more interest
ing and graphical account now comes out, not only of these
two years, but of the years preceding.
From the days of John Wickliffe, if not Richard Fitzralph,
the disciples of Christ were much in the same situation with
those Israelites in the days of Elijah, whom God " reserved
to himself." Hidden and unknown, their number can never

1528.] RETROSPECT. 175
be ascertained, otherwise it probably would surprise us, as
much as the " seven thousand" did the desponding prophet
of old. But there can be no doubt that portions of the
Scriptures in manuscript were read in secret, and By many
with great profit, notwithstanding all the virulent opposition.
Our only key to the extent of this, is to be found in the
opposition displayed. Mere gleams of light obtained from
the Sacred Word, were sufiicient to bring down the wrath of
the oppressor. During the fifteenth century, various cases of
abjuration and burning for heresy had occurred, but from the
commencement of the sixteenth, as light increased, the op
position became more determined and systematic. Particular
periods are then to be marked as seasons of persecution. To
say nothing of the first ten yeaus, though disgraced by not a
few instances of great cruelty ; the years 1511 under War
ham of Canterbury and Smith of Lincoln ; 1509 to 1517
under Fitzjames of London; and, above all, 1521, under Long-
land of Lincoln, were so many seasons of the most determined
opposition to the Word of God. Nor should it be unobserved
that all these persecutions, including even the last, were on
account of opinions, not gathered or received from any foreign
land or Continental Christian. Whatever those opinions
were, they were indigenous to this country, and are mainly to
be ascribed to certain portions of the Sacred Writings in
English manuscript. Before, and even long before the name
of Luther was heard of by the people, these opinions were
sifted, debated, and maintained ; nay, as late as 1621, though
the writings of the German Reformer were then publicly
denounced, they were as yet locked up in Latin, so that,
amidst all the barbarities of that year, under Longland, we
hear of no punishment inflicted for Lutheranism so called.
It is certainly, therefore, to be regretted, that even British
historians, in too many instances, should have so hastily
looked over to Germany, as accounting for the commencement
and progress of all that occurred in their own country in the
first quarter of the sixteenth century. After an examination
of the ofiicial records of the day, and other original manuscripts,
more patient and laborious than that in which any man has
ever since engaged, it is not surprising that John Foxe should
dwell on the retrospect with delight, and confess his inability
to do it justice ; while he as distinctly ascribes this work of

176 READING OP [^BOOK I.
God, to his own Word in the vernacular tongue, and to this
alone, though not yet in print.
We have glanced at all this as justly due to what may be
styled the age of manuscript. But as the invention of print
ing was itself an era, so assuredly was that of the reception of
the Sacred Scriptures in print into Great Britain. This
might be fairly inferred from the history already given ; but
it is now worthy of special notice, that for three or four years
before the arrival of Tyndale's first editions, a people seem to
have been signally prepared for their reception. We could
not with propriety notice them at an earlier period, as it is
chiefiy by the severities of the present year, that they come
out to view. From the examinations upon oath, about to be
noticed, we could now enumerate above a hundred of these
people by name, and state their places of abode, but these
were merely the persons detected, exposed, or punished.
Many, many more there must have been, whose record is on
high. They met together, chiefiy in London, but also at
different places in the counties of Essex, Suffolk, Norfolk, and
Buckingham. They called each other Brother, and said that
they were Brothers in Christ. They had the four Gospels
separately and in one volume ; some of Paul's Epistles in
another ; the Epistles of Peter and that of James ; all in
English manuscript, however inferior the translation, or in
accurate, through frequent transcription. In regard to the
Epistle of James, in some parts it was a great favourite, and
far from startling at it, as the German Reformer himself did
at first, and for some time, they could repeat it from memory ;
even one young woman was detected who could say the whole.
Their high esteem for the Oracles of God, was to be seen in
the price paid for them in whole or in part.
These friends in London seem to have held their meetings
from about 1523, very frequently in the house of one William
Russel in Coleman Street, at the gate of Bird's Alley, over
against St. Stephen's Church ; when Father John Hacker, as
they called him, and sometimes others, read and explained the
Scriptures. We have already pointed out the spot to which
the authorities first sent to seize books -^ and it is now not
unworthy of notice that very near, and even round it, not-
7 Honey Lane, Cheapside, nearly opposite to Bow Church, p. 92.

1528.] THE SCRIPTURES. 177
withstanding " the secret search," the Word of God continued
to be read and prized — it even " grew and multiplied." The
great fire in London of 1666, it is true, consumed all those
parts, but of the eighty-nine churches burnt down, at least
fifty- four were rebuilt, and on the same ground. Bird's Alley
is gone, but the church remains where it was ; and if any one
wish to stand on the same spot where, amidst all the wrath
and blasphemy of the day, the Sacred Volume was then
perused with the keenest interest, he has only to walk along
that part of King's Arms Yard which yet remains, till he
come " over against" St. Stephen's Church, Coleman Street.^
Similar meetings were held in Essex. The largest was in
Colchester itself, but there were friends at Witham, Braintree,
Saffron Walden, and Birdbrook, as well as at the Friary of
Clare, or Stokeclare, in Suffolk." In the north of Essex the
parish of Bumstead was, as the persecutors would have said,
a hot-bed of heresy.^"
So early as September 1526, two plain country men from
thence came to London, in search of the new printed Testa
ments, and going to Austin Friars, there met with Dr.
Barnes, who, it may be remembered, was then a prisoner at
large. One of these men had been in possession of Tyndale's
New Testament, which he procured from Colchester about
the month of April before. These men reported the curate
of this parish, Richard Foxe, as favourable to enquiry, and
begged a letter from Barnes to him. He gave them one, sold
a Testament to each, and after their return, the curate, and
even two friars, Topley and Gardiner, seemed to be making
progress ; but besides them there were a number of per
sons, male and female, scattered throughout these parts,
still farther advanced. It will be remembered that Myles
Coverdale, one of Barnes' students, came up to London after
him, at the time of his melancholy abjuration in February
1526. We shall trace him now preaching in this part of
Essex, in company with Richard Foxe. Thus, on the 29th of
March 1528, one of these friars, Thomas Topley, heard him

8 In the im mediate vicinity of the house, where lived for many years, th e late venerable John
Newton. ^ Afterwards the favourite retreat of Parker, Archbishop of Canterbury.
10 Called Steeple Bumstead, being, says Norden, the first place in these parts that had one,
and to distinguish it from an adjoining parish of the same name, Helion Bumstead. The former
was styled also Bumstede ad Turrim, as having one of those ancient round towers which abound
in Suffolk and Norfolk.
VOL. I. M

178 READERS PERSECUTED. [bOOK I.
preach at Bumstead church, and such doctrine as, in connexion
with subsequent conversation, shook his mind with regard to
various superstitions. But the persecutions we are now about
to notice must have scattered, for a season, all these groups in
this county, as well as the meetings in London ; more
especially as Wharton the Vicar-General of Tunstal moved
down into Essex in July this year, searching after his prey.
It is then that we shall hear more of Coverdale.
Many of those, however, throughout the land, who had
either purchased or perused the Testament of Tyndale, were
now about to find that it was "through much tribulation they
must enter into the kingdom of God ;" and it would have
been well if then the brother had not betrayed his brethren,
the husband his wife, and the father his child ! Not three
months before, the country had been in the greatest extremity,
through scarcity amounting to famine, and not a few had pined
away in disease. London, also, as we have seen, had more
especially felt the pressure, but no sooner had plenty re
turned by the importation of foreign grain, and bread had
fallen in price, than the same city became the seat of bitter
and sifting persecution. The country at large had just
suffered severely, through the crooked and ambitious policy
of Wolsey ; and now the best of his Majesty's subjects, simple
hearted and unoffending people, are to be molested through
the cool malignity of Tunstal. He had before this preached
his sermon, in which he boasted that he had found more than
2000 errors in the printed New Testament. Tunstal's in
famous injunction also, of October 1526, had hung over the
people for fourteen months, without being rigorously followed
up, but we have accounted for this forbearance. It was un
avoidable, as he had been so engrossed by foreign political
affairs. It was, therefore, in the opening of 1528, that one
feature of his character began to be more fully developed, of
which in general a very strange, not to say erroneous, esti
mate has been given. Sir T. More and he were united, as men
familiarly say, like hand and glove ; and, therefore, it was to
be expected, that he should pronounce him to be inferior to
none " in the integrity of his principles, and the sweetness of
his disposition." Godwin says that " he was a very rare and
admirable man, with nothing wrong but his religion, and yet
he was a profound divine, as many of his works yet do testify."

1528.] READERS PERSECUTED. 179
" He had," says even Gilpin in his life of Ridley, " true notions
of the genius of Christianity .' He considered a good life as
the end, and faith as the means ; and never branded as an
heretic that person, however erroneous his opinions might be,
in points less fundamental, who had such a belief in Christ as
made him live like a Christian. He was just, therefore, the
reverse of his early patron Warham ;" and he concludes by
afiirming, " that Tunstal thought persecution one of the things
most foreign to his function ! " We allow that the reverse of
this, in some points, was the character of Warham; but was it
less so of Tunstal ? Both were men of learning and talent, and
Tunstal's taste in letters was superior to most of his contempo
raries ; but let any one hold fast opinions which they conceived
would, even ultimately, affect the hierarchy, and neither of them
scrupled for a moment in proceeding to the greatest extremity.
Tunstal, it is true, was still, and of quiet behaviour, cautious,
and had great command over his passions ; a worldy-wise-
man, who contrived to thread his way through those difficult
times, so that he died in his bed, at the advanced age of 85.
But, on the other hand, if works bear witness, by these he
must be judged. What signifies learning, however eminent,
except it be applied to some laudable and beneficial purpose ?
And though it should be accompanied with apparent sedate-
ness, and much sagacity in worldly affairs ; all these in union,
so far from concealing great and radical defects in moral
character, only render them the more atrocious. To say
nothing of the violence of Tunstal's language when writing to
Erasmus, in earlier life, or of the incontinence with which he
has been charged ; certainly no man who was so frequently em
ployed by Wolsey, and served his purpose so well, could by
any possibility hold fast his integrity, or walk uprightly;
and Tunstal being most celebrated as a courtier, and at suck
a time, the reader may be left to judge of his veracity. As
for humanity, what though he might have an aversion from
shedding blood, or rather a dread of shedding it ? What
shall we say as to his cool barbarity in sifting and cross-
examining, then threatening and re-examining, till the poor
creature quivered, and became perplexed, trembled, and ab
jured ? Not satisfied, see him seize on the abjured parties,
and, through his sophistry, compel them at last to expose and
even accuse their nearest and dearest relatives and friends !

180 READERS CROSS-EXAMINED. [bOOK I.
No, he was an ingenious tormentor, distinguished for his
patient dexterity in producing mental misery ; and we may
rely on it, that Tyndale, who knew his doings well, though
he did not charge him with shedding so much blood, had good
reason for designating him as he did, — " that still Satan, the
imaginer of all mischief." " Cursed," said Jortin, when
speaking of him, " cursed are those theological principles,
which produce such sad effects even in good-tempered men,
and eat up so much of their honour and humanity !" The
only mistake in this exclamation, is that of styling such
principles theological. The truth was, that none of those men,
even the mildest, understood the sacred rights of conscience,
because their own was " seared with a hot iron." They were,
for the time, the " rulers of the darkness of this world,"
while the praiseworthy people whom they tried to devour or
exterminate, were, in fact, however poor and despised, a
chosen band of wrestlers " against spiritual wickedness in
high places."
At all events, whatever Warham had been in days that
were past, we shall find that Tunstal was " the grand In
quisitor" in 1528. In January his underlings were busily pre
paring for his sitting in judgment ; and then followed those
numerous cases, from February to May inclusive, which are
upon record, in his Register.
The shrewd and systematic method adopted by Tunstal
seems to have been, to find out the most intelligent or influ
ential men, among these people who were to be cross-examin
ed, and by effectually threatening them, so detect many of the
rest. In January or the beginning of February one man was
found, and before long other two if not three. In the midst
of these harassing times, it was not to have been expected,
that all would prove faithful; but surely these early read
ers of the printed New Testament upon English ground, had
not anticipated that any of their leaders would fail and betray
them ! Yet so it was, for poor Hacker, the first man referred
to, being, as Strype says, "hard set upon, made a discovery, by
interrogatories put to him upon oath, of a great many of his
friends and followers both in Essex and London." Following
out this clue, at least three other men followed the sad exam
ple ; John Pykas of Colchester, with John Tybal and Thomas
Hempsted of the parish of Bumstead. These poor men now

1528.] AND PERSECUTED. 181
stood in the character of " Persecutor's evidence," and were to
be called upon, whenever it was found necessary ! Hacker, to
save himself, had betrayed at least forty of his friends, with
whom he had often read the Scriptures, the majority of whom
resided in London, and the others as many more, in the coun
ty of Essex alone, as amounted to above a hundred in all !
Happily, these were but a part of the whole ; but here was a
field, quite sufficient for the Bishop and his Vicar-General.
The former required only to assemble his deeply prejudiced
assistants, and the reader may be curious to know who were
those men, who first sat in judgment upon Tyndale's transla
tion, and the earliest possessors of the precious volume.
Tunstal had taken care to secure round him more than a do
zen of men to preside, either all together, or by turns, and they
are styled in the Register " all learned men," of course. Be
sides Geffrey Wharton, D.D. his Vicar-General, and John
Darel, B.D. Wharton's official, Matthew Grafton and Henry
Bonsfel, Notaries ; there were Robert Ridley, D.D. and John
Royston, Professor of Theology, Richard Sparchforde, M.A.,
Thomas Forman, S.T.P., John Tunstal and Thomas Chambre,
Chaplains, Nicholas Tunstal, Thomas Dowman, Thomas Pil-
kington, and James Multon.
Wharton, to do him justice, would seem to have been not
so bitter as some others ; he died next year. Royston had
been far more indebted to Humphrie Munmouth, than even
Tyndale. Yet Munmouth is about to be molested and im
prisoned, and Royston is here ! Sparchforde had been pro
moted in ] 522 to the living of Hackney ; but the most con
spicuous of these assistant persecutors was Robert Ridley, al
ready noticed. The Tunstals, as well as Ridley, were related
to the Bishop.
In now turning to the disclosures made by persecution in
the early part of this year, we shall find them doubly import
ant as to evidence on one point, namely, the period in which
the New Testaments of Tyndale were first introduced into
England. Independently of the abundant proof already given,
they show that Tyndale's quarto and octavo editions were pur
chased and perused throughout the year 1 526 ; and that
Tunstal's injunction, in October of that year, was not ground
less, when it affirmed that they were spread throughout " all
his diocese, in great number."

182 READERS CROSS-EXAMINED, [book I.
From the Register itself we select only such cases as bear
directly on the Testaments first printed by Tyndale, with
two from other sources, equally authentic."
I. Februaryli, 1 528.^" Dr. Geffrey Wharton, aforesaid, sat judicially, inthe
long Chapel of St. Paul's Church, London, near the Northgate. And then ap
peared before him Sir Sebastian Herris, curate of the parish Church of Ken
sington ; who confessed that he had two books ; viz. the New Testament in the
vulgar tongue, translated by William Hotchin, Priest, and Friar Roye ; and
' Unio Dissidentium,' containing in it the Lutheran heresy. But Herris being
by the said Wharton, Vicar-General, absolved from the sentence of excommuni
cation, that had been by the canon passed against him, he enjoined him, by
oath upon the holy Gospels, that he should not for the future keep any of the
said books, or any other containing heresy in it ; nor knowingly read, sell, pawn,
or any other way dispose of such books ; nor knowingly converse, or hold fami
liarity with any person suspected of heresy, nor favour them. And, moreover,
he enjoined the said Sir Sebastian, under pain of excommunication, that after
he had obtained license to depart, he should not tarry nor abide within the
City of London (being so' dangerous a place to be infected with heresy,) above a
day and a night ; but go thence else where, and not approach near the city any
where, four miles in circuit, for the space of two years." We have no trace
left as to what became of this man ; but it is cheering to observe that there ap
pears to have been no abjuration on his part. He was thus banished, for pos
sessing the English New Testament, but as no mention is made of the precise
period in which he acquired it, we pass on to the next, or one of the earliest in
stances in proof of this point.
II. March 2. — Jolm Pykas of Colchester, with Thomas Matthew aud Henry
Rayland from the same place, appeared before the Vicar-General, being cited
to answer to certaiu articles, and next day, Tuesday the 3d of March, Tunstal
himself appeared. " Cuthbert, Bishop of London, sitting judicially, in the cha
pel within his palace at London, ministered in word against John Pykas, the
articles which were ministered to John Hacker, and all things contained iu the
same ; adding, that he had, and retained, in his keeping, the New Testament in
the vulgar tongue, translated by William Hotchyn and Frim- Roy, notwith
standing the condemnation, publication and monition made thereupon. Upon
the ministering of which and other things, the same reverend father took, ex officio
suo, for witnesses, John Boughton of Colchester and John Hacker !" " March 7.
John Pykas made answer to the articles ministered to him, before the said
Bishop, sitting judicially in the chapel of his palace in London," — ^which an
swer was to this tenor : — " That about five years last past, at a certain time, his
mother, then dwelling at Bury, sent for him ; and moved him that he should
not believe in the Sacraments of the Church, for that was not the right way.
And then she delivered to this respondent, one book of Paul's Epistles in Eng
lish (manuscript ;) and bid him Uve after the manner and way of the said Epis
tles and Gospels, and not after the way that the Church doth teach."—" Also
about a two years last past I" (or March 1526,) " he bought in Colchester of a
Lumbard of London, a New Testament in EngUsh, and paid for it four shillings,
which New Testament he kept, and read it through many times."

1 ' The industrious Strype, in quoting the instances from March, forgetting that the year an o
to the 26th, has placed them imder 152? instead of 1528.

1528.] AND PERSECUTED. 183
This instance, so early in point of date, is also very distinct, carrying us back
to March if not February 1S26 ; and from the price paid, equal to between two
and three pounds sterling, seems to have been Tyndale's lai'gest Testament.
But the fact was, that Pykas was not merely the jDurchaser of one copy, but the
seller of others, as will appear in the next case. This poor man, a baker by
trade, aged thirty-three, having abjured ; " after this," says Strype, " Pykas
and Hacker, the chief leaders of the rest, were thus sifted, aud by imprisonment,
severities, and threatening, brought to confess all the ' known men and women,'
as they were then called, even their friends, their brethren, their nearest relations,
and those that themsehes had brought into those opinions ; they were enjoined pen
ances, and abjured aud sworn to be witnesses against others, and to betray all !"
III. With this first distinct testimony before us, it is curious enough, that
it was upon this very day that Tunstal issued his well known " License to Sir
Thomas More, Lord Chancellor of England, to read and retain the books con
taining the Lutheran heresy." The date in his Register is as follows—" Dat. vij
die Martii anno domini millesimo quingentesimo xxvij, et nostre cons, sexto,"
that is, 7th March 1S28 ; as he became Bishop of London in Oct. 1S22, and
their year ran on to the 2Sth of March. This was the most unfortunate step
that More ever took. The license was granted mainly with a view to the re
futation of Tyndale's translation and other writings, as will appear by the event.
Tunstal, in high spirits, expected that he would " play the Demosthenes" in
English, as he had done in Latin ; but we have yet to see what became of two
Lords Chancellor, in succession, Wolsey and More, when brought under the
power of Tyndale's pen.
IV. April 28. — This confession is formally entitled, " Confessio Johaunis
Tyball de Bumstede ad Turrim, facta et recognita per eundem Johannem
coram Reverendo in Christo Patre Duo. Cuthberto. London, Episcopo, in
capella infra palaciam London, xxviii. die mensis Aprilis, anno Dni. mill"
quingen™"- xxviii. Q,uam postea signavit." — " Examined, he saith, ' that about
two years agone, (or April 1526,) he companied with Sir Richard Fox, curate
of Bumstead, and shewed hira all his books that he had ; that is to say, the New
Testament in English ; the Q-ospel of Matthew and Mark in English ; which he
had of John Pykas of Colchester ; a book expounding the Pater-noster, the Ave
Maria, and the Credo ; certain of Paul's Epistles after the old translation. —
And so in process of time, by reason of things contained in the said books, and
disputing and instructing, he brought Sir Richard Fox to his learning and
opinions. Furthermore, he saith that at Michaelmas last past was twelve months,
(September 1 526,) this respondent and Thomas Hilles, came to London to Friar
Barnes, then being at the Friars Augustines in London, to buy a New Testa
ment in English, as he saith. And they found the said Friar Barnes in his
chamber ; where there was a merchantman reading iu a book, and two or three
more present. And when they came in, the Friar demanded them from
whence they came ; and they said from Bumstede, and so forth in communica
tion they desired the said Friar Barnes that they might be acquainted with
him — because they would have his counsel iu the New Testament, which they
desired of him. And he saith that the said Friar Barnes did perceive very
well that Thomas Hilles and this respondent were infected with opinions, be
cause they would have the New Testament. And then farther they shewed
the said Friar, that one Sir Richard Fox, curate of Bumstede, by their means,
was well entered ui their learning ; and said, that they thought to get him whole,
in sliort space. Wherefore they desired the said Friar Barnes to make a letter

1 84 READERS CROSS-EXAMINED, [bOOK I.
to him, that he would continue in that he had begun : which Friar did promise
so to write to him a letter at afternoon, and to get them a New Testament.
"After that communication, the said Thomas Hilles and this respondent shewed
the Friar Barnes, of certain old books that they had : as of the four Evangehsts,
and certain Epistles of Peter and Paul iu English ; which books the said Friar
did little regard, and made a twit of it, and said — ' a point for them ! for they
be not to be regarded toward the new printed Testament in English ; for it is
of more cleaner English.' And then the said Friar Barnes delivered to them
the said New Testament in English, for which they paid iii. sh., ii. d. ; and de
sired them that they should keep it close, for he would be loath that it should be
known, as he now remembereth. And after the deliverance of the said New
Testament to them, the said Friar Barnes did liken the New Testament in
Latin to ' a cymbal tinkling and brass sounding ;' but what farther exposition
he made upon it, he cannot tell. And then, at afternoon, they fetched the said
letter of the said Friar, which he wi-ote to Sir Richard, and read that openly
before them ; but he doth not now remember what was in the same ; and so
departed from him ; and did never since speak with him, or write to him, as
he saith. Also he saith that about a half year agone (November 1527) he de
livered the said New Testament to Friar Gardyner, which he never had again.
Also he saith that Helen Tyball, his mother, and Alice Tyball, his wife, be guilty
in all the foresaid articles," &c.
Here there is a very distinct reference to all the books mentioned by Ridley.
The New Testament ; Matthew and Mark, separately ; and even the Introduc
tion to the Romans ; for the fact is, that at the end of the Introduction we have
" Here followeth a treatise of the Pater-noster, very necessary, and profitable,
wherein, yff thou marke, thou shalt perceave what prayer is, and all that be-
longeth to prayer." Here, also, the New Testament was possessed in April,
and another copy purchased in September 1526 ; but this last purchase is the
more interesting, as it corroborates the statement already given, that Barnes was
at this very season a free prisoner at Austin Friars ; as well as acting in the
way which brought him again under suspicion.l2 As for Tybal himself, we
know not when he died, but we can trace him five years after this period.
The season of John Fryth's imprisonment must have been one of great excite
ment among the friends of truth every where. Tybal had then come up to
London, and one evening, the 19th of April 1533, he was seized, (tlirough a vile
informer. Holt, the King's tailor,) in company with Hewet, the future fellow-
martyr of Fryth ; Hewet was sent to the Lollard's tower, but Tybal was bound
with ropes and carried to the Bishop's house, put into a close room, and
watched by a priest's servant. The next day Stokesley came in from
Fulham, and examined him and others. He had been four times in prison
already, and therefore, says Foxe, he was " five times in bonds for Christ," 
" but by God's provision he was delivered out of prison, although he could not
enjoy his house and lands. The tenor of his injunction was, that he should not
come within seven miles of his own house, which made him fain to sell all that
he had in Essex .'"
Tybal speaks of a companion named Thomas Hilles, and we have found his
confession in full, among the Harleian Manuscripts. Though merely entitled,
" the confession of a Lollard," it agrees so exactly with the story of Tybal that
there can be no question as to the " Lollard," being this very man.l3 He states

12 See anno 1526, p. 108.
'3 MS. Harl. no. 421, fo. 34. Hilles states the time of their journey to London as being abemt
fThitsunday twelve months ; but they could not then have found Dr. Barnes in London, since by

1528.] AND PERSECUTED. 185
that he also purchased a Testament, which he read from house to house, and
retained till March 1528, when he sold it to Richard Fox.
V. There is, however, one paragraph worth quoting from this last confessor.
" Furthermore, he confesseth, that the said Sir Richard Fox, this respondent,
and sometime John Tybal, Friar Gardyner, and Friar Topley, used to resort
sometime to Bower Hall, &c. ; and there, sometimes Sir Richard, sometimes
this respondent, and sometimes John Smith, would read chapters of Scripture,
and in the New Testament, in English, in presence of them and their house
hold." From this acknowledgement, there can be no question that the " new
learning " had so far been welcomed by the Bendish family. Bower Hall, the
manor-house of the estate of Bumstead, known to this day by the same name,
was possessed for centuries by the family of Bendish, which only became extinct
in 1717, by the death of Sir Henry Bendish, Bart.i4 For any one to have the
New Testament read below his roof, and especially to his family assembled, was
then a great offence against the Church so called ! Had, therefore, the inmates
of Bower Hall been poor or insignificant person.s, we should, beyond all doubt,
have had their confessions also ; but in the spirit of persecution, there is always
inherent the most glaring and odious partiality.
VI. Thomas Topley, an Augustine friar of Stoke-clare, already named, must
not be passed over, though no New Testament was detected. " Moreover," said
he, " it fortuned about half a year ago, that the said Sir Richard Fox went forth,
and desired me to serve his cure for him ; and as I was in his chamber, I found
a, certain book, called ' Wickliff's Wicket,' whereby I felt in my conscience a
great wavering for the time that I did i-ead upon it, and afterwards also, when
I remembered, it wounded my conscience very sore. Nevertheless, I consented
not to it, till I heard him preach, and that was upon St. Anthony's day. Yet
my mind was still much troubled with the said book, (which did make the sacra
ment of Christ's body, in form of bread, but a remembrance of Christ's passion),
till I heard Sir Miles Coverdale preach, and then my mind was sore withdrawn
from the blessed sacrament, insomuch that I took it then but for the remem
brance of Christ's body. Furthermore, he said and confessed, that in the Lent
last past, as he was walking in the field at Bumstead, with Sir Miles Coverdale,
late friar of the same order, going in the habit of a secular priest, who had
preached the fourth Sunday in Lent, (29th March 1528), at Bumstead, they did
commune together of Erasmus' works, and also upon confession. This, Sir
MUes said, and did hold, that it was sufficient for a man to be contrite for his
sins, betwixt God aud his conscience, without confession made to a priest, which
opinion, this respondent thought to be true, and did affirm and hold the same
at that time. Also, he saith, that at the said sermon by the said Sir Miles
Coverdale, at Bumstead, he heard him preach against worshipping of images in
the church, saying, that men in no wise should honour or worship them, which
likewise he thought to be true, because he had no learning to defend it."
VII. Miles Coverdale, here mentioned, is the name of a man so very con
spicuous afterwards, that any authentic notice of him becomes important, and
that time he had escaped, so that Tybal is most correct. On the margin of this manuscript
there is a date— 15th October.
14 A descendant of the proprietor at that time, perhaps his gi'andson, was among the earliest
Baronets, created in 1611. His son, who was ambassador to the Porte for many years, was in
terred at Bumstead, in 1674.

186 READERS CROSS-EXAMINED, [boOK I.
the more so, from his early history being not as yet understood. This, too, is
the next historical hint respecting him, since we first met with him in the train
of Robert Barnes, just before his sad and pernicious step, in abjuring publicly
at St. Paul's. These men now before Tunstal, it is to be feared, had been too
much influenced by his example ; at least, he had led the way in the downward
path of dissimulation and mental reserve, and what wonder if his former in
mate. Miles Coverdale, should have been induced only too far to follow the
Prior of his Monastery, though he did not abjure ? But why, at all events, is
he not even called before Tunstal to be examined, after such a distinct exposm-e
as that we have read 1 There must have been some powerful preventive ; more
especially, as there can be no question now, that both he and Barnes were in
terested in the dispersion of Tyndale's New Testaments; that both had been
benefited by them, and strongly recommended their diffusion. But Coverdale
must tell his own tale, he must speak for himself, and not another respecting
him. An original manuscript comes to our aid, and gives us the earliest indi
cation of that course, which, to the injury of his own mind, he had begun to
pursue. He was at least safe from any pubhc exposure. The following letter
is addressed to the " Right worshipful Thomas Crumwell," thus early and high
in the confidence of Cardinal Wolsey, then absent in France, while Crumwell
was so busy in the suppression of monasteries, with a view to the building of
Cardinal CoUege at Oxford.
" Right honourable master, in my most lowly manner, I commend me unto
you, evermore desiring to hear of the preservation of your prosperity. So it is,
I was required by Mr. George Lawson, to deliver this writing to your master
ship mine own self ; notwithstanding, such an impediment hath chanced, that I
must desire favour on your behalf for my excusation. For Master Moor's kins
man is not all well at ease, for he labours, it is certainly thought, under fever,
the fever being of that species, that in regard to food, he foolishly turns away
from it like a lunatic, but now it is discovered that he is almost rid of it. Where
fore, I beseech you to have me excused, and if I knew that my coming to London
might stand with your favour, truly the bird was never gladder of day, than I
would be to come. But brevely, I am ready at your commandment, for it re
mains with you to command, as you will, the abilities of your Miles.
" As for the rest, there is nothing divulged with us that is new, except the
rumour among our order, that one of our masters is accused of homicide, another
is dilated for heresy, and a third is reported of a base crime, namely Master
Stocks, junior ; of which affair I will certify you afterwards, on its being made
manifest." Having nothing more to say, he concludes, — " Ex Cantabrigia, 27
die mensis Augusti, anno dni. 27, supra sesqui milesimum. (27th Aug. 1527.)
Tuus quantus quantus, Milo Coverdalus."ls
After this letter, there can be no question that Coverdale was already serving
Crumv/ell in his vocation. Under Wolsey, the latter now held the Stewardship
of the lands of the monasteries then dissolving, and Lawson was a man after-

15 Crumwell's Corresp. MS., copied from the State Paper Office. The name of Sir T. More
was then very frequently spelt Moor, and from a subsequent letter, there is little or no doubt
that he is here referred to ; hence the respect which Crumwell would pay to the " excusation."
Stokes, junior, must have been the son of John Stokes, Provincial of the Augustine Friars.
Wood's Fasti, by Bliss, p. 35. Though Coverdale had been wearing the dress of a secular priest,
at Bumstead, if he did not resume his dress as a friar, he was now and afterwards writing his
letters as one, in alternate sentences of Latin and English. It was Wolsey's rule in 1519 for the
canons of St. Augustine,—" That the brethren shall usually converse in Latin or French :" and
three or four years after this, we shall find Coverdale, in writing to Crumwell, subscribe himself
Friar from St. Augustines in London.

1528.] AND PERSECUTED. 187
wards employed by Crumwell, when he came into far greater power.'e As for
Coverdale, he had entered on that course of subserviency to Crumwell, which
ended only with the death of the latter ; and whatever he may have already
said or done, we shaU find him to be quite secure from the wrath, whether of
Tunstal or of Sir Thomas More.
By the beginning of May, Tunstal had removed from the
chapel in his palace, down to one near Charing Cross, in the
manor of Nix, the Bishop of Norwich, of whose temper and
spirit we have had such ample evidence. On the 11th, he
was still sitting in judgment on the poor people from
Essex; but the spirit of persecution was now gathering
strength, and, on the 14th, Sir Thomas More comes in view.
On that day, he and Sir William Kingston, Constable of the
Tower, as members of the Privy Council, sent for Humfrie
Munmouthe, as he subscribes his name. He was far too im
portant a character to be passed over ; and his being so, is a
proof that there had not been, till this year, any severe
search after supposed oS'enders. Not satisfied, they went
with him to his house, and examined all his letters and
books. This generous man, with whom Tyndale had lived,
who corresponded with him afterwards, and aided him all the
time he remained in Hamburgh, was now committed to the
Tower, " on suspicion of heresy, for some books found in his
house." Five days after this, on Tuesday the J 9th of May,
he addressed a petition to the King's Council. It is entitled
— " Unto the most honourable Lord Legate and Chancellor of
England, and to the honourable Council unto your Sovereign
Lord, King Henry VIIL, the 19th of May, and in the 20th
year of his reign ; beseeching your Grrace, and all my Lords
and Masters, to have pity on me, poor prisoner in the Tower
of London, at your pleasure." In this petition, he confesses,
among other books —

"a

VIII. " Also I delivered (to the father confessor of Zion) a book of the New
Testament, the which book my Lord of London had. Also I had a little
treatise that the priest, Tyndale, sent me, when he sent for his money," i. e.
from Hamburgh in the close of 1524. " And all those books, save the books
of the New Testament, lay openly in my house, for the space of two years, or
more, that every man might read on them that would at their pleasure."
Munmouth's testimony brings us to the same period with
that of Pykas ; but as for the Testament, no doubt, Tyndale

i MS. Calig. B. iii. fo. 150, dated 1533. See also Gov. State Papers, iv. p. 6.36-64(1.

188 READERS CROSS-EXAMINED, [boOK I.
would take care that, if possible, his generous patron should
have one, at least, as soon as Garret was carrying them from
London to Oxford, in January 1 526. It may here be added,
that in earlier life Munmouth had visited Rome itself, which
may have had a similar eflfect on him as it had on some
others. When the times improved, he was an Alderman of
London, and served as Sheriff there in 1535. His will is
dated 16th November 1537, by which he leaves a silver cup,
and gilt, equal in value to .£'120 sterling, to Crumwell, that
he might be kind to three preachers there mentioned, among
whom was Dr. Barnes. Soon after this, Munmouth died,
having commended his soul unto Christ Jesus, " my Maker
and Redeemer, in whom, and by the merits of whose blessed
passion, is all my whole trust of clean remission and forgive
ness of my sins."
But of all the confessions now made, the following is not
the least important. It includes the disclosures of a man
who had been very active before this, and, notwithstanding,
as much so as he could, even afterwards. This was Robert
Necton. By him we learn that Mr. Fyshe, whose tract,
" the Supplication of Beggars," had created such commotion
in February 1626, had actually returned to London, and was
living there, long before that year had expired. We now find
also Mr. Richard Harman, an English merchant at Antwerp,
had acted in concert with Fyshe, and had contrived modes of
secretly conveying the Sacred Volume into England. The
account which Necton gives of his first engaging in the busi
ness of sale and circulation, is no less curious, from its being
at the instigation of such a man as George Constantyne, who,
though originally bred a surgeon, by this time had entered
the Church, and hence is styled Vicar. Of course, therefore,
he had to proceed with the greatest caution. He would not
go direct to Fyshe himself, but informs Necton, and then
from him, he bought whatever copies he wished. Constan
tyne, one of the most singular characters of the day, survived
the present period, at least, thirty-two years. At certain
periods, doing all that in him lay, to promote the circulation
of the Word of God ; at another, betraying the whole cause ;
he is here introduced incidentally, for the first time, but he
will come before us again and again, when some notice must
be taken of his singular and varied life.
The reader now only requires to be reminded, that such a

1528.] AND PERSECUTED. 189
man as this Robert Necton, is not to be regarded as poor and
dependent, perambulating the country to obtain his bread by
selling books — far from it : the occupation was too hazardous
then for any mere hireling. Thus, Necton speaks of living
at his brother''s house in Norwich, and this was no other than
the Sheriff of the city, as will appear in 1581 . His confes
sion was as follows : —
IX. « He bought, at sundry times, of Mr. Fyshe, dwelling by the White friars,
in London, 17 many of the New Testaments in English ; that is to say, now five,
and now ten ; and sometimes more, and sometimes less, to the number of
twenty or thirty in the great volume. The which New Testaments, the said
Mr. Fyshe had of one Harmand, (Harman,) an Englishman, being beyond sea ;
but how many he had, this i-espondent cannot tell.
" And this respondent saith, that about a year and a half ago ( 1 526) he fell
in acquaintance with Vicar Constantyne, here in London ; which shewed this
respondent first, that the said Mr. Fyshe had New Testaments to sell ; and
caused this respondent to buy some of the said N. Ts. of Mr. Fyshe. And the
said Mr. Fyshe, at the deshe and instance of Vicar Constantyne, brought the
said N. Ts. home to this respondent's house. And before that V. Constantyne
caused this respondent to buy some of the said N. Ts., he had none, nor no
other books, except the chapters of Matthew.
" Aud, moreover, this respondent saith, that, about the same time, (1526,)
he sold five of the said New Testaments to Sir WiUiam Furboshore, singing-
man, in Stowmarket, in Suffolk, for seven or eight groats a-piece : also, two of
the same Testaments in Bury St. Edmonds, for the same price.
" Also, he saith. Vicar Constantyne, at divers times, had of this respondent
about fifteen or sixteen of the New Testaments, of the biggest : and this respon
dent saith, that the said Vicar Constantyne, divers times, bought of him certain
of the said New Testaments, and this respondent likewise of him. Also he
sold Sir Richard Bayfield two New Testaments, unbound, about Christmas
last, ( 1 527,) for the which he paid three shillings, four pence. 18 Furthermore,
he saith, that he hath sold five or six of the said New Testaments to divers
persons of the city of Loudon, whose names, or dwelling-places, he doth
not remember.
" Moreover, he saith, that since Easter last, he bought of Jeffrey (Lome,)
Usher of St. Anthony's,l9 with whom he hath been acquainted by the space of
a year or thereabout, (by reason he was Mr. Forman, the Parson of Honey
Lane, his servant, and for that this respondent did much resort to the said
parson's sermons,) 20 eighteen New Testaments in EngUsh, of the small volume ;
and of which New Testaments, since Easter, this respondent carried fifteen of
them to Lynn, to sell ; which be would have sold to a young man there — but

17 On the south side of Fleet Street, between the Temple and Salisbury Court. The Library,
and other parts of this priory, were granted to Sir Richard Morysine hy Henry VIIL, in 1540.
18 The fourth part of a mark, or equal to £2, 10s. sterling of the present day.
'0 St. Anthony's School, on the north side of Threadneedle Street, where afterwards stood
the French Church.
20 Robert Forman, S.T.P., the Rector of All Hallows Church, where Thomas Garret had
been Curate. During this visitation, on the IDth of March, Forman had been interdicted, be
fore Tunstal, from preaching publicly before the people, and was therefore still under inhibition.
As to Garret, see anno 1526.

190 READERS CROSS-EXAMINED, AND PERSECUTED. [bOOK I.
he would not meddle with them, because they were prohibited ; and so this re
spondent left the said books at Lynn, till his returning thither again.
" To the 19th article against him, beginning — ' that he went about to buy a
great number of New Testaments,' he saith, that about Christmas last, there
came a Dutchman, being now in the Fleet prison, which would have sold this
respondent two or three hundred of the said N. Testaments in EngUsh, which
this respondent did not buy, but sent him to Mr. Fyshe to buy them ; and
said to the Dutchman, ' look, what Mr. Fyshe doth, I will do the same.' But
whether Mr. Fyshe bought any of them, he cannot tell : for the which three
hundred he should have paid £16 — 5 shillings ; after, ixd. a-piece.2l
" To the 20th article he saith, that since Easter last, (12th April 1528,) he
was at Norwich, at his brother's house, where one had complained of this
respondent to (Nix) my Lord of Norwich, because he had a New Testament.
Wherefore his brother counselled this respondent to send or deliver his said
N. T., and said to him, if he would not deliver it, my Lord of Norwich would
send him to my Lord of London. And so afterwards he sent it to London by
the carrier.
" To the 21st article — ' that contrary to the prohibition (October 1526) he
hath kept the N. Testament' — he confesseth, that after he had knowledge of
the condemnation of the said N. Testament, by the space of a year or more,
(i. e. in fact, nearly a year and a half, or from 23d Oct. 1526, to the 12th April
1 528, as already confessed,) he hath had iu his custody, kept and studied the
same Testament, and has read it thoroughly many times. And also has read
it as well within the city and diocese of London, as within the city and diocese
of Norwich, and not only read it himself, but read and taught it to divers
others.- — Per me, Robert Necton."
There is no account left as to the time of Necton's death ; but after being now
released, he continued to go on, much as he had done, for two or three years,
when he was again apprehended. His exposure of Constantyne rendering it
unsafe for him, to remain in London, he escaped to Brabant, where he occasion
ally practised his first acquired profession, that of a surgeon, but passed and
repassed the sea, importing books, tiU 1530, when he was caught. During this
period, as Necton had supplied him with books, so now he had supplied Necton,
and that with many. But Constantyne, once cruelly used and in fear of his Ufe,
not only exposed his old acquaintance, but different other individuals ! " It is
well known," says Sir Thomas More, " that Necton had himself, and a man of
his also, sold many such books of heresy ;" aud, again, " Richard Necton was,
by Constantyne's detection, taken and committed to Newgate, where, except he
happen to die before in prison, he standeth in great peril to be burned ere it be
long, for his falling again to Tyndale's heresy. "22 This was printed of him in
1532, but we never read of his coming to this painful yet glorious death.
X. Jeffrey Lome, the usher of St. Anthony's School, was referred to in
1526, as having sold Testaments to Bradford, even though both Garret and
Barnes were in prison, and he has just been alluded to by Necton. As an
usher at such a school, — for it was then eminent, — he had been employing him
self iu the cause, and it is evident that Forman, Garret, and he, were zealously
21 Fyshe must have gone abroad again, as soon as this visitation began in earnest. The Dutch
men, as they then designated all the natives of Brabant, were evidently striving to undersell
each other— a good proof of a ready sale and growing demand ; but there must be some mistake
in the sums here specified. Three hundred for £16, 5s. being at the rate of thirteen pence. If
they were nine pence each, there must have been 450 copies. But, at all events, these, and
many other hundreds, were got into EngLind. M More's Confutation, 1532, Preface.

1528.] SUMMARY. 191
united in its promotion. When called up, therefore, he was not only charged
with having and dispersing certain books of Luther, but with translating certain
chapters of his book " de bonis Operibus," — for holding, that Christian men
ought to worship God only, and no saints, &c. Though now confessed, he did
not afterwards desist from circulating Testaments. St. Anthony's Free School,
on the north side of Threadneedle Street, " kept equal credit," says Stowe,
with that of St. Paul's, both which had the greatest reputation in former times.
It was here that Sir Thomas More had received the rudiments of his education.
It is presumed that each of these cases may be considered
as, in itself, interesting ; but that one object, for which they
have all been introduced, is now sufiiciently established. For,
if we now pause for a few moments, and take in the whole of
the evidence laid before the reader, in regard to a period so
important, and respecting which not only the greatest un
certainty, but confusion has hitherto prevailed — what, and how
much has been established ?
That in January 1626, Thomas Garret, at least, received
from abroad copies of the New Testament, printed in the
English language — that he immediately had given them out
in London, sent them down to Cambridge, and carried them
himself to Oxford, in that very month — that notwithstanding
the grand burning of books at St. Paul's, on the 11th of
February 1526, and the anathemas of Fisher on that day,
nay, and the burning at Oxford soon after, when the Testa
ment, amongst other books, was involved in the fiames, still
the work went on — that even Fyshe himself was soon after
in London, and remained in it, receiving from abroad, and
dispersing the precious volumes for a considerable time.
Then come up these men from Essex, and, along with Mun
mouth, all agree in their testimony. Put upon their oath,
not one among them could have any motive to falsify in re
gard to the length of the time in which these Testaments
had been in their possession. On the contrary, could such
an idea have occurred to any one of them, the temptation
must have been to shorten, not extend the period; for the
longer it was, so much the more guilty must they have ap
peared in the eye of their judges. But in receiving their
united testimony, how far does it carry us ? That as early
as February, and downwards to October 1526, Tyndale's
Testaments, both quarto and octavo, as well as the first
separate edition of Matthew and Mark, were upon English
ground, and reading with eagerness, not only in the metropolis.

1 92 PERSECUTION AT HOME. [boOK I.
but the surrounding counties, — that, notwithstanding the
fulminations from London and Canterbury, and " the secret
search, at one time," the precious books were retained and
read in secret still. Nay, we have seen one man, Necton,
immediately afterwards commence his cautious operations —
mentioning very distinctly, first, the quarto of Tyndale, or
the large volume, then the octavo edition, and finally another
edition, printed at Antwerp, as already described. Doubtless
there had been other men before him so employed, as there
were others afterwards, including himself again.
But the purposes of Infinite Wisdom in thus trying the
faithful, and purifying his cause, were, for the present at
least, accomplished. Tunstal, it may have been observed,
had shifted his seat, from his own palace, near the old bridge
of London, down to Charing Cross, and, for ought we know,
this might be ivom fear ; but such cool and deliberate cruelty
must not continue either in London or Westminster, and so
the persecution seems to have been cut short by a Sovereign
hand, or the immediate visitation of God.^
That fearful disease, styled by foreigners, the Sudor Anglicus
on account of the violence with which it seized this nation,
or, as the English themselves called it, the " sweating sick
ness," broke out in the end of May. The patient expired in
a few hours, and often in two or three. By the 7th of
June, above two thousand had died in London, and by the
30th, forty thousand had been affected, of whom died at least
two thousand more. Early in June, the King himself became
alarmed ; the disease entered the Royal household, and proved
fatal in at least three cases ; and before the month ended, it
had entered Wolsey's establishment. Henry kept himself
shut up, had his household reduced to the smallest number
permitted by the statutes of Eltham, and his fear increased.^

23 But why suppose this, except the evidence be strong ? May it not be said that Tunstal
had to be otherwise engaged ? Was he not directed by Wolsey to attend the King on political
business, relating to the truce with Flanders and France ? MS. Cotton, Galba, B. vii., p. 373.
He was, but this was on the 18th of June. The disease had made him desist, a month before
this ; and it deserves notice, that though his Vicar-General, Wharton, pursued the same course
in June, yet then, he went down into Essex, and most probably to escape the malady which so
raged in London.
24 " The King's Majesty is much troubled with this disease— for this night there is fallen sick
My Lord and Lady Marquis (of Dorset,) Sir T. Cheney, Mr. (Sir Henry) Norris, Mr. (Sir John)
Wallop, be recovered ; but Mr. (Sir Francis) Poyntz, (recent ambassador to Spain) is departed.
This day the King removeth to Bps. Hatfield, and hath very few with him— as few as he may ;"
alluding to the Statutes, the number being 15.— MS. Chapter-house, Westminster, vol. x., no. 2S.

1528.] ARRESTED BY DISEASE. 193
In July, on the 5th, still more apprehensive, he directs
Wolsey " to cause general processions to be made, universally
through the realm, as well for good weather to the increase of
corn and fruit, as also/o»- the plague that now reigneth?""^^ By
the 9th, he had made his will, advises Wolsey to follow his
example, and desires to hear from him every second day.
" He confessed himself every day," say Le Grand and Burnet;
" the Queen did the same, and so did Wolsey."
This was the fourth visitation of that singular disease, of
which the English only died ; and which has been described so
accurately by Armstrong, both in its operation and its effects—
" O'er the mournful land
The infected city pour'd her hurrying swarms —
Others, with hopes more specious, cross'd the main.
To seek protection in far distant skies;
But none they found. It seem'd the general air
From pole to pole, from Atlas to the East,
Was then at enmity with English blood ;
For, but the race of England, all were safe
In foreign climes ; nor did this fury taste
Ti'h'i foreign blood that England then contain'd."2S
During the prevalence of this malady, however, it does not
appear that the Cardinal was so much afraid of it, as of for
feiting the entire confidence of his Master. He had appointed
an Abbess to the Abbey of Wilton, which had ruffled Henry's
temper ; for ever since the disclosures of Clarencieux as to
Spanish affairs, he was more suspicious and apt to take offenoe.
But Wolsey once more mollified him ; by August the disease
had passed away, and all went on as before. The King was
hunting in September, and inviting Wolsey to take part with
him in the sport. All was bustle and preparation for the
arrival of Cardinal Campeggio, and Henry wished to have
the use of Hampton Court for three or four days to receive
him there .^ But we now return to more important affairs.
Though the cruel proceedings of Tunstal and his coadju
tors, seem to have been cut short by frightful disease ; in the
course of the examinations held, the persecutors had obtained
2fi MS. Chapter house, Westminster, vol. x., no. 25.
26 This disease, first known in the army of Henry VII. in 1583, revisited England five times,
and always in summer ; in 1485, in 1506, and in 1517, when a number of the higher ranks
died. This was the fourth time, and the last was in 1551, when, in Westminster, it carried off
120 in a day. The poet is very nearly correct ; for it never entered Scotland, but was confined to
the English and the Anglo-Hibernian colonists, in all the instances. It prevailed, however, once,
when England was free, and this was in the year after the present time ; for in 1539itbroke out in
Hamburgh and Antwerp, and spreading through the Netherlands and Germany, proved very fatal.
27 MS. Chapter-house, Westminster, vol. v., no. 24. Campeggio arrived at Dover 2.9th September.
VOL. I. N

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

28 Onlba, B. ix., fol. 126.

1528.] TYNDALE, ROYE, AND HARMAN, NAMED. 195
parties. George Constantyne and Mr. Fyshe may appear to
have been the other two, if Jerome Barlow, soon to be noticed,
was not the fifth individual. Fourteen days they busily
searched, but Mr. Harman alone could be found, when
Hackett once more addresses Wolsey on the 14th of July.
" Unto your Grace I sent my last letters, the 28th of June, in post, with a
servant of mine — and since that time my Lady has caused great diUgence to
be made for the apprehension of the three persons, named unto me, by your
Grace's last writing ; and after long attendance, considering that the twain
of the said three might not be found ; the 12th day of this month, I caused
Richard Harman to be taken prisoner at Antwerp, and the Margi-ave has
caused his wife to be taken with him, as greatly suspected of such like faction
as her husband is — and all their goods have been inmntorysed in the Em
peror's hands."
This man, Hackett, was a most convenient tool in the hands of Wolsey.
Having no principle, and acting fully on the maxim that no faith was to be kept
with heretics, he now had the baseness to add, in this same letter —
" I would, if it might be, that your Grace had this Richard Harman there in
England ; for, as I hear, he is a, Roethe of great mischief.29 And to get him
out of these countries, I know no better means at this time, than, if the King's
Highness have any action of treason at him, that his Highness, or your Grace,
write a good letter to my Lady, that she should send you the foresaid Harman,
as traitor to the King — leaving the heresy beside, to the correction of these
countries, if your Grace think so good ; and in this manner we may have two
strings to our bow : for I doubt greatly, after the statutes of these countries,
that, revoking his heresies, for the first time he will escape, with a slender
punishment ; but for treason to the King, they cannot pardon him in these
parts, after the statutes of our Intercourse, dated the year 1S05.30 I certify
your Grace, that it were a good deed, and very convenient, to chastise these
Lutherans, that be accused of heresy, that they were as well comprehended in
the ' Intercourse' as traitors be : for as soon as they be past the seas, they
know no more God, neither King !"^^
Hackett, however, is now somewhat afraid. He had found
considerable difficulty, when dealing with Christopher End
hoven, the German printer, in the end of 1 526 ; but now that
an English merchant and a gentleman has been seized, should
the " Lords of Antwerp" still remain firm to their purpose, as
then expressed ; in the end, at least, our officious ambassador
may find his interference to be followed by greater trouble
and disgrace. Antwerp was still the staple, and, for commerce
29 An unmanageable fellow? Royet, ivild, irregular, unmanageable. — .Tamieson.
30 Hackett here alludes to the treaty of Henry VII., 1505, which the Flemings used to call
intercursus mains. " In this treaty, there was an express article against the reception of the
rebels of either prince by the other ; purporting, that if any such rebel should be required by
the prince whose rebel he was of the prince confederate, that forthwith the prince confederate
should by proclamation command him to avoid the country: which ifhe did not, within fifteen
days, the rebel was to stand proscribed, and be put out of protection."— Bat'onV Henry VIL
31 Galba, B. ix., fol. 129.

196 HARMAN IN PRISON. [BOOK I.
sake, their English merchants must, if possible, be protected ;
but to England for protection it was in vain to look. She
was not then, what she has often been since, — and thanks to
the Sacred Volume alone ! — " the refuge of the oppressed ;"
so that the Emperor himself must be applied to. He was,
accordingly, and by two petitions, in the Flemish language,
on behalf of the English prisoners. Both are now in the
British Museum, dated July 1528, and the substance of them
may be thus summed up —
" Richard Harman being in prison, for having sold New Testaments to Eng
lish merchants, having been sent to him out of Germany, as also being accused
for lodging in his house certain Lutherans, (as all Bible men were then nick
named,) and for eating flesh on Sunday, does plead for himself, petitioning the
Emperor : He desires that he and his wife might be let out upon sufiicient bail,
to recover his debts upon the breaking up of the fair ; lest losing that which
is due to him, he should not be able to give satisfaction to his creditors."32
Wolsey, however, was not slow to act upon the vile sug
gestion of his correspondent, and, accordingly, in the month
of August, Hackett had actually obtained letters from Henry
the Eighth, to seize Mr. Harman as a traitor; but the
reigning Princess wished to be informed what were the par
ticular acts of treason. Great interest was then made for
Harman, who had, for many years, been a burgess of Antwerp.
Hackett implores Commissioners to be sent from England ;
and, little knowing the secret politics of our Cardinal at the
moment, which had destroyed his influence in the Imperial
Cabinet, he is eager that the Emperor should be requested
to write to Lady Margaret ; otherwise, he fears that " the
great purse of Antwerp" would prove the deliverance of Har
man," his victim.^ And, by the 10th of September, he is
obliged to confess, that " notwithstanding the King'' s. patent
letters, the Lady Margaret and her Council would not deliver
up the heretics."^*
Our poor ambassador was now, certainly, in no very enviable
plight. A pause of more than four months took place in his
correspondence. Month after month passed away, and no
fresh instructions nor assistance arrived, for both Wolsey and
his Master were completely engrossed in a very difierent sub
ject — the royal divorce. At last, in despair, Hackett having
32 Galba, B. ix., fol. 1.31. 33 Idem. fol. 177 ; dated Mechlin, 28th Aug. 1.528. 34 Idem, fol. 180.

1528. J OUR AMBASSADOR IN ANXIETY. 197
written to the King himself, on the I7th of November, we
have then one curiously earnest and complaining epistle,
addressed to Friar West of Greenwich, of whom we shall hear
more presently, dated from Mechlin on the last day of the
year, or 31st December 1528.
" My ghostly father. Friar West, I heartily recommend me unto you, having
received your last letter, written at Greenwich, the 21 st day of November ; by the
which I perceive, by other great businesses of importance, that my Lord Grace,
(the King), had no leisure to make answer to any letters of mine, nor attend to
your verbal declaration touching Richard Harman's business. But yet, if it
had pleased his Grace to command Master Tuke, or some other to write me
some little word of his mind, it should be comfortable to me, and the better I
might answer in our cause."
He is now much afraid that Mr. Harman and his lady will
escape. From time to time he had prolonged the continuance
of their imprisonment, and the last term ordained by the law
of Antwerp, had expired on the fourth of December, so that
he felt himself now personally concerned.
" Of a certainty I may certify to you, that it were too prolix a thing, to write
the great solicitations, diligences, and labours, that the Lords of Antwerp, with
the said Harman and his friends, do, and have done, day by day, to clear him
of our said action of treason, if they might.
" But, considering that I esteem this matter of more importance, than me-
thinks we set by it there at home ; marking, that, in four months and more, I
have had no manner of answer to any letters that I have written thitherward,
touching this business and others. For the best resolution and surest way,
with some little labour, but not without great difficulty, I have obtained from
my Lady and her Council, a new term of sorcyans of justice, to bring our proofs
forward out of England, by writing or by other probations ; which term finishes
and expires the last Friday of February next coming ; by the which time, I trust
in God, by your solicitation, that the King's Highness and my Lord Legate's
Grace shall send me some good information and instruction, how I may best
proceed in this business ; for I assure you, that this is such a matter that sees
farther than it seems."
After mentioning his strong suspicion that Mr. Harman's " purse may largely
suffer penance, but as touching his person, he doubts he will be favoured." He
proceeds, — " I am informed that Richard Harman says, that his prisonment has
cost him above two thousand guilders, and that he trusts to recover his damages,
and slander upon them that have kept him long wrongfully in prison ; and that
we have nothing to lay to his charge but suspicions and naked words ; but as
for this article, if I may have my Lord's advice and good information, I trust
he shall miss his meaning and intention' — (but) without we have good infor
mation out of England, it shall be hard to bring him to penance : for he denies
all his acts of heresies, aud we find not here sufiicient proofs, to prove his
(^delycttes) offences, and because also, as you know well enough, the most part
of Antwerp be as good Christian men as they be in Almany (Germany) ; where
fore he has not the less favour."

198 HARMAN RELEASED. [bOOK I.
On the 2d of January, he addresses Mr. Brian Tuke as
Treasurer of the King's Chambers, and one of his Council, in
forming him of his having written, by duplicate, letters to
West ; but complains, whether " I write east or West, I can
have no manner of answer — yet for the reputation of the
King's patent letters, we ought to take the better regard." On
the 20th he writes again, imploring that Friar West may be
sent to his aid, but all in vain.^ The fact was, that at such
a time, neither Henry nor the Cardinal could expect to have
the smallest influence with the Emperor or the Princess
Margaret. No proofs or probations, therefore, having arrived,
the term finally granted to Hackett, expired on the 26th of
Februarv, and consequently Mr. Harman and his wife, after
an imprisonment of above seven months, were released !
This interference, however, on the part of our English
Envoy, was one which " the Lords of Antwerp " could by no
means brook. The twain of the three men named to him, he
could not find, but he was to have perplexity all-sufficient, in
consequence of touching with only one of the three ; and though
we trespass a little on the year 1529, we must not here lose
sight of Mr. Harman and his lady. Hackett must now abide
the consequences, and Harman waited his proper time for re
dress. Though the ambassador was resident at Mechlin, it
was not long before an opportunity presented itself ; and the
story is far too good to withhold, since it comes from Hackett's
own pen, addressed to Wolsey from Brussels, 13th April 1529.
"  I being at Antwerp the 7th day of this month, after that I executed
mine exploit upon William Cley the rebel ;36 — Richard Harman caused me to
be arrested, for all the costs and charges that he suffered in prison, at my in
stance and solicitation as the King's ambassador ; considering that for lack of
our particular declarations of his (delictts) offences, the law of Antwerp here
aforetime declared him, by their sentence, absolute free and frank, of all such
actions as the Margrave or the Scout of Antwerp, as officers of the Prince, by
my information, laid unto his charge.
" The 8th day, in the morning, to answer to my cause I appeared afore the
Lords of the said town ; shewing unto them that at the request of the rebel
Richard Harman there, being present, that I was arrested by their officer,
named the Amant,37 — declaring unto them that if the said Harman, or any
36 This friar had, been, over and with him in September, though in vain pursuit, as will appear
presently, buthecould not besent a second time.
36 Accordingly we have in this same volume " A recognisance, in French, taken before a No
tary by which William Clee, a merchant, engages to appear in England:" dated Antwerp, 7th
April 1529. Galba, B. ix., fo. 168. For what alleged crime, is not stated.
37 This fine city, which was only humbled by the rising of Amsterdam, long governed by its
own laws, had a Senate of its own. This consisted of a Prrotor, the Amant, Consuls, and Sena-

1528.] AMBASSADOR ARRESTED. 199
other in this country, could lay any thing to my charge, as John Hackett, that
I presented myself there, ready to answer for myself. But if the said Harman
has caused me to be arrested as Ambassador to my Sovereign Lord the King,
that I would not answer to their laws, nor to any particular Town's justice ;
and that I knew in this country no Judge upon me as Ambassador, but that I
submit myself to my Lady and the Emperor's Privy Council.
"The said Harman's Procurator answered, that I was arrested as Ambassador,
and causer of the said Harman's imprisonment, and of his destruction and de
famation ; which Harman was purged clear, free, and frank, by the Justice of
Antwerp, — desiring the said Justice that I might be condemned to pay all the
said Harman's costs and damages, according to the law and privilege of the
said Town. Whereto I replied, that I was not bound to answer to their laws,
and desired sentence upon my declaration.
"The Lords having regard, after long consultation, declared me free and quit
of the said arrest, with condition that I, or my Procurator, should appear again,
when the said Lords, by their letter, would advertise me, and in this manner I
departed from Antwerp.
"At my coming here in Court I advertised my Lady and her Council how I
was intretted ; of the which intrettement the said Lady and Council shewed
themselves highly displeased, and immediately caused to write letters in post
to the Amant and Lords of Antwerp, to appear afore her Council personally
here at Brussels, to answer to that she would lay to their charge.
" The 1 2th day of this month (yesterday) the Amant and Lords of Antwerp
appeared in this Town afore the Emperor's Privy Council, when they were
highly reviled and rebuked for the exploit that they did upon me, — and that
the Amant should ask my pardon and forgiveness of his misuse that he has
done ; and to him I answered that the said fault was not done to my person,
but that it was done to the King my Sovereign his authority ; and that foras
much as touched me, and that the King my Master be pleased, that I forgive it
him cordially. As touching this matter your Grace may perceive that my
Lady and her Council have done their (devoyer) duty."
Hackett had certainly not added to his popularity by his
first attempt upon Endhoven the Antwerp printer ; but his
imprisonment of Mr. Harman was followed by lasting conse
quences to himself. He had stood out, on his privilege as be
ing " Ambassador," but in this character, his leaving Antwerp
only under a condition was sufficiently humiliating, if it did
not also betray some degree of cowardice. He might now
crow, in writing to the Cardinal next day, but the transaction
had cost him, at least, a change of residence. His letter, it
will be observed is dated from Brussels. It was the first he
ever wrote from thence, and there he must remain. Before
this, his letters were uniformly dated from Mechlin, Antwerp,

tors. The power of tho two former was perpetual, or for life ; that of the latter was annual.
The Senate, which was chosen from the men of rank or patricians, the Lawyers and Merchants,
was renewed or prorogued annually in the month of May.—" Notitia Marchionatus, &c., of
.Jacobo le Roy, 1S78."

200 REMOVES TO BRUSSELS. [book I.
or Barrow ; but, with the exception of two from Mechlin, the
week after this, when he came to remove, they are dated from
Brussels ever after, and for five years to come : and though
he lived on the Continent, the presumption is that he never
again was a welcome guest in Antwerp. At all events, his
meddling with the man, who had taken a benevolent interest
in sending the Word of God into his native country, eventually
removed this ambassador to a distance ; and if Antwerp is to
have a British resident in or near it, some other than John
Hackett must now be found. The overruling providence of
God will, before long, be here also very manifest. Had such
a man as this remained, when Tyndale himself came to reside
in Antwerp, never had he spoken of him, as his successor will
be found to have done.
As for Mr. Harman, we shall hear of him again, but it
will not be till five years after this, or in 1534 ; in which
year his persecutor, Hackett, died at Douay, and in debt.^
But, before then, Mr. Harman, it will appear, had returned
to England — was commended for his zeal— was restored to
favour, as well as all his privileges connected with " the
English House" at Antwerp, and at the express request of
the Queen of England.
This gentleman had been a devoted friend of Tyndale's ob
ject and design, as well as of Tyndale himself, in which his
wife had cordially joined with him. The printers of Antwerp
managed their own business, and, by various means, im
ported their editions into England, which, of course, had
afiected the sale of Tyndale's books ; but the Testaments
with which Mr. Harman was charged, were said to be sent to
him out of Germany. Warham, the Archbishop of Canter
bury, must therefore, to his great mortification, have very
soon perceived, that he had not, as he at first supposed, pur
chased all; and, therefore, even in Antwerp, where Hackett
had so raged, we shall actually find Tyndale himself ; and
when his finances were at the lowest ebb, selling the re
mainder, with great advantage, next year. Nay, selling
them to Tunstal, who, in 1524, had thought that, as a Greek
scholar, Tyndale " could not fail" to find some situation !
In the midst of all this turmoil at Antwerp, however, the

33 Galba, B. x., 48, 54.

1528.] PURSUIT AFTER TYNDALE. 201
truth was, that Wolsey had been far from inattentive to the
information received from Hackett, although he had seemed to
be remiss in not answering his letters. On the contrary, as
soon as he understood by his letter of the 14th of July, that
" the twain of the three," or Tyndale and Roye, were not to be
found in Antwerp, or its vicinity, the Cardinal had bethought
himself, and resolved to apply elsewhere in pursuit of them.
But, at such a time, how striking was the display of Wolsey's
enmity to the Sacred Volume ! How great his fear of him
self, and of the hierarchy ! His alarm is more worthy of
notice, as this was, perhaps, his final official efl'ort in this war
fare. Let it only be remembered, that sickness had been
raging in the land throughout June and July, nor had it en
tirely ceased at the moment of which we speak — that disease
of which the poet said —
 " 'Twas all the business then.
To tend the sick, and in their turns to die.
In heaps they fell, and oft one bed, they say.
The sick'ning, dying, and the dead contain' d."
Besides this, Wolsey had scarcely recovered the favour of his
Master, after having ruffled his temper, by one false step, al
ready noticed ; nor had they yet met.^^ Notwithstanding, so
important was the capture of these two men, that not a day was
to be lost. The New Testament, and the two pointed publi
cations of Tyndale, were, it is true, not the only things rank
ling in his mind ; the bitter Satyre of Eoye and Jerome had,
by this time, begun to annoy him, as it greatly did, and no ex
pense must be spared in buying it up. Tyndale, wishing it to
be known, that he had no connexion with Eoye, had said, in
print, that these two men (Jerome and Roye) were " Friars
from Greenwich ;" and who then so fit to ferret them out, as
a shrewd Friar Observant, from the same monastery ? And
to whom could the Cardinal now apply on the Continent more
likely to be of service, than the man whom Cochlfeus had at
first roused in 1525 — Counsellor Herman Eincke of Cologne?
A ccordingly, as early as the 5th of August, Wolsey sat down
in Hampton Court palace, and addressed him. In Eincke,
he had a determined enemy to the " new learning," and a
man, in some respects, quite to his own heart. His letter

202 PURSUIT AFTER TYNDALE. [bOOK I.
finished, a suitable agent was found in the person of Friar
John West of Greenwich, already mentioned. He had been
instructed to proceed by way of Antwerp, and consult with
Hackett ; and from him we have some farther information
upon West leaving that city on the 11th of September —
" Yesterday," says he, « at after dinner. Friar West departed hence towards
Cologne, with another Friar of his order, named Friar Flegh, (Flegge,) an Eng
lishman born, and with  , a singular good true man, for their guide to
Cologne, to whom I have given money to pay for their costs ; and I shall fur
nish the said Friar according to your Grace's desire, of all such tnoney as he
shall require me fo furnish by his commission ; for whom I have already paid
upon a three pounds, 40 and will let him lack no time, to bring his enterprise
to a good perfection, as I trust he shall ; for his intent is, at his coming to
Cologne, to change raiment." 4i
On their arrival at Cologne, Eincke was absent from home,
at the autumn fair in Frankfort ; but the letter was imme
diately conveyed to him by a swift messenger ; and, by the
4th of October, we have his reply, sent by the same Friar.
It is in Latin ; and though defective in several words, enough
remains to render it an interesting and important document.
A literal translation of the greater part, must not be with
held from the reader —
" The letters of your Grace to me, given by Master John West, Priest of
the Observant Order of St. Francis, written the fifth of August, at Hampton
Court, in your Grace's palace, were sent and conveyed to me from Cologne to
Frankfort in two days, by a swift messenger, the 2d (22d) of September ; with
regard to buying up, every where, books printed in the English language, and
as to the apprehension of Roye and Hutchyn, i. e. Tyndale. But neither they,
nor their accomplices, have been seen in the fairs at Frankfort since (paschate)
the 12th of April, or even (proximus quadragesimus) the first of March ; and
[we cannot find out] neither [their abode] whether they remain, or whether
they be dead, nor has John (Schoot) Scott of Argentine (i. e. Strasburg) said
that he knew them, or their printers. But their books are full of heresy, and
against the magnificence and honour of your Grace, [which they treat with con
tempt] and with reproach. They are  and very wicked, and opposed to
Christian charity, [as well as to] his Highness, my most gracious Lord, my
generous and illustrious Prince ; they render [themselves odious] to all the
worshippers of Christ."
He then states that he had been at Frankfort " with ready
money, labouring himself personally to the utmost — but
John Scott, the printer, besides a pledge to be given to the
¦•0 Equal to A'45.
11 Cotton MS., Galba, B. ix., fol. 18S, " from Mechlin, 12th ot Sep. 1528," though in the Cata
logue 1529 by mistake.

1528.] PURSUIT AFTER TYNDALE. 203
Jews, demanded also the reward of his own labour, and the
expense of the paper ; and said that he would sell them to
him who would offer him most money.''''
" When, therefore," continues Rincke, " your Grace sent me your letters
and commands from England, straightway I spared neither my person, money,
nor diligence, as in duty bound ; but having made use of the licenses formerly
received from his Imperial Majesty to awe, by gifts and presents I attached
to me the Frankfort Consuls, as well as some Senators and Judges ; so that I
gathered together and packed up all the books from every quarter, and iu
three or four places. Thus I hope that as many of such books as were printed,
are held by me, except two, which your Grace's Commissary, John West,
wished and received from me — and for the use and advantage of his Royal
Highness and your Grace, I gave him two books, as I found him both faithful
and diligent for your Grace, whom he has often served, and, without doubt,
will serve henceforth. But these books, (unless I had found them out and in
terposed,) must have been bound in parchment and concealed, and inclosed in
packages, artfully covered over with fiax ; they would in time, without any
suspicion, have been transmitted by sea, into Scotland and England, as to the
same place ; and would have been sold as merely clean paper ; but very few or
none of those carried away and sold [have been fomid ?]
« Moreover, with the utmost diligence, I shall also take care as to the fore
said Roye and Hutchyn, and other rebels, envious against the King's Grace
and yours, both as to apprehending them, and observing what places they
frequent — As Mr. John West, and my son, Herman Rincke, and John Geil-
kyrche, my servant, will testify by mouth, and in your presence, to whom your
Grace may give credit as much as to myself ; for they will conceal and keep
quiet the whole matter, whatsoever your Grace may commit to them — whom
I specially send over into the presence of the King and your Grace, for the
more convenient despatch of this very business, that J may explain and execute
the matter in a way which may be acceptable to the King's grace and yom'S."
He then proceeds to enhance the value of his services, re
ferring to his correspondence with Henry VIII. ; but as one
transaction had occurred before Wolsey's high degree, he
must remind him of former days, and then apply the whole
to the case in hand —
" Besides, in the year of our Lord, 1502, in the month of August, I had
the pleasure to obtain from his Imperial Majesty (Maximilian) the most ex
tensive license of his royal favour towards England, and the intercourse of
merchants granted with the greatest liberality." He forgets not to add, that
he had delivered his license and credentials before the whole Court at West
minster, and moreover, that he was the bearer of ten thousand pounds, given
by Henry VII. to be conveyed to the Emperor.42 This prepares the way for
42 This was a grant of ^'10,000 to Maximilian, for enabling him to oppose the Turks on tho
side of Hungary, where, at the moment, they were pushing on their conquests. On this ac
count, tho PontifE" laboured to excite all the European princes to contribute ; and certainly this
was a large contribution, more especially when the avaricious character of Henry VII., towards
the end of his reign, is remembered. — See Feedera, vol. xiii., p. 9. The sum was equal to
£150,000 of the present day.

204 PURSUIT AFTER TYNDALE AND OTHERS. [^BOOK I.
the following proposal — " That a license should be granted to him, with the
concurrence of Charles V., of the largest extent." " In my judgment, it is fit
to be continued, that as throughout the whole Roman Empire, so especially in
Germany, those annoying the King of England, and the traitors against the
same, ought not to be protected or endured ; much less heretics, stirring up a
sedition among the Christians of the whole English kingdom. On account of
the force and legality of a similar license, Edmund, Duke of Suffolk, was
ordered by King Phihp, as was said, to be brought into England. Then also
William Rote,43 William Tyndale, Jerome Barlow, Alexander Bakklat,
and their adherents — also George (Constans) Constantyne, and many others,
ought to be taken, punished, and exposed, both for destroying the Lutheran
heresy, aud to confirm the Christian faith !" But again he must repeat the
efforts he had already made, with the following curious enlargement —
" I lately brought the printer himself, John (Schoot) Scott, before the Con
suls, Judges, and Senators of Frankfort. I put him upon oath, that he should
confess whatever books he had printed in the English language, the German,
French, or any other idiom. Then, upon his said oath, he confessed that he
had printed only one thousand (sex quaternionum,) and, as yet, one thousand
books {novem quaternionum,) and this by the order of Eoye and Hutchyn, who,
wanting money, were not able to pay for the books printed — and much less
could they be printed in other languages. Wherefore, / have purchased them,
almost all, and now have them in my house at Cologne. I trust that my son will
persuade your Grace, and he will desire that your Grace send me more certain
instructions from his Majesty, what he wishes to be done with the books pur
chased, then, with all diligence, it shall be completed. And as to myself and
mine, by the favour of God, possibly there may be an opportimity for his Royal
Highness and your Grace to recompense us. May your Grace, therefore,
prosper many happy years. — Given at Cologne the 4th of the nones, October,
in the year 1528, &c. Signed Hertnan Rinck, M."44
After this, no one will question the anxiety or eager desire
of Cardinal Wolsey to seize Tyndale, and especially this
Friar Eoye. How deeply he was stung by the stanzas of
" Rede me, and be not wrothe^'' is now apparent. But this
strange letter, in connexion with the past, suggests several
curious considerations. W^e are now at Frankfort great fair,
and the reader may recollect of Hackett the ambassador in
forming Wolsey, that he heard of l^lew Testaments, to the
number of two thousand, having been for sale at the spring
fair of last year; but now, when Scott is apprehended and
examined, he demands a pledge to be given to the Jews, in
security for their concern in such traffic, " to Scotland and
England as to the same place.'''' No doubt the Jews were there
last year, as well as this ; and it certainly would be a very
singular and memorable coincidence, if the Jews, for hire or
43 It is very observable, that throughout this letter Roye takes the lead. There was reason
for this. His Satyre was a personal offence, and it was one under the lash of which the mighty
Cardinal himself now writhed. 44 Cotton MS., Vitelius, B. xxi., fol. 43.

1528.] ALL IN VAIN. 205
gain, had assisted in such importations ! And yet, what else
can be inferred, from Scott's exaction or demand ? But if so,
the descendants of Abraham, to whom were committed " the
Oracles of God," as recorded in the Old Testament, may have
been unconsciously conveying to this Island, as an article of
merchandise, " the living oracles," as recorded in the New :
and doing this too at a period, when the nation, as such, was
up in arms against the undertaking ! To this people, under
God, we stand indebted for a Saviour, and the Bible, but we
know not that it has ever been conjectured of any other nation,
that the Jews had any concern, however remote, in giving or
conveying to it the New Testament.^'
We are not, indeed, to suppose, that our Translator either
had been at Frankfort, or that any of his publications are here
referred to as printed at Strasburg ; much less that any con
nexion whatever now existed between him and Eoye. With
regard to Tyndale at this moment, or Fryth, of whom no
notice is taken, happily Mr. Counsellor Einck was altogether
off the scent. Forty-five miles to the north, at Marburg,
they were busily engaged, both with the pen and the press ;
yet is it quite possible that some of Tyndale's productions
may have passed through this Frankfort fair. Einck, how
ever, had certainly laid hold of the printer employed by Eoye,
and these as certainly were his publications to which reference
is made. Perhaps no great dependence can be placed on the
accuracy of Scott's disclosure, even upon oath ; but still there
can now be little or no doubt that we have found in him the
printer of the celebrated Satyre on Cardinal Wolsey, a point
hitherto unknown. Einck expressly states of some of the
books, that they were " against the magnificence and honour
of his Grace."*«

45 Althoufjh this singular probability cannot be more fully established — under its influence, O
let this ancient people only be the more commiserated now. Woe to that nation) which, at this
day, helps on their affliction, and blessed that people who compassionate them. For all such
kindness there is in store an ample repayment, and why should not Britain, above all other
nations, take the lead?
46 As connected with that strange production, the Satyre, there is one coincidence here, which
must not pass unnoticed. Tyndale had afiirmed that one Jerome was the maker of these rhymes ;
and here we have a man named Jerome Barlow associated with Roye. Now, in the recantation
of Bishop Barlow, he says,—" I have made certain books, and have suff'ered them to be imprint
ed ; as the treatise of the burial of the Mass," &c., which was another title by which the Satyre
went,—" and in these treatises I perceive and acknowledge myself grievously to have erred, dis
allowing the Mass, with slanderous infamy of my Lord Cardinal," &c. In Roye's introductory
address, also, the rhymes are represented as having been sm.t out of England to be printed. The
Bishop's name, however, was fVilliam, and though he acted a strange part, it has been supposed

206 WOLSEY'S PURSUIT. [book I.
George Constantyne, it should seem, had soon fled from
England, and most probably during Tunstal's cross-examina
tions in the spring, when his name was mentioned. He might
not return while Wolsey lived, except it were with books ; but
we shall meet with him again in the hands of Sir Thomas More,
a persecutor of a higher grade than the Cardinal ever was.
Most providentially, however, by the time that West and
his companions arrived in England with this letter, Wolsey,
so far from prospering " many happy years," as Einck had
prayed, probably never had one day of unmingled enjoyment.
The confidence of his own Eoyal Master had begun to decline,
and Einck but little knew the game that Wolsey was playing
at that moment with the Emperor ; otherwise, neither he nor
Hackett could have expected him to have any influence, upon
any subject, with Charles. Thus the remainder of the Cardi
nal's wrath was restrained, and happily Einck never obtained
the license or Commission for which he panted ; besides, his
politics must have soon changed with the times. His son had
been in England before, and now that he came a second time,
he has been supposed to have remained for some time, though
of this we have found no positive evidence.
As for Friar West, he entirely failed in apprehending any
of the men pointed out. It must have been still more morti
fying to him that, while he was wandering on the Continent,
in his disguised habit, Roye, the very man whom Wolsey
wished to have, above all others, had actually paid a visit to
England; and to crown all. West, upon returning to his
monastery, not only received no thanks for all his toil, but
very soon found it a great deal too hot for him. The " new
learning " had begun to spread even there ! He might, as
we have found, write to Hackett in November, telling him
how the King and the Cardinal were engrossed, and could
not answer his letters ; but by the next month, he himself
could not gain access even to Wolsey, and was at his wits' end.
that this recantation was prescribed to him, and that, from fear of Gardiner, he signed it. Still
the coincidence is remarkable, and at all events, this Jerome Barlow must have been the man
to whom Tyndale alluded. Alexander Barklay is also named; most probably the poet, the
author of " the Ship of Fools," who it seems had the honour to be ranked among the heretics.
John Scott of Strasburg, the nephew of Mentel in that city, was generally known on the Conti
nent. A sjnrited printer, he w.is quite ready for any controversial or satirical publication. This
is themnwman who gave such offence to Erasmus by printingforHutten, against him. In 1524,
Erasmus had written two presshig letters to the Magistrates of Strasburg, insisting on his punish
ment, and he became displeased with Hedio, Bimjdy because he would not take his part against
Scott, with whom the magistrates would not interfere.— See .JortirCs Life (if Erasmus.

1528.] AT AN END. 207
There is a curious letter, describing his miseries, addressed to
some " Eight Worshipful Sir," perhaps Brian Tuke, dated
the 17th of December. It forms an appropriate conclusion to
this vain pursuit.
" Sir, the cause of my writing unto your Mastership at this time, is this :
Our father minister, who is Father William Robbynson, Warder of Greenwich,
were yesterday, or this day, at my Lord's Grace to complain upon me, and that
my Lord should take away the commission from me ; and all because they will
not let me come to London, and to seek for them that my Lord knoweth of, and
to enquire, where Roye was, when he was in England with his mother, aud for
other sort of business according to my commission. And they have great in
dignation at me, because I have sped so well, and because there is more of them
guilty in the matter of Lutheryans. And they cannot speak among them a
good word of my Lord's Grace and the King's. And because I do reprove
them of their ill-sayings, they go about, all that they can, to put me to trouble
and vexations, and desolations, that I am almost weary of my life among them.
And they have taken away my fellow traveller that came with me from beyond
sea, and they have sent him in  in a ship alone, without a fellow — (most
probably the " good true man " that Hackett sent with him from Antwerp) ;
and all because that I [went] about none of my business, but they will know
it. Also they will not obey the King's Broad-Sheet.
" Therefore, I pray your worship, for the passion of Christ sake, as to be so
good unto me, as favour me with the dispensation, as shortly as it may be pos
sible, and if yon think it cannot be afore Christmas, I pray you, get me a [let
ter] of an obediencie, under my Lord's broad seal for me Friar John Weston,
preacher and confessor, and for my fellow, Cornelius Hewtsone a Dutchman,
which I intend to take for the season, because he can (speak) but Uttle English,
and so that I may do my matters the more secretly. The letter of obediencie
you may get of Mr. Steward, he that is master of my Lord's faculties, and what
you pay unto him for it, I shall see you be contented : for I am so desolate,
that without your help, that I might come to the speech of my Lord's Grace,
they will put me in prison.^ Wherefore I pray you to help now, as my special
trust is in you, and the sooner the better. If you can get the obediencie, send
it me to Greenwich, by one of your servants, and that he delivers it to no man,
-but to myself, for I am weary of my life among them, and all because I see
them that they be wilUng to maintain these rebels or heretics in their mis
chief, and they pray to God that they [may succeed.]— At Greenwich, at our
convent the xvii. December, A. Dni. 1628."'»«
The poor Friar had no doubt many weighty reasons for
wishing once more to go abroad, but they were all in vain.
Wolsey, by this time, had his hands full. Henry was absorpt
in his own affair. Our Envoy, indeed, wrote in January, im
ploring that the Friar might be sent to his aid, but we hear

¦•7 Crumwell held " the Stewardship" of the monastery lands now confi.scated. Perhaps he is
here referred to, and it will be well ifhe does not follow in pursuit, after Wolsey's death.
48 Cotton MS., Vitelius, B. x., fol. 171- In this letter only, the name is WestoK, which seems
to be a clerical error, as in all the others, it is West.

208 TYNDALE'S PROGRESS [bOOK I.
nothing more of Father West, and Hackett will never obtain
any farther orders. The chase was now over till Henry him
self began, for thus ended, at least, the Cardinal's hunt
after heretics so called ! After this, he will have quite enough
to do, in taking care of himself. It was Providence ruling
and over-ruling all things, for the sake of His own Word.

SECTION VI.
tyndale's PBOSBESS Ilf THE OLD TESTAMENT  PEBSBCtTTION IN ENGLAND
 THWARTED ONCE MOEB  TUNSTAL AT ANTWERP  WOLSET's CAREER 
tyndale's influence in the PALACE  CRANMER FIRST EMPLOYED 
wolsey's fall  LORD CHANCELLOR MORE  BISK OF CRUMWELL  PAR
LIAMENT ASSEMBLED  COMMOTION THERE  MORE, THE BISHOPS, AND THE
KING, IN LEAGUE AGAINST THE SCRIPTURES — COVERDALE SENT TO HAM-
BUBGH  ANOTHER OB FIFTH EDITION OF THE TESTAMENT.
In the denunciation of the English New Testament by Tun
stal and Warham, in 1526, we then noticed one curious omis
sion, that of Tyndale's name ; at that time they appear not
to have known it, but we have already seen, that very soon
after the names of Tyndale and Eoye were distinctly known
to one of Tunstal's chaplains. Dr. Eobert Eidley, prebend of
St. Paul's ; and he may have been the first individual, who,
in writing at least, denounced the Translator by name as well
as his invaluable work. Tyndale's frank acknowledgement of
his authorship in 1 527, made this more generally known ; and,
the confirmation was completed, by the examinations held be
fore the Bishop of London during the last spring. It was then,
too, that one of the ablest scholars, said to be the greatest
genius, if not the only wit in all England obtained license from
his friend, the bishop, first to read Tyndale, and then to
write in reply.' Ever since his license in March last. More, as
he tells us afterwards, had been busy " night and day," and
this year we find him bring out his first controversial publi
cation, consisting of above one hundred and twenty folios, or
250 pages, printed by John Eastell, his brother in-law.^
1 On the authority of Erasmus, we are told that Dean Colet thought Sir Thomas More " the
only wit in the Island," and "the greatest genius in England."
2 Its original title discovers the importance which was now attached to the exertions of Tyn
dale. "A dyaloge of Syr Thomas More, knyghte : one of the Counsayil of our Souvrayne Lorde

152,9.] IN THE OLD TESTAMENT. 209
If, therefore, Tyndale wished to go on with his labours, it
had now become more than ever necessary that he should use
precautions for the safety of his person : and removal from
place to place seems to have been one of these. Before, how
ever, adverting to these places, let us first return and mark the
course of his engagements.
With regard to the translation of the Old Testament in
which Tyndale had for some time been employed, with all the
aid which young Fryth was so well fitted to lend, we have
now some tangible proof of his progress.
It has been customary to speak of Tyndale's Pentateuch as
published in 15.30, but this is incorrect. The five books might
be afterwards bound up, but originally they were neither
printed at the same press, nor published together, but separate
ly. In the order of importation, at least, the account of the
creation and the early history of mankind in Genesis, seems
to have been followed by Deuteronomy, that compendious re
petition or summary of the law, with explanatory additions.
At all events before the end of their year 1529, or the 25th
of March, 1530, these two books are among those publicly de
nounced ; and those alone under the following titles : — " The
Chapters of Moses, called Genesis — the Chapters of Moses,
called Deuteronomos." When we come to the spring of 1530,
the five books of Moses will be more fully noticed.
During this year, the state of his native land had continued
to oppress the mind of Tyndale. However modest and unpre
tending in his character, as he could not be unacquainted with
the great effects produced by what he had already done, so he
must have felt that he was raised up for a certain purpose ;
and that with the progress of events or the condition of his
country he must endeavour to keep pace with his pen. The
correctness and celerity, as well as power, with which he did
so, will appear alike remarkable.
One distinguishing feature of our Translator's character, was
loyalty to his King, blended with love to his country. The

the King, and chauncellore of hys duchy of Lancaster. Wheryn be treatyd dyucrs maters, as of
the veneracyion and worshyp of ymaggs and reliques, praying to sayutis and goynge on pylgry-
mage. Wyth many other thyngys touchyng the pestylent secte of Luther and Tyndale, by the
tone, bygone in Saxony, and by the tother, laboryd to be brought in to England." There was a
second edilion to which was added : "Newly over sene by the sayd Syr Thomas More, Chaun-
cellour of England, 1530." In his works reprinted, we are told that this Uiologue was "made
in the year 1528."
VOL. 1. O

210 TYNDALE'S PROGRESS. j^BOOK I.
latter he had discovered by commencing with " the Parable
of the unrighteous Mammon," and the former, or rather both,
by his next publication, " the Obedience of a Christian man."
Deeply interested as he was, however, in the best interests of
the reigning monarch, he would not stoop to flatter him,
much less wink at the course he now pursued. Hence this
year his small publication on the subject of matrimony, and
his exposition of 1 Corinthians, vii. chapter. The former,
a warning as to its abuse, the latter, illustrative of the sin
attending its gross violation — an abounding evil of the age.^
Marriage was then a question of vital importance to the
virtue and happiness of his country ; dreadfully trampled on
and invaded by the priesthood of the day, and now, by the
highest authority of the land, in his own person, threatened
to be dissolved. It became, therefore, such a man as Tyndale
to take up the subject. His voice was solitary indeed, but it
had now a power, which, probably, he had never anticipated ;
it went also through the land, for whatever he now published
was sought for and read ; and not the less so, that every thing
he put forth was so denounced.
Fryth was engaged about this time in translating from the
German a small work, entitled, " The Eevelation of Anti
christ," one of the first books printed in English against the
Eoman Pontiff. He published it, with a long prefatory
epistle and an antithesis at the end, under the assumed
name of Eichard Brightwell. It was printed " at Malborow,
in the land of Hesse, the 12th day of July ] 529, by me
Hans Luft."
About this period both Tyndale and Fryth had removed
from Marburg; and by the month of August, in Antwerp
itself, a negociation with Tunstal, respecting books, there took
place, which will be narrated presently, after we have noticed
other contemporary movements in England."*

3 This exposition had a brief translation from Erasmus prefixed, and is thus entitled, " An
exhortation to the diligent study of Scripture, made by Erasmus, Roterodamus, and translated
into English. An exposition into the seventh chapter of the first epistle to the Corinthians."
This was at first sometimes ascribed to Roye, then at Strasburg ; but this was a mistake, as
may be seen by the colophon, " At Malborow in the land of Hesse, 1629, xx day of June, by
me Plans Luft." 8vo.
4 The well known Conference at Mabbukg between Luther and Zwingle, commenced on
the SOth of September. Here was a convenient opportunity for Tyndale to have met with both.
But by that time he was in Antwerp. We make no comment here, but request the reader to
observe what ia said of Tyndale and such meetings, under 1.533.

1529.] PERSECUTION IN ENGLAND. 21]
With regard to the progress of that noble cause in England,
for which Tyndale only lived and at last died, it must be read,
as before, in the opposition displayed. Wolsey may be re
moved, but enemies, in reality more bitter and determined,
will remain, nay still fiourish and rise in royal favour.
It will be remembered that abroad, Hackett, the British
ambassador, had been affronted at Antwerp, and resenting
the indignity, had, in April, conveyed the intelligence to
England. In the same month, at home, Tunstal was again
busy at his last year's employment, and firmly pushing his
victims to abjure. He seems as though he had resolved that
the spring of the year should be so distinguished, and happy
would he have been to have rooted up the seed sown by other
hands ; but this season the number of persons caught was
comparatively few. Last year, Hacker, and Pykas, and
Tyball, had sadly fallen, by exposing so many of their friends,
but happily no one now followed their example. Among those
who were examined, the most eminent was that of a respect
able citizen and leather-merchant of London, John Tewks
bury. His case was the more interesting from his having
possessed a manuscript copy of the Bible, and his openly de
poning that he had been studying in the holy Scriptures from
the year 1512. He professed, however, that he had been
brought to the knowledge of the truth by the reading of
" Tyndalis New Testament,'''' and his subsequent publication
or exposition of the Parable of the Wicked Mammon. " In
the doctrine of justification," says John Foxe, " and all other
articles of his faith, he was very expert and prompt in his
answers, in such sort as Tunstal and all his learned men were
ashamed, that a leather-seller should so dispute with them,
with such power of the Scriptures, and heavenly wisdom, that
they were not able to resist him."
The number of Bishops presiding at the examination of this
good man, proves at once the importance of his case, and the
extent to which their alarm and hatred had now gone. Be
sides Tunstal himself, there was West of Ely, and Clark of
Bath, with Standish of St. Asaph, and Longland of Lincoln.
These men had the truth told them on this occasion, and
were even warned. Amongst other things, Tewksbury had
the boldness to say, — " I pray God that the condemnation of
the Gospel and translation of the Testament, be not to your

212 BUT STAYED ONCE MORE. [bOOK I.
shame, and that ye be not in peril for it." They continued
disputing with him day after day, for more than eight or ten
days together ; his first appearance being on the I3th of April.
At last he abjured, though, like Bilney, only for the present.
As old Thomas Fuller said — " it takes more to make a
valiant man, than being able to call another coward," though
in reporting such abjurations, one cannot but revert to the
first grand and public recantation of Barnes, at St. Paul's.
He might, before that year ended, be selling New Testaments
confidentially, and in private, but this could never compensate
for the mischief he had done, by his great and sad failure.
Its influence must have been yet felt, in preventing that bold
decision which would have been followed by the crown of
martyrdom. Thus, this worthy man Tewksbury, only re
quired another to precede him, in the year 153 J, when we
shall find him gather courage, deeply repent, and follow with
great and determined courage to the stake.
How criminal was that man, who, with cool deliberation,
thus spent his days in laying a snare, or in weaving a net for
the feet of these saints ? By him, indeed, they were not put
to death ; they were left by him for Stokesly to butcher,
though the guilt of this righteous blood must ever rest upon
Tunstal, as well as his successor.
But again, and that a third, if not the fourth time, a gra
cious Providence interposed. This, too, was about the very
saime month as in the two preceding years ; not by disease,
indeed, as last year, but by a method as effectual, the occupa
tion of Tunstal abroad. In 1526 the authorities were scattered
by prevailing sickness. In 1527 they were so again by
political affairs. In 1528 they were scared, as we have
seen, by the " Sudor Anglicus," and this year they are
again diverted from their prey by pressing affairs of state.
These men could discern some of the signs of the times, but
they could not, or rather would not, observe the finger of God.
Tunstal, cool and fresh, was ready to engage whenever state
policy demanded his services, and the proof of his being as yet
the leading persecutor of the truth, is plainly seen in thi§,
that when once he departed, the storm in a great degre;9^b-
sided. In a very short time, however, far from forgetting
Tyndale's operations, we shall find him fully, as busy, in
another way, abroad, as he had been at home. /

1529.] TUNSTAL AT ANTWERP. 213
At an early period of this year the aspect of foreign alFairs had begun
to excite uneasiness in the English cabinet. France, having but feeble
hope of any success in Italy, seemed disposed to some friendly alliance
with the Emperor. The French army, it will be remembered, had been
last year almost annihilated by disease ; its scattered remains had, in
deed, rallied under Count de St. Pol, but in June he was finally defeated,
so that the Emperor's power abroad was now in the ascendant. So early
as the 5th of April he had deputed his aunt the Lady Margaret, Regent
of the Low Countries, to meet with Lady Louisa, the mother of Francis,
to settle finally the treaty of Madrid, so often and so long suspended
through Wolsey's interested interposition ; in consequence of which the
two children, exchanged as hostages for their father, the King of Prance,
had never been restored.* The Lady Margaiet, on the 22d of May, ap
prised Wolsey of this meeting, and on the 6th of June, Henry himself ;"
Hackett, by the same post, stating that Cambray had been fixed on as
the place of meeting.^
On the SOth of June, Tunstal and Sir Thomas More, with
Dr. Knight, the King's Secretary, received their commissions,
and left England for Cambray, where Hackett met them. Al
together they watched over their own King's interest, so far
as it was involved in the treaty of Cambray ; remaining in
attendance till the 5th of August, when, what was called
" the Women's or the Ladies' peace," was finally concluded.
It has, however, been but seldom observed, that at the same
time and place, another treaty was signed, betwixt our King
and the Lady Margaret, in the name of the Emperor ; Tun
stal, More, and Hackett, being the commissioners. It embraced
" the continuation of traffic for merchants between the two
countries, and the forbidding to print or sell any Lutheran
books on either sideP''^
Thus it is that we are introduced, very naturally, to the
period when Tunstal's zeal for the burning of the Scriptures
emphatically began to display itself. No doubt he, as well as
the Bishop of Norwich, had cheerfully borne his share of the
first purchase by Warham in 1527 ; but he was eager to seize
this fine and favourable opportunity of proving his own zeal.
He was now in the north of France, and could easily take
Antwerp on his way home. With three such men, all equally

5 Cotton MS., Galba, S. ix., 202. « Idem, fol. 121. 7 Idem, fol. IB?.
0 Idem, fol. 196. Lord Herbert's Henry VIII., j). 316.

214 PURCHASES NEW TESTAMENTS. [book I.
hostile, the subject of heretical books must have been fully
canvassed, involved as they were in a formal treaty. The
first was bent on burning them ; he had licensed the second to
read them, only that he might write them down, and his first
production, written in 1528, had just come out as he left
London ; and as for the third, John Hackett, he had first
suggested both burning and persecution, and not as yet suc
ceeded to the extent of his wishes ; though it was only four
months since he had been affronted at Antwerp, and so deeply
felt the indignity. The high privileges of Antwerp, however,
remained inviolate, for they had been fully and expressly re
cognised in the recent treaty, as well as those of all the other
Hanse-towns under the Emperor's sway.^. No choice being
thus left, as to the mode of procedure, the policy oi purchasing
books in order to burn them, and thus prevent progress, was
discussed. This, indeed, might ultimately promote the cause
they desired to damage, and More shrewdly suspected it
certainly would. " So much," said he to George Constantyne,
afterwards, " so much I told the Bishop, before he went about
it." Tunstal's zeal, however, could not thus be quenched.
Knight proceeded to Italy on the King's business ; More re
turned home ; Tunstal went by way of Antwerp, and the
following story of his " exploit" there, is worthy of notice, on
account of its natural consequences. It is introduced by Halle
immediately after the treaty of Cambray, and it is copied by
Foxe, as happening in the year 1629. We give the narrative
with an eye on both authors.
" Here, it is to be remembered, that at this present time, one Augustine
Packingtoii, a mercer and merchant of London, the same time was in Antwerp,
where the Bishop then was ; and this PacUington was a man that highly favoured
Tyndale, but to the Bishop shewed the contrary. The Bishop, desirous to have
his purpose brought to pass, communed of the New Testaments, aud how gladly
he would buy them. Packington then hearing him say so, said — ' My Lord, if
it be your pleasure, I can in this matter do more, I dare say, than most of
the merchants of England that are here, for I know the Dutchmen (i. e. Ger
mans) and strangers that have bought them of Tyndale, and have them here to
sell ; so that if it be your Lordship's pleasure to pay for them, for otherwise I
cannot come by them, but I must disburse money for them — I will then assure
you to have every book of them that is imprinted, and is here unsold.' The
Bishop said — ' Gentle Mr. Packington, do your diligence and get them ; and,
with all my heart, I will pay for them, whatsoever they cost you ; for the books

5 Very threatening placards, however, were issued by the Emperor after this treaty.

1529.] TUNSTAL RETURNS HOME. 215
are erroneous and nought, and I intend surely to destroy them aU, and to burn
them at Paul's Cross.' Augustine Packington then came to Tyndale, and said —
' William, T know thou art a poor man, and hast a heap of New Testaments
and books by thee, for which thou hast both endangered thy friends, aud
beggared thyself ; and 1 have now gotten thee a merchant, which, with ready
money, shall despatch thee of all that thou hast, if you think it profitable for
yourself,' — ' Who is the merchant ? ' said Tyndale. ' The Bishop of London,'
said Packington. ' O, that is because he will burn them,' said Tyndale. ' Yes,'
quoth Packington. ' I am the gladder,' said Tyndale, ' for these two benefits
shall come thereof — I shall get money to bring myself out of debt, and the
whole world will cry out against the burning of God's Word — and the overplus
of the money that shall remain to me, shall make me more studious to correct
the said New Testament, aud so newly to imprint the same once again, and I
trust the second will much better like (please) you, than ever did the first.' So,
forward went the bargain — the Bishop had the books — Packington had the
thanks — and Tyndale had the money !"
This story may be allowed to remain substantially correct,
though the latter words put into the mouth of Tyndale, must
be received as the embellishment of Packington, or rather,
perhaps, of the old chronicler Halle, who was fond of a good
story. Certainly Tyndale never expressed himself precisely
in these terms. " After this,''"' says Foxe, " Tyndale corrected
the same New Testament again, and caused them to be new
imprinted, so that they came thick and threefold over into
England!" The further illustration of this assertion will
occur before long. In the meanwhile, the books purchased by
Tunstal were sent home, but they were not committed to the
flames till it could be done with the greatest effect.
Tunstal and More having both returned to London, the
proceedings at Cambray were reported and highly approved.
Before Sir Thomas was sent into France, the King had sound
ed him as to the divorce. He was then opposed to it, and as
much so now ; but as he had succeeded to admiration in pro
curing more money from the Emperor than had been expected,
and Henry might anticipate that, like most men, he only had
his price, and would come round, he was about to elevate him
to the Chancellorship. Cardinal Wolsey and Sir Thomas
More had never cordially agreed, for in many points they were
perfect contrasts. Under the auspices of the latter, amiable
in domestic life, having no thirst for pomp or display, and
superior to the love of money, some great change was at hand.
A new order of things, whatever that might be, was inevitable.
The concluding months of the year 1529, require, therefore,
to be particularly observed, forming as they did, an epoch, both

216 WOLSEY'S CAREER. [^BOOK I.
in civil and ecclesiastical affairs, as well as in the history of
persecution. But before that period can be understood, it
becomes necessary to return, and take a very brief survey of
the Cardinal's last year of office.
The reader may have been already more than satiated with the course
of Wolsey's policy, but his career is now hastening to its termination.
We have seen him " in great power, and spreading himself like a green
bay tree," so that we owe it to a righteous providence to mark his decline
and fall. Though now fifty-eight years of age, and within only twenty
months of his death, gradually sinking in the favour of his Master, and
long despised by many around him, the ruling passion of the now unhappy
man, for the unenviable chair of the Pontiff, was still as strong as his
feeble and broken constitution would admit. Henry again recommended
him, but it must have been only from a desire to remove him to a dis
tance, and there, perhaps, exact from him favours in return for all the
past. Glad, no doubt, would he have been, to have for ever left the
country where he had reigned as Lord-paramount ; but his starting for
the long-craved prize now, when in the act of sinking in his " sea of
glory," resembled only the drowning man catching at a straw. It was
the dangerous illness and expected death of Clement at the end of Jantv
ary, that had roused his old ambition ; but the Pontiff recovered, nay,
outlived him for nearly four years, and the Cardinal must therefore do
his best with affairs at home.
. It certainly affords a most striking proof of the wild and contradictory
passions by which the wicked are agitated, that at this very time, Wolsey
was holding in defiance and contempt the authority of the very tiara,
the treble crown, for which he had panted so long ! Both the one and
the other were thus displayed.
At Christmas last, (1628), it may be remembered, that we left Henry
and Catherine keeping open festivities together still ! Wolsey immedi
ately after this, through Fox, Gardiner, and Brian, exercised all his in
genuity, in negociating with the Pontiff, to effect the divorce, and thus
secure his Master's favour ; though, at the same time, he was carrying
on another and a secret correspondence with Rome. Hitherto he had
failed in his policy, as well as lost Henry's confidence, by his doings in
Spain. As a final attempt, on the 25th of January this year he des
patched Gardiner once more, secretly, to Italy, to hasten the divorce of
the two parties, and minister to the impatience of the monarch. As his
last expedient, Gardiner was instructed to threaten, as well he could,
that, without immediate compliance with the farther requests then made,
the King would withdraw his obedience, also intimating that the nobles,
as well as his Majesty, would decline subjection ! In the disruption
which after some time took place, there was therefore inmixed, not one

1529.] THE ROYAL DIVORCE. 217
grain of correct moral principle. The passions of a licentious prince,
were the secret and first moving cause, while the Supreme disposer of
all events, was over-ruling the thraldom and impetuosity of sin in the
monarch, for the mental freedom of his entire kingdom. In such strange
circumstances, the glory and the happiness of whatever change took
place afterwards, ought therefore the more emphatically to be ascribed
to God over all, and to Him alone.
The Cardinal's long and laboured negociations, addressed to Rome,
were, however, all in vain, though in them he had put forth all his
powers, and these, in truth, were of no common order. His rivals at
home, the Dukes of Norfolk and Suffolk, were secretly undermining him,
by hinting, if they could not expose, his delay. Delay was ruinous, so
that the once favourite minister of the King, by his own perplexities
involved, could now stand only as the stag at bay.
In Wolsey's long despatch of the 6th of April, he charges the am
bassadors, Gardiner, Brian, and Cassalis, to gain admission to the Pontiff,
though he should be at the point of death, as he was actually supposed
to have been but recently, and insist upon two things, — one was, that he
should command all the European Princes to agree to a cessation of
arms under pain of censure, for war no longer served Wolsey's pur
pose ; the other was to press the King's business, granting all that they
requested. But, in the meanwhile, to satisfy the King's impatience, to
save himself, and, if possible, foil his enemies, he must proceed with the
judicial drama.
On the 3Ist of May, therefore, Henry, by a warrant under the great
seal, gave the Legates leave to execute their commission ; that is, he
authorised two of the most licentious men then alive, (for Campeggio
was not one whit behind Wolsey), to sit in judgment once more on the
legality of his own marriage ; while they, of course, " made deep pro
testations of the sincerity of their minds, that they should proceed justly
and fairly, without favour or partiality ! " On the 21st of June, when
both King and Queen appeared in court, the latter most solemnly pro
tested and appealed to the Pontiff, and upon her retiring, Henry gave
her one of the best of characters ; but as, in the eye of Campeggio, delay
was the object in view, a convenient expedient was sought for, and at
last suggested by him. The courts of Rome, merely on account of the
danger to health from the mato-ia, or Roman atmosphere, always adjourned
from July to October, and therefore they also must suspend proceedings
during the same period ! The truth was, that the Emperor now governed
the Pontiff, and he Campeggio. His red hat, as Cardinal, was gone, and
with it all hope of the Popedom, (of which he stood the first chance), if
he now disobeyed ; but as for the poor English Cardinal, he must consent,
simply because he could do nothing else, and so he sunk into disgrace.
" The peculiar character of Henry rendered him often a scrupulous

218 WOLSEY SINKING. [book I.
observer of rules, without much regard to their principles. The forms
of law stood higher in his eye than the substance of justice ; this pecu
liarity affords the best key to his proceedings relating to the divorce of
which he was desirous."'" A legal divorce, however cruel, and substan
tially unjust, would have satisfied his coarse and licentious mind, and
might have so far hushed the minds of others, but the royal patience
was now exhausted. Campeggio departs for Italy ; Wolsey, for the last
time, saw his royal Master in September, who convicted him afresh of
some double dealing, by producing his own hand- writing ; '' so that now
his enemies might do what they pleased, as to the speediest mode of
getting rid of him.
Since the month of October 1527, the Cardinal must have frequently
been filled with anxiety, and intimations of his declining influence must
have often mortified him extremely ; for, before matters had arrived at
this decisive conclusion, there had been various collisions between him,
and his once confiding monarch.
His gorgeous and fruitless embassy to France, was the zenith of his
glory. From that period, his sun began to descend, and the clouds were
always returning upon him, after the rain. There had, indeed, been
some trifling misunderstanding so early as 1525, but that was soon buried
in oblivion.'^ The decisive change seems to have commenced with his
interference as to Lady Anne Boleyn, and his attempt to divert the King
from attention to her.'^ This was followed by his intended cruelty to
the Earl of Kildare, whom Henry saved from his grasp. Then, in the
spring of last year, came his duplicity as to Spanish affairs, which com
pletely shook the confidence of his King ;'* and in July, he offended again
by his appointment of the Abbess of Walton.'^ Yet after all this, tak
ing advantage of Henry's temper, upon his escape from alarm under the
" Sudor Anglicus," we find him, upon the 6th of October last, and the
first hour he had learned that Fox, Bishop of Winchester was dead, ply
ing the King for his own appointment to that more lucrative situation,
nay, and actually proposing that his own place, as bishop of Durham,
should be conferred on Winter, his natural son I'" Such was the man
of unwearied ambition. It was "the character of his mind to retrieve
his innate presumptuousness, at the first instant after the clouds of ad
versity had begun to pass away."'''
Throughout this last year of declining influence, vexations
in quick succession, awaited the Cardinal. About May he
10 Mackintosh's Hist, of England, anno 1529.
11 This was said to be part of his ^ecJTi correspondence with Rome, which had been sent home
by Sir Francis Brian, then one of the ambassadors.
12 Harleian MS., No. 7035, p. 174. It was a supposed invasion of the King's prerogative, and
now revived, it will form one of the forty-four a,Yi\c\e^ of impeachment.
13 Sec page 151. H See page 171. 15 See page 193.
15 State papers, vol. i., p. 328-9. 17 Government State papers.

1529.] TYNDALE'S POWERFUL INFLUENCE. 219
had wished to proceed once more into France, upon a mis
sion to Cambray, (on which we have found that Tunstal and
More were sent in June,) but the King pointedly refused,
as he could no longer confide in him." Again, Sir T.
Cheney, for having in some way offended the Cardinal, had
been excluded from the Court, when Lady Anne Boleyn
interposed and secured his return, whether Wolsey would
or not.''' But finally, and as if to crown all, and after we
have witnessed how eager he had been to apprehend Tyn
dale, he must be brought in contact with one of his publica
tions. The story, in full, is to be found in Foxe's manu
scripts, now in the Museum, and it has been quoted by Strype.
Lady Anne Boleyn had been in possession of a copy of Tyn
dale's " Obedience of a Christian man," for though the time
drew nigh, it had not then been pointedly condemned by
Royal authority. She had lent this book to one of her female
attendants, named Gainsford ; but one day as she was reading
it, a young gentleman, also in the service of Lady Anne, Mr.
Zouch, father to the knight, afterwards of that name, snatch
ed the book away, and was very unwilling to restore it. He
had been induced to read it, and was so affected, that, as the
story goes, "he was never well but when he was reading of
that book." Wolsey had ordered all about the Court to take
special .care, and prevent such writings from being circulated
there, lest they should chance to come into the hands of the
King ; but this very caution proved the means of bringing to
pass, what he most dreaded ! The Dean of the Chapel- Royal,
Dr. Sampson, saw this publication in the young man's hands,
who was reading it in the chapel, not improbably tired of the
unmeaning service. Calling Zouch, he took the publication
from him, and delivered it to the Cardinal. In the meantime.
Lady Anne, enquiring for her book, the attendant, fearful lest
her Mistress, as well as herself, should come into trouble, fell
on her knees, and told her all the circumstances. Her Mis
tress expressed no displeasure with the parties in her service,
but replied with emotion, — " Well, it shall be the dearest book
that ever the Dean or the Cardinal took away." Lady Anne
forthwith applied to Henry, and upon her knees, " desired the
King's help for her book." Upon the King's token it was de-
18 Bayonne's Letter in Le Grand, p. 333. 10 Le Grand, p. 296.

220 TYNDALE'S POWERFUL INFLUENCE. [bOOK I.
livered up, and Lady Anne carrying the volume or tract, to his
Majesty, requested that he would read it. The King did so,
and professing to be pleased with the contents, added " this
book is for me, and all Kings, to read."
This story is fully confirmed by Wyatt, with some slight
variation. Lady Anne " was but newly come from the King,
when the Cardinal came in with the book in his hands, to make
complaints of certain points in it, that he knew the King
would not like, and withal to take occasion with him, against
those that countenanced such books in general, and especially
women ; and as might be thought, with mind to go farther
against Lady Anne more directly, if he had perceived the
King agreeable to his meaning. But the King, that somewhat
before distasted the Cardinal, finding the notes Lady Anne
had made, all turned the more to hasten his ruin, which was
also furthered on all sides. "^^
This incident therefore must, in substance have occurred ;
although Foxe goes on to build by far too much upon it. The
words, in Henry's mouth, were probably nothing more than
a compliment to the lady ; or at best, they expressed only a
transient feeling, similar to one of old, in the mind of King
Herod towards John the Baptist. But be this as it might,
Campeggio was off to Italy, and the sun of royal favour had
set upon Wolsey for ever.
At this moment, the situation of his Majesty was critical in the ex
treme. His kingdom was in a state of transition similar to no other in
Europe, and he could only steer a course, as it were, between Scylla and
Charybdis. New advisers had become absolutely necessary, but where
were they to be found 1
After the cunning pause as to the divorce, made by the Romish
Cardinal, Henry, in no small perplexity, was travelling in Essex, to
dissipate his vexation ; and while at Waltham, in the month of August,
with no other prospect before him except the avocation of his cause to
Rome, Fox, his Almoner, and Gardiner, as Secretary, were with him.
The royal suite filling up every apartment, these two lodged at the
house of a Mr. Cressy in the neighbourhood. At supper, the royal
20 He shows that Tyndale's writings had been read within the royal palace, perhaps as care
fully as in any other place. Speaking of Lady Anne's copy oi "the Obedience," he adds— " which
as her manner was, she having read, she had also noted with her Tiait, as of matter worthy the
King's knowledge." His only mistake is in placing the occurrence after Lady Anne's marriage,
or at least speaking of her as Queen, by which time Wolpcy had been two years in his grave.
See Wyatt's Memoir, printed from manuscript, in Cavendish's life of Wolsey by Singer, vol ii.,
II. 202-211.5.

1529.] CRANMER FIRST EMPLOYED. 221
marriage became, as it was everywhere, the subject of conversation.
The tutor in this family expressed surprise, that there should be any
hesitation as to the mode of procedure. He was pressed to explain
himself, when he suggested that there was but one truth in the matter,
which should be tried on the authority of the Word of God ; the
Universities abroad as well as at home should be at once consulted,
and a decision come to, independently of the Pontiff at Rome. This, it
is well known, was Thomas Cranmer, then in the fortieth year of his age.
Educated at Cambridge, he had been fixed upon in 1524, as one of the
Canons for Cardinal College, Oxford, and had actually given his con
sent ; but, acting under advice, he afterwards drew back, and had re
mained at Cambridge till last year. The refusal is imderstood to have
given great offence.
Next morning Cranmer's advice was reported to his Majesty, when
all at once it pleased his fancy ; under the impression, no doubt, that
the Scripture either spoke, or would be affirmed to speak, in favour of
his wishes. Before this, it is true, that Henry, at Wolsey's suggestion,
and even Wolsey himself, had been consulting learned men, abroad as
well as at home, but this by no means amounted to the advice now given
by Cranmer. He was sent for instantly by the King ; and though he
went with apparent reluctance, refusal was in vain. Henry was pleased ;
and feeling, at the moment, as a man relieved from a dilemma, he im
mediately appointed Cranmer to be one of his chaplains, and ordered
him to write upon the subject. Cranmer having also professed himself
to be ready to plead the cause even before the Pontiff at Rome, Henry
said that he would send him ; but commanded that he should first be
accommodated in the house of Sir Thomas Boleyn, and there compose
his treatise.^i
The time had now arrived when it was by no means difficult to over
whelm Wolsey, although no course of proceeding could be more imfair
than that which was about to be adopted. It was for his doings as Legate
within the King's dominions. But all these had been sanctioned by the
King's own license ; so that Henry was going to make " the privilege of
his letters patent a crime ; to sue against his own license ;" and to
bring the once aspiring Cardinal under severe forfeiture for making use
of the royal authority ! He had been all along acting under the eye of
his ungrateful Master ; and yet the very honour of which he was so vain,
and that in which he gloried, when brow-beating Dr. Barnes, three years
and a half ago, as well as upon many other occasions, was now to furnish
the ostensible ground of criminal charges against him ! From the

21 His book is lost ! And it happens singularly enough, that his only composition extant, on
the question, is of a directly opposite tendency ; being a long letter to the Earl of Wiltshire,
father of Anne Boleyn, in which he details, with much commendation, the arguments used by
Reginald Pole, in support of Queen Catherine's marriage, with nothing on his own side, beyond
a brief expression of dissent."— .7e»ft//?i'jf Remains of Cranmer, i., p. 9.

222 FALL OP WOLSEY. [book I.
King's cause respecting his determined divorce, Wolsey must now turn
to that of his own impeachment.
On the 9th of October his prosecution commenced, by the King's
Attorney-General presenting an indictment against him, in the Court of
King's Bench, upon the statute of provisors, " for procuring Bulls from
Rome without the King's license," — an accusation which if it had been
literally true, that is, without the King's knowledge, would have sub
jected him to impeachment for high treason. But this was merely the
beginning of sorrows. Upon Sunday the 17th, the Dukes of Suffolk and
Norfolk came and demanded the Great Seal, which he declined to deliver
up without a written order from the King, but his spirit was now already
gone. " I have been to see the Cardinal," said the French ambassador
Bellay, on that very day ; " he has shewn me his case with the most
deplorable rhetoric I ever saw ; for both his heart and his spirit entirely
failed him. I can say nothing more striking than his face, which has lost
half its proper size." Next day the Dukes returned with the written
demand, when Wolsey delivered up the seals, and they ordered him, in
Henry's name, to retu'c to Esher in Surrey.
As his best security against the prosecution raised against him, Wolsey
had confessed his offence against the statute of premunire.^^ The Court
then pronounced " that he was out of the protection of the law — that
his lands, goods, and chattels were forfeited, and his person lay at the
mercy of the King." Before, therefore, now leaving, what, in the days
of his grandeur, he occasionally, in mock humility, styled " his poor
house at Westminster," he took a particular account or inventory of all
its contents, to be delivered over to his Majesty; and one of the identical
catalogues, of forty folio pages, may still be seen in the British
Museum.^^ To say nothing of the tables covered with massive gold and
silver plate, which was of immense value, although pewter had been
generally used before the days of Henry the Eighth ; " there was,"
says Turner, " of all sorts of arras, velvets, carpets, hangings, curtains,
silks, rich cloths, linen, beds and furniture, enough to have set up
many a substantial tradesman, besides completing a nobleman's palace !"
For one article he left of the most splendid tapestry, above one hundred
and thirty pieces, from 21 to 27 feet long by 12 feet deep.^ The
entire value within the walls has been estimated at half a million ster
ling of the present day !
Upon Wolsey's departure, by water, a thousand boats were on the
river, the people expecting to enjoy the gratification of seeing him con
veyed to the Tower, but this was never proposed ; and though the very
22 26 Ed. 3. i., especially 16 R. 2. c. 5. Whereby a penalty was incuiTable, as infringing some
statute ; or, in other words, the party had incurred the forfeiture of their moveable estate, be
sides imprisonment at discretion. 23 MS. Harleian, No. 699.
24 The only remains of this tapestry, known to exist, now adorn the walls of that large room,
the Board of Green Cloth, at Hampton Court.

1529.] LORD CHANCELLOR MORE. 223
next day, the 19th, the Duke of Norfolk, before a meeting of the Lords
assembled in the Star Chamber, announced the Cardinal's dismissal from
all his offices ; on the 21st the King granted him his protection.
Meanwhile, a successor must be appointed. The King had requested
Warham to re-accept the seals of office, for he had been Chancellor
before Wolsey ; but he declined, probably from age, and as, therefore,
not equal to the burden of office. This must have happened on or
before the 21st of the month, as the French ambassador apprised
his Court by letter, on the 22d, that he foresaw " that priests would be
made Chancellors no more."^ On Saturday the 23d Henry consulted
about a successor ; next day he fixed on Sir Thomas More, and on
Monday the 25th he was led into Chancery by the Dukes of Norfolk and
Suffolk, the determined enemies of the fallen Cardinal.
Although Cranmer had been already engaged to serve the King, it
was only in a subordinate capacity, at least for more than two years to
come, and, during this period, almost solely abroad ; so that some other
man was still grievously wanted at home, and especially before Parlia
ment should assemble on the 3d of November. Upon Sir Thomas More,
though chosen Chancellor, as already hinted, no dependence could be
placed in relation to Henry's favourite project. Yet the very last day
of October had ended, and no one appeared. It was only next morning
that a thought was expressed by one of Wolsey's confidential servants,
for such he was. This was Thomas Crumwell.^ The son of a black
smith, and born at Putney, near London, he had lived on the Continent
for a number of years, and visited Rome as early as 1510. When Eras
mus had published his Latin New Testament, Crumwell, it is said, had
made himself intimately familiar with its contents ; for his having com
mitted the whole to memory, though frequently asserted, may be al
lowed to pass merely as a flourish of the pen. This acquaintance with
the Sacred Volume, however, preceded, as it had been, by residence at
Rome, could not fail to have a powerful effect on his mind ; and, at all
events, these were two sources of instruction and experience, of which
his predecessor, Wolsey, knew little or nothing. He had never beheld
the city and court, so falsely styled sacred ; he had but rarely looked
into the sacred page, and then only to serve a purpose. As to Crum
well's real character or sentiments, at this moment, we affirm nothing.

25 Sir H. Ellis has said, " It does not seem to have been known to our historians, that upon
Wolsey's fall, Henry pressed Cranmer to take the Chancellorship more than once, before he
offered it to Sir Thomas More."— Original Letters, vol. ii., p. 47- Bnt Erasmus, who is then
quoted, expressly says, the Archbishop of Canterbury, which Warham was, till his death in
15.32. As for Cranmer, he was already engaged to start for Rome, employed by the King about
the divorce.
26 Never was any monarch so indebted to men of the same name. He had lost Thomas
Wolsey ; but now he had got Thomas More, Thomas Crumwell, and Thomas Cranmer, besides
Thomas Howard, (Duke of Norfolk,) and Thomas Boleyn, {Earl of Wiltshire,) engaged in his
service. Thomas Audlcy, and Thomas Wriothsley followed in succession as Lords Chancellor.

224 RISE OF CRUMWELL. [booK I.
but merely notice these circumstances as accounting, so far, for the
course he is about to pursue.
But it here becomes necessary, if not also very important, to observe,
that the once favourite Cardinal, in the exercise of his own peculiar
ambition, by his last and highest office, as Vicar-Oeneral, had brought
into this kingdom a species of authority altogether unknown. His au
thority, as Legate, was high, but this was one step higher ; so that he
had begun to act absolutely as the English Pontiff. But, in doing this,
he had put a cup to the lips of his Royal Master, and afforded him one
taste, for the first time, of the sweetness of dominion over all the clergy
in his kingdom. This, if not a new thing in the earth, was an elevation
peculiar to Heiu-y among his fellow princes of Europe. The moment
that Wolsey began to exercise his functions as Vicar-General, of course,
the King felt the position which he thus occupied ; and yet, high as
Wolsey then thought himself, he was never so completely in the King's
power ! It was even the time of which Henry had spoken, when " the
hand that made him, could unmake him when it listed." Wolsey,
therefore, once fallen, Crumwell is now about to step into his shoes, and
will, before long, afford his Majesty a fidl draught of that pleasure,
which he had only begun to taste.
The elevation of this man was however not a little extraordinary ; as
it affords a striking proof of how far Henry could sacrifice his prejudices
to his reigning passion at the moment. From what he had heard of
Crumwell, he was deeply prejudiced against him ; and but for the ear
nest counsel of Russel, Earl of Bedford, whom Crumwell had once saved
from being murdered, or betrayed into the hands of the French, he
might never have been admitted to the royal ear.
It was upon a Monday morning, the 1st of November, and therefore
only two days before Parliament met, that Crumwell had resolved on
the course he should take. He saw nothing but ruin before him, if he
remained in Wolsey's household ; and so that morning, addressing him
self to the Gentleman Usher, George Cavendish, he said — " I intend,
God willing, this afternoon, when my Lord hath dined, to ride to
London," (from Esher,) " and so to the Court, where I shall either make
or mar, or I come again." The very next day, Crumwell was at Court ;
and having sought an audience of the King, it was granted him. " After
most loyal obeisance," he completely succeeded, for every word was most
welcome. He suggested one mode by which Henry might accomplish
his divorce — which was nothing short of his taking the authority into
his own hands, by declaring himself Head of the Church, within his own
realm. Having also explained how his Majesty's " princely authority"
was invaded and abused by the " spirituality," Crumwell had taken care
to have a copy of their oath to the Pontiff in his pocket ; and, in ex
plaining it, he ventured so far as to affirm, that thus Henry " was but

1529.] RISE OF CRUMWELL. 225
lialf a King, and they only half his subjects." They had, besides, all
acted under Wolsey, as Legate, and therefore, since he had bowed, they
now lay at the royal mercy ; Crumwell " declaring thereupon, how his
Majesty might accumulate to himself great riches, if it so pleased him
to take the occasion now offered." The King listened attentively to all
that fell from his adviser, or, as Foxe has it — " following the vein of his
counsel, took his ring off his finger, admitting him into his service."
According to another authority, he was so well pleased, that he thanked
him, and admitted him to the dignity of a Privy Councillor.^^ That he
at once succeeded in gaining Henry's entire confidence, is evident, from
his not merely stepping into Parliament, as we find he did, immediately,
but speaking there with such boldness, from the beginning. Without
royal sanction, this course would have proved his ruin.
The fact was, that from the moment when legal proceedings were
commenced against Wolsey, Crumwell had three weeks to ruminate
over the whole procedure. It was substantially unfair, and, in other
days, Wolsey would have stood upon his defence, and triumphed. But
he knew the temper of his Master, and therefore, first yielding up his
entire personal estate to the King, to conciliate his royal mercy, he
craved only his ecclesiastical revenues for the time to come. But, then,
if, on these terms, Wolsey's submission had been accepted, there were
behind him many other delinquents. The clergy, to a man, having
acted under him as Legate, were exposed and unsafe. Crumwell, there
fore, saw his advantage, and, in one day, and that the day before Par
liament assembled, dexterously improved it.
Prom this hour, the path was plain, though still considerable address
was required ; but for all this, Crumwell was peculiarly qualified. The
concurrence of the clergy was essential to Henry's intended progress ;
but he now saw how very easily, at a convenient opportunity, he could
slip on the collar of his authority, and snap the lock ; as well as the
wealth which must accrue to him in the process. Still it will be pass
ing strange, if an old servant of Wolsey's, who was about to soften his
master's fall, should, ere long, be the very man selected to control and
punish that entire body of men so devoted to Rome ; and all this to
gratify the cupidity, the vanity, and the lust for dominion over them,
in their " Defender of the Faith."
This shrewd adviser, however, discerned both " time and judgment."
Henry had one favour to obtain, through this " spirituality," in 1530,
which will occupy most of the year, and therefore a compass must be
fetched, before Crumwell's advice can be followed, Meanwhile, he had
placed the lash in the hands of his royal Master ; and the moment he is
commanded, Crumwell will not be slow to act with boldness and de-
27 Singer has mentioned this fact, from Pole, as Crumwell's own statement.— ij/e cf ff^olsey
i., p. 1.95.
VOL. I. P

226 RISE OF CRUMWELL. [book I.
cision. Immediately he must secure a seat in the House of Commons ;
but after such an audience, this could be no very difficult matter. Ac
cordingly, a son of Sir Thomas Rugh, already returned, gave way to him.
" He obtained his room," says Cavendish, " and, by that means, put his
foot into the Parliament House."
On the 21st of October, as formerly hinted, the King had thrown his
shield over Wolsey ; and on the evening before he saw Crumwell, he
had sent, by Sir John Russel, a kind message to him. The day after
Crumwell had his audience, or Wednesday the 3d of November, Parlia
ment assembled, in which Henry had now permitted the Cardinal to sit !
Thus he at once eluded the censure of such as thought the late proceed
ings had been severe, and seemed to place the power of farther punish
ment in the hands of Parliament. Should the Upper House once pro
ceed against Wolsey, and ground their accusations against him as
Legate, nothing will so exactly answer Henry's purpose.
There had been no Parliament held since ] 523 ! These
were troublesome assemblies, and had by no means suited the
speed of Wolsey's chariot wheels ; so that now, when such
an assembly as had not been convened for six years, was about
to deliberate, very much will depend upon the general spirit
and temper of the new Lord Chancellor. All things had
been regulated by that strange anomaly, — Legantine authority:
they were now to be discussed professedly by a legislative
Assembly of Lords and Commons, so that some change, for
better or worse, must await the country.
On Wednesday the 3d of November, at the Chamber in
Blackfriars, Parliament met ; when Lord Chancellor More, in
his eloquent oration, gave the first overtures of the King's in
tentions. The Cardinal's fall, — the state of the Church,  and
the " new learning,'''' formed the pith of this opening speech.
The King was present when the Cardinal was glanced at, and
in no courteous terms. It was only sixteen days since he
had been sent to Esher, and the orator had only been chosen
in his room ten days before; yet, along with a fulsome
compliment to Henry, as having "seen through him, both
within and without," though Wolsey had so often led him as a
child ; Sir Thomas having compared Henry VIII. to a shep^
herd, and his people to a flock, then referred to " the great
wether which is of late fallen, as ye all know," — "who so
craftily, yea, and so untruly juggled with the King ! " There
was truth here, unquestionably, but though such language

1529.] PARLIAMENT ASSEMBLED. 227
from a judge, from a Lord Chancellor, referring to his prede
cessor, might pass in those days ; in later times it would, of
course, have been regarded as the height of indecency. It
was much worse, when it is remembered, that though the
great seal had been taken from Wolsey, still he had been
summoned to attend this Parliament, and actually sat in the
House after this among his peers, when the Bills were dis
cussing during November. But it becomes a great deal more
dilGBcult to characterise this false and fulsome compliment to
Henry's sagacity, when it is observed, that only on the Mon
day week before this, or the 25th of October, when first
brought into Chancery, where the King was not present. More,
though alluding to Wolsey's fall, had spoken in a far different
style. " And now," said he, " when I look on this seat, and
recollect how great persons have filled it before me, — when I
contemplate who sat in it last, — a man of such singular wisdom,
such skill in business, blest with such long and prosperous
fortune, and visited at last with so high and inglorious a fall,
I cannot but see the diiSculty of my situation. For it is
difiicult to succeed with approbation, to one of such genius,
wisdom, authority, and splendour, or to trace his footsteps
with an equal pace. It seems as if we should light a taper,
after gazing on the setting sun !" More might say that he
eulogised only Wolsey's talents, and blamed his want of in
tegrity ; but his whole procedure was unworthy of himself,
nor can it ever be justified, much less admired.
As for the various subjects then styled ecclesiastical, they
were incorporated or interwoven with civil affairs. The abuses,
says Herbert, having now come at last to the King's know
ledge, he remitted their redress to the Lower House of Parlia
ment. The Mortuaries, or the exactions from the children of de
ceased parents, — the enormous expense of Probates, or proofs
of wills, — Pluralities to the extent of eight or ten livings, en
grossed by one man, — abounding non-residence, — Priests being
Surveyors, Stewards of estates. Farmers, and Graziers in
every county, — Priors, and other ecclesiastics, being the
buyers and sellers of Wool, of Cloth, and all kinds of mer
chandise. Such were the grievances then to be redressed.
Three bills were therefore drawn up, by the appointment of
the Burgesses of Parliament, — the first relating to Mortuaries,
the second to Probates, and the third embracing all the other
evils.

228 COMMOTION THERE. [book I.
The first, when sent up to the Lords, was rather courteously
received ; the second, concerning Probates, followed in two
days ; but on this, Warham, the Archbishop of Canterbury,
and all the other bishops frowned. Fisher, the Bishop of
Rochester, spoke with greatest violence and warmth. In the
parliament chamber, says the contemporary chronicler, he
said openly these words, — " My Lords, you see daily what
bills come hither from the Common house, and all is to the des
truction of the Church ; see what a realm the kingdom of Bohemia
was, and when the Church went down, then fell the glory of the
kingdom, — now with the Commons is nothing but down with
the Church, — and all this, me seemeth, is for lack oi faith only."
These last expressions once reported to the Commons, they
sent their speaker. Sir Thomas Audley, with thirty members,
to the King. Henry, also dissatisfied, promised to call for
the Bishop, and send them reply. Accordingly, Warham
and six of his brethren, besides Fisher, had to appear, when
the latter apologised, saying, he meant " the doings of the
Bohemians were for lack of faith." The King received his re
presentation, but the Commons were still by no means satis
fied with this " blind excuse."
After this, the Commons referred to the laws and constitu
tions of the Church, as enforcing these bills, but the " Spiritu
ality" defended the existing state of things by "presumption
and usage^'' One commoner, a gentleman of G-ray's Inn, had
the courage to reply, — "The usage hath ever been of thieves, to
rob on Shooter's hill, ergo — is it lawful ?"^^ Of course very
great offence was taken at the comparison, as if the fees for
Probates were to be considered robbery. The Commons
stood firm, and the temporal Lords began to lean to their
side, but the bills could not yet pass.
Meanwhile the Lords assented to a bill of their own, and sent
it down to the Commons, which will remind the reader of
years gone by, as it referred to measures introduced by Wolsey,
and ultimately supported by the present Chancellor, then
Speaker of the House of Commons. This was a bill releasing
the King of all such sums as he had borrowed from his sub
jects, in the fifteenth year of his reign. The measure, of
28 Sir Thomas Audley is said to have been the gentleman. Perhaps he saw the road to pre
ferment, and may become Lord Chancellor, when Sir Thomas More retires,
29 Yet only the year before, when Sir W. Compton, one of the King's household, died of the
disease then raging, the fees exacted by Wolsey and Warham, or the Probate to his will,
amounted to lOflll tnerks, i. e. £666, 13a. 4d., which, if multiplied by 15, would be exactly £10,000 !

1529.] FALL OF WOLSEY. 229
course, was felt severely by the Commons, and the more so, as
it would render them unpopular with their constituents ; but
as the majority of members were the King's servants, and
others were gained over, the bill passed.
By way of gratitude in return, the King granted, with
certain exceptions, a general pardon of offences, and aiding
the Commons for the redress of their grievances, he caused two
new bills to be presented afresh to the Lords, to which they
at last assented, although that in reference to the probate of
wills was peculiarly offensive to the Bishops.
The Commons then sent up their third bill, in reference to
pluralities, non-residence, farming, &c. At this the Priests
not only railed on the Commons as heretics, but the Bishops,
in the Upper House, says Hall, " would in no ways consent."
At last the King interposed. Causing eight members from
each House to meet and confer in the Star Chamber, the
Temporal Lords present united with the Commons, and next
day the bill, somewhat qualified, passed into a law.
As almost all these abuses had grown up to this height under Wolsey's
administration, their Lordships at least imagined that, notwithstanding
his recent humiliation, he must again be dealt with. Accordingly, on
the first of December, the Lords, with Sir Thomas More at their head,
presented their address to the King, containing not fewer th.d,u forty-four
articles against the Cardinal, and grounding all these " notable, high,
and grievous offences," upon his usurped authority as " Legate de latere."
In the Upper House, the fallen Minister, who had made France and Spain
tremble, and the Pontiff himself to sigh and wring his hands, was now
almost friendless ; but when the charges were sent down to the Commons,
defended with great ability and boldness by his old servant, Crumwell,
the accusation of treason fell to the ground. The clouds, however, will
never again disperse.
In the fall of Wolsey, his country in general, or at least the best of
his Majesty's subjects, were fully prepared to rejoice. For a long series
of years he had pandered to the vices of his Sovereign, as well as rioted
in luxury himself, and it was fit that he should fall. Time there was,
when he sat at the King's right hand, and when, with a household
amounting to hundreds, he entertained his Master with a splendour
superior to the throne itself ; when he drunk only out of silver and gold
plate, and had the highest nobility of the land rejoicing to wait upon
him.^" "Then he made the King doat upon him, more than ever he
30 The manuscripts diifer in stating the number of his household. One has it as low as 18l).
another as high jis iiOO ; Cavendish says, " the number was about the sum of 500 persons, accord-

230 PARLIAMENT UNANIMOUS. [bOOK I.
did upon any lady or gentleman ; so that the King followed him, as he
before followed the King. What he said, that was wisdom ; what he
praised, that only was honourable." 3i But of late he had stood in slip
pery places, and one false step taken, he was cast down into destruction.
That divorce, th.^ first idea of which, certainly originated with him — ^the
Legantine Court which he had himself contrived — with an assistant
Legate from Rome, as he had himself suggested, brought him to his ruin.
Wolsey, says Turner, " could not believe in the possibility of his fall ;
but long dreaded by many, fall at last he did, like a loosened avalanche
from its mountain-summit of power and intimidation, never to be re
placed or dreaded any more."^^ He had " swallowed down riches," but
must " vomit them up again ; " and now that his judgment is come, and
" destruction is ready at his side,'' though " his excellency mounted up
to the heavens, and his head reached unto the clouds, he shall flee away
as a dream, and shall not be found, yea, he shall be chased away as a
vision of the night." He had indeed about one year more to live, but
this will only sink him in deeper misery and disgrace !
After this precedent, matters were precisely in that state, which both
the King and Crumwell wished. In the royal pardon now granted, there
fore, all transgressions against the statutes of provisors and premunire
were excepted.^ Not one priest was safe. All who had appeared in
Wolsey's courts, and all who had suits there were thus involved — the
whole body of the priesthood now lay at Henry's mercy ! Only it was
not yet time to proceed.
It is of importance now to observe, that before this Parlia
ment was prorogued, on the 17th of December, there was
one other measure respecting which there was no dissension
among the Bishops, nor any division between the two Houses,
and this was how to deal with the new learning come into the
land. " It had been," says Lord Herbert, " secretly admitted
into many places of this kingdom with much approbation, so
that even the most ignorant began to examine whether the
errors then ordinarily controverted, did belong to the doctrine
or thQ government of the Church." This subject, it should be
remembered, had been noticed among the " overtures of the
King's intentions," in this short session, and whether suggested
by the new Chancellor, must appear by what followed. Sir
Thomas More might smile at Tunstal's simplicity, in having
ing to his checker roll." This last may be regarded as a moderate computation, for even when
shorn of his grandeur, Wolsey's train, in travelling to York next year, amounted to 160 persons.
3t Tyndale, as quoted by Turner. 32 gee his Henry VIII., c. xx.
33 There was one curious exception, of " all those who had dug down crosses on the highway,"
— highly significant of the state of the people's mind.

1529.] AGAINST THE TRUTH. 231
purchased books at Antwerp to burn them in London, by and
bye ; but at the same time, whatever his pen or his power could
do, was now to be employed against the authors and the pos
sessors of all such publications. With his pen he had been
busy ever since he was licensed, in March last year ; and now,
as Lord Chancellor, he will enjoy the gratification of employ
ing his power, and immediately upon his entrance into ofiiee.
Sir Thomas More has certainly been fortunate, even to a
proverb, in his biographers. At once the pride and the pet
of the literary world, they have drawn his character on this
principle — that " what offends the eye in a good picture, the
painter casts discreetly into shades ;" so that any writer laid
under the necessity of bringing to light the generally concealed
features of the man, must' run the risk of being charged with
a sin against taste. It is, however, chiefly with his official
character, and as the opponent of Tyndale and Fryth, that
we have here to do. His official movements against them,
are matter of history, and as for his sentiments and feelings,
there is no necessity for calling witnesses to prove what they
were. Plentifully were they expressed by himself, through
many folio pages.
Wolsey being degraded, had the spirit of persecution rested
only in his breast as Prime-Minister, of course it must now
have abated under his successor. Notwithstanding, therefore,
the prodigious faults of the fallen Cardinal, let us enquire,
and render him impartial justice.
It must have been observed, that the criminal charges pre
ferred against Wolsey by the Lords, were presented to the
King, with More at their head ; and that the 43d article in
cluded these words, — " besides all his other heinous offences,
the said Lord Cardinal hath been the impeacher and disturber
of due and direct correction of heresies, being highly to the
danger and peril of the whole body and good Christian people
of this realm." The neglect of Warham's letter was now no
doubt remembered ; ^ but they specially referred to Wolsey's
inhibiting the Bishops who desired to repair to Cambridge, in
1523, for the correction of such errors as were said to reign
among the students and scholars there ; in consequence of
which, they now affirmed, these errors had " crept more
34 See pages 109, 110.

232 MORE AND THE BISHOPS [bOOK I.
abroad, and took greater place. "^ This was a charge which,
when the whole article is read, evidently came warm from the
heart of all the prelates who were present ;^ and Wolsey,
in various instances, certainly had not allowed them to run
riot, to the extent they demanded ; his own interests, at the
moment, forbidding the gratification of their malice. The
loftier flight of his own personal ambition had so engrossed his
mind, that the fiery and unmitigable zeal of these men must
have frequently been felt by him as an annoyance, retarding his
progress ; and now, that he is to be crushed, they were
rejoicing in hope of other days under his successor — better in
their estimation, but bitter days and nights to those who
either stood in their way, or dared to oppose them.
As it regarded, therefore, what the Bishops longed so much
to enjoy — " the direct correction of heresies," the reader will
bear in mind the embassy on which More with Tunstal had
been lately sent ; but more especially the closing treaty at
Cambray, which they had arranged and signed. It was the
first amicable arrangement of any kind, between the Emperor
and Henry, for a considerable time past.^ Charles, before
this period, had twice issued what were styled, " Placards,"
throughout his dominions, and, in fulfilment, it seems, of this
treaty, on the 14th of October he had issued a third. By
this, all those who had relapsed after abjuration, were to be
burnt — as for others, men were to die by the sword — women
to be buried alive ! All were warned against receiving any
heretic to their houses, on pain of death and confiscation of
goods ! Suspected persons were to receive no honourable
employment ; and, in order to find out heretics, one-half of
their estates was promised to informers ! ^
Was there then no echo in England to this ferocious
placard? or did More and Tunstal pay no regard to the
treaty they had signed I So far from this, the subject was
one to which both immediately bent all their energies. For
months past, indeed, the pen of More, dipped in gall, had
been busy on the subject of suppressing heresy ; arguing for
persecution unto death, in his strange and characteristic
" Dialogue ;" and the first time he opens his mouth in

3-5 See before, under 1626, p. 101. so gee Herbert, 301.
37 MS. Cotton, Galba, B. ix., 204, b., and p. 1S6. 38 Brandt, anno 1529.

1529.] IN LEAGUE AGAINST THE TRUTH.

233

Parliament as Chancellor, he has it among the overtures of
the King's intentions. His appearance in print, since the
month of June, as the determined opponent of Tyndale, had
fully shown the man, for five months before his elevation to
the Great Seal; and the spirit now displayed by him, afforded
no comfortable prospect for those who had espoused the truth,
and were promoting its diffusion at great hazard and expense.
" As soow," says Burnet, " as More came into favour, he
pressed the King much, to put the laws against heretics in
execution, and suggested that the Court of' Eome would be
more wrought upon by the King's supporting the Church,
and defending the faith vigorously, than by threatenings :
and, therefore, a long proclamation was issued out against the
heretics, many of their books were prohibited, and all the laws
against them were appointed to be put in execution, and
great care was taken to seize them as they came into England."^
The facts of the case may be more distinctly stated.
Tunstal, as well as More, must perform his part ; and War
ham also, now that Wolsey is out of the way, has no objec
tions to go all lengths with his fellows. Accordingly, before
the opening of this Parliament, the Convocation had been
summoned to meet. They did so on the 5th of November,
when at their first meeting a reformation of abuses was pro
posed ; and with that an enquiry was made concerning
heretical books. A Committee of Bishops was appointed with
relation to heretics. On the 19th of December, two days after
Parliament had risen, secrecy was enjoined, and again a second
time, on pain of excommunication, so eager were they to catch
the prey. They closed their Convocation on the 24th, or a
week after Parliament, and then came out that proclamation
which, as Foxe says, was made throughout all England, the
year of our Lord 1629, and the 21st year of Henry VIII. ;
commencing, " The King our Sovereign Lord,'''' &c. — " The
Bishops," he tells us, " were the procurers of this fierce and
terrible proclamation, devised and set out in the King's name;"
but there can be no question that the Chancellor's infiuence
was united with theirs in this matter. Indeed, the style in
several places will show, that it must have been their joint
production. More and Tunstal, no doubt, drew it up ; and
38 Burnet, edit. 1720, lib. ii., p. 159.

234 THE KING COINCIDES [BOOK I.
as the Chancellor's hand is so visible throughout, this con
sequently may be regarded as about the first of his official
papers. A few of the items must not be omitted.
" First — that no man within the King's realm, or other dominions subject
to his highness, hereafter presume to preach, teach, or inform, any thing openly
or privily, compile and write any book, or keep any school, contrary to the de
termination of Holy Church. Tliat no man willingly favour or maintain any
such person. That all persons having such books and writings deliver them
up, within fifteen days.
" Furthermore, if any person be convicted, before the Bishop or his Commis
sary, in any case above expressed, the Bishop may Iceep in prison the said
person or persons, as it shall seem best to his discretion, aud may set a fine, to be
paid to the behoof of the King, except where the said persons ought totally to
be left to the secular power.
" Also, if any person within this realm do abjure, and after their abjuration
relapse, they ought to be relinquished to the jurisdiction secular — wherein faith
is to be given to the Bishop, or his Commissary. The Sheriff of the county,
or Mayor of the city, town, or burgh, to be present at the sentence given by the
Bishop or his Commissary, and receive the said persons to further execution.
" Also, the Chancellor, the Treasurer of England, the Justice of the one Bench
and of the other, Justices of Peace, Sheriffs, Mayors, Bailies, and other officers,
shall make oath on taking their charge, to give their whole power and diligence,
to put away, and make utterly to cease and destroy, all heresies and errors
commonly called Lollardies.^ They shall assist the Bishops and their Commis
saries — shall favour aud maintain them as often as required by them.
" Moreover, the Justices of the King's Bench, Justices of Peace and of Assize,
shall enquire at their Sessions of all those that hold errors or heresies, aud who
be their maintainers, the common writers of books, as also of their schools,
sermons, &c.
" Furthermore, as all offenders ' appertain to the Judge of Holy Church and
not to the Judge secular,' they be delivered to the Bishops or Commissaries,
by indenture between them, to be made within ten days, or sooner, after
their arrest; if those persons be not indicted for other things, whereof the
knowledge belongs to the Judge secular. In which case, after they be acquitted
before the latter, that they be conveyed in safe-guard to the Commissaries,
there to be acquitted or convicted after the laws of Holy Church.
" That no person is henceforth to bring into this realm, or to sell, receive,
take, or detain, any book or work, printed or written, against the faith Catholic —
the decrees, laws, and ordinances of Holy Church — or in reproach, rebuke, or
slander of the King, his counsel, or the Lords spiritual and temporal. In case
they have any such books they shall immediately bring them to the Bishop of
the diocese, without concealment or fraud : or if they know any person having
any of the said books, they shall detect them to the said Bishop, all favour or
affection laid apart, and that they fail not thus to do as they will avoid the
King's high indignation and displeasure."
That no man might pretend ignorance, a list of the books restrained or for
bidden, specially named by the Bishops, was also published ; including ninety-

40 Luther's influence is not noticed, but certain opinions indigenous to the country.

1529.] WITH HIS PARLIAMENT. 235
four distinct tracts or books in Latin, and at least twenty-four in English, the
great majority of which were by Tyndale or his friends, \riz. —
By Tyndale. The New Testament— The Parable of the Wicked Mammon—
The Obedience of a Christian Man— Introduction to Paul's Epistle to the Ro
mans — Exposition of 1 st Cor., vii. chapter— The chapters of Moses called Genesis
— The chapters of Moses called Deuteronomy — The Matrimony of Tyndale.
By Frph. The Revelation of Antichrist, with an Epistle to the Christian
Reader. By Fyshe. The Supplication of Beggars — The Sum of Scripture.
By Roye. A Dialogue between the Father and the Son — The Satyre on Wolsey,
or Burying of the Mass. Besides various others, " Godly Prayers " — The
Psalter — Hortulus animaj, in English — The Primer, or A. B. C. against the
Clergy. &c.
" The Bishops," says Foxe, " had that now which they
would have ; neither did there lack, on their part, any study
unapplied, any stone unremoved, any corner unsearched, for
the diligent execution of the same."*^
Here, then, we have the first Royal proclamation interdict
ing printed books, and pursuing the importers, the possessors,
or authors of them to death by fire. This was one of the
first fruits of the new administration, and it marks the present
period as an era in the history of persecution for conscience'
sake ; since the government of the country, that is, the King
and his Council, were now fully committed. The only formal
public instruments hitherto issued, were the injunctions of
Warham, Archbishop of Canterbury, and Tunstal, Bishop of
London, in the close of 1526; and up to December 1529, this
persecution had been an affair of the " Spirituality" alone.
The King, it is true, had approved of what they did in 1626,
and, before then, was himself writing to the Netherlands, and
eager about the burning of books. But his name, as Sove
reign, had never, till this period, been employed to strike terror
into the hearts of his own subjects; to make heresy and treason
convertible terms, and lay the entire civil power at the feet
of the Bishops.

41 Though there be no date to this proclamation and list of books, it is not difficult to fix the
period. The 21st year of Henry ended on the 21st of April 1530, and the year 1529, by their
reckoning, ran on to the 25th of March ; consequently the proclamation framed before the 24th
of December must have been issued soon after. In the Register of Tunstal there ia a copy of
this proclamation, and then a list of books had been inserted, from whence Foxe took hia ac
count ; but as the " Practice of Prelates " is there mentioned, this must have been copied later
in the year 1530, aa that book could not possibly be in England so early as March. Foxe, how
ever, in his vague manner, is recapitulating under 1531. These proceedings are not to be con
founded with the next measure of the Chancellor and the Bishops, when the King met them
two montha after, on the 24th of May 1530, and Tyndale was held up by name, to the whole
nation, as the arch-heretic of the day.

236 SPIRIT OP PERSECUTION [eook I.
Wolsey, unquestionably, had great influence over his Ma
jesty, but he had never employed it in persuading him thus
publicly and personally to embrue his hands in the blood of
his subjects on English ground ; this was reserved to distin
guish the administration of Sir Thomas More ; so that the
chief redeeming point in the character of the lofty and over
bearing Cardinal, must stand in contrast with the greatest
blot in that of his unostentatious and learned successor.
0, when writing his Utopia, in earlier life, or, as Sir James
Mackintosh has described it, " his admirable discussions on
criminal law, his forcible objections to capital punishment for
offences against property, his remarks on the tendency of the
practice of inflicting needless suffering on animals, in weaken
ing compassion and affection towards our fellow-men," and his
extraordinary latitude of toleration as to the mind ; had any
one said to him — " I know the evil and the cruelty thou wilt
yet inflict on the people around you," — would he not have
replied, " What ! is thy servant a dog that he should do this
thing I" But now, it seems the only answer might have been,
" Thou shalt, one day, be Lord Chancellor of England," and
then  !
But before then, and only just before, he had himself al
ready given a fearful omen to his country, of what might have
been anticipated from his administration. His appearance
this year as a controversialist, must have been hailed by the
entire hierarchy, licensed or hired as he had been by high
prelatical authority ; and certainly the English language had
never been so prostituted before he took up his pen. Even
in the eulogised " Utopia" of his early days, it should never
be forgotten that he there .stood forth, more than insinuating
the lawfulness of suicide ; and now, alas, he must appear as
regarding with equal indifference the blood of others. The
proclamation already quoted, which was to be read throughout
all the land, was in him but the natural result of the senti
ments he had already expressed in print ; and now the civil
authority, from the Lord Chancellor of England down to the
lowest Bailiff of a burgh town, bound by oath, must make
official enquiry after " heretics." " The prelates," he had
already said, in print, " ought temporally to destroy those
ravenous wolves ;" they were by grievous punishment to be re
pressed in the beginning, and the sparkle well quenched, ere it

1529.] STRONGER THAN EVER. 237
was suffered to grow to over great a fire ! " But once in
possession of power, the mace as well as the pen must be em
ployed to prevent the progress of the " new learning ; " so that
if Wolsey had chastised the people with whips. More, as led
by these Bishops, seems determined to do so, with scorpions.
And what was the existing condition of this prelatical cause,
which the new Lord Chancellor was so eager to defend and
maintain ? It consisted mainly of priests, and according to
his own admission in his " Dialogue," — " he wot well that
many VI ere very lewd and naught," — but "let the priest be
never so vicious, and so impenitent, and so far from all purpose
of amendment, that his prayers are rejected and abhorred ; yet
the profit of his mass was to every one else, just as good as if
he were the most virtuous man !" And again,^ — " If the
Church say one thing, and the Holy Scriptures another thing,
the faith of the Church is to be taken as the word of God, as
well as the Scripture, and therefore to be believed." These
are a few of his own express words ; but no solitary selected
expressions can convey an adequate idea of the virulence, not
to say the verbosity, and fallacious reasoning of this writer.
It certainly would exhaust the patience of most readers, in
the present day, to wade through his folio Dialogue.
Such was, in part, the state of things in England at the
close of this year and commencement of the next. It was
purely with a view to enlighten and bless his country and to
deliver it from thraldom, that Tyndale had hitherto laboured,
assailing only what was positively sinful, and worthy of de
struction. No English writer had drawn his pen against him
till this summer, when Sir Thomas More put forth his labori
ous Dialogue. Tyndale's translation of the New Testament,
he had severely condemned, artfully approving of a new trans
lation, to meet the pressure from without, — a translation of
course by the Bishops ; one, of which Cranmer said about eight
years after this, that he had no idea of its being accomplished
" till one day after Doomsday."
No choice therefore was now left to Tyndale, but to encoun
ter this "ornament of the Pontifical chair," — "one of the great
est prodigies of wit and learning," according to Anthony Wood,
" that this nation ever before his time had produced." Tyndale,
however, entertained no fear of him, and he will not long re
main without a sufficient answer. On the whole, it is now

238 COVERDALE SENT TO HAMBURGH [bOOK I.
evident that this had been a most busy season, nor is it diffi
cult to perceive the occasion or cause of all the turmoil. For
while the " nether house of parliament," as Foxe calls it, had
been " communing of their griefs wherewith the spirituality
had before time grievously oppressed them ;" the Convocation
had been communing also, with mingled grief and indignation,
over the " new learning'''' come into the land. Some might say
that the hand of Tyndale was in all this, and in one sense it
was, but then he was not in the country. Properly speaking,
the commotion is to be ascribed to the Word of God, however
denounced, which he had translated, and sent home, to fight
its own way.
Before the close of this year, however, if we look abroad
once more, we are cheered by observing that the great cause
went on. The Grovernment at home had been absorpt in
human legislation, and confounded by its perplexities. All
the while, Tyndale had been diligent in preparing more of
the divine law for his countrymen, and it will be home pre
sently. He had been employing the press at Marburg, but
had left it himself, for Antwerp, as already explained. It
is in reference to this period that we find a statement by
John Foxe. He had already narrated the negociation at
Antwerp with Tunstal, through Packington ; but in his
story of William Tyndale, he presents the following infor
mation, under 1529 : —
" At what time Tyndale had translated the fifth book of Moses, called Deu
teronomy, minding to print the same at Hamburgh, he suffered shipwreck, by
which he lost all his books, writings, and copies, and so was compelled to be
gin all anew, to his hindrance and doubling of his labours. Thus, having lost
by that ship both money, his copies, and time, he came in another ship to
Hamburgh, where, at his appointment. Master Coverdale tarried for him, and
helped him in the translation of the whole five books of Moses, from Easter to
December, in the house of a worshipful widow. Mistress Margaret Van Em-
merson, anno 1529 — a great sweating sickness being the same time in the
town. So having despatched his business at Hamburgh, he returned after
ward to Antwerp again."
This story, though fully charged with inaccuracy, has
passed current up to the present hour ; yet is it so pointed
throughout, that there is no choice left but to concede the
fact, that Coverdale actually had sailed for Hamburgh, and
there " tarried" for Tyndale. That Coverdale may have
written to our Translator, and that he might fix a place of

1529.] TO SOUND TYNDALE. 239
meeting ; that the latter had endured distressing calamity,
and that they both met, we may admit, but little or nothing
more. If so, it is a circumstance the more to be observed,
not only because Coverdale could, as yet, render him no as
sistance whatever, as a translator ; or because this was the
first interview, and almost to a certainty the last thev ever
had ; but because there are other circumstances which will
explain the real intent and purpose of Coverdale's voyage.
The language of Foxe confirms, indeed, the truth of Tyndale
being at Antwerp in 1529, it brings him from thence, and
makes him return thither again ; but as the negociation,
through Packington, could not be before August, of course
Tyndale had not resided in Hamburgh from Easter, or April
to December. Nor is it at all likely that even Coverdale did,
though he might be in waiting. After he had disposed of his
books, that Tyndale should immediately depart from Ant
werp, was to be expected, since it could not be safe for him
to remain where he was ; not merely after such a negociation,
and after all that had occurred between John Hackett and
Mr. Harman, but more especially on account of the Em
peror's " placard " after the treaty of Cambray. Hamburgh,
too; on the contrary, was, at this moment, in a very different
state, and quite favourable for his reception.^ But to repre
sent Coverdale, at this period, as helping Tyndale in trans
lating, is preposterous, since he was not qualified to do any
thing of the kind. About two years have yet to pass away,
when we shall find him intimate to Crumwell, that he had
then only " begun to taste of Holy Scripture," and was then
only " set to the sweet smell of holy letter ;" but that to
the knowledge of " holy and ancient doctors, he could not at
tain, without diversity of books." " They once had," he
would sit down, and do Crumwell's pleasure. Then as for the
idea of Tyndale himself now only " translating the five books
of Moses," it will appear presently, or in the opening of next
year, to be a mere fiction. Whatever assistance Tyndale had
received in preparing the Pentateuch, was derived from Fryth.
What, then, could possibly be the object of Coverdale's

42 Pomeranus, or John Sngenhagius, waa there. A scholar and a gentleman, distinguished
among the Germans for his meel^ness and humility ; he had come by invitation of the citizens,
whose freedom of thinliing demanded a judicious adviser in reference to their profession of
Christianity. In 1525, he had written to the saints in England, and in him Tyndale might find
an intelligent friend. — See Bathe's Hist. <if Hamburgh.

240 TESTAMENT, FIFTH EDITION. [bOOK I.
voyage ? We have only to advert to the state of England,
and observe' how far Tyndale had already proceeded. Wolsey'' s
pursuit after heretics had terminated in December last year,
and throughout the present, the kingdom was in a state of
transition as to its rulers. Tyndale's masterly exposure of
" the Practice of Prelates," and his triumphant " answer to
Sir Thomas More's Dialogue," had not yet appeared. Two
Lords Chancellor, in succession, were before him, and, for the
sake of divine truth, both of them must be met, next year.
At this moment, therefore, a different course was about to be
tried with Tyndale, which we shall see followed up after
wards. The first object, then, was to induce our Translator
to return into England ; so that if Coverdale now actually
proceeded to Hamburgh, it could only be to present to Tyn
dale the first tender of a professedly different style of policy.
Crumwell, as we have seen, had succeeded in gaining entire
ascendancy over Coverdale ; and, at this critical moment, it
was of no small importance to ascertain, whether Tyndale
was a practicable man. At all events, Coverdale returned to
England, and Tyndale went on his way. At the same time,
it ought to be noticed, that we have no confirmation of this
meeting between these two men, by a single hint or expres
sion from Tyndale hinjself; nor any other authority than
that of Foxe ; nay, it is curious enough, that in the whole of
Tyndale's or of Fryth's writings, whatever was the cause, we
have not the shadow of a reference to Coverdale, more than if
he had never existed !
In conclusion of this year, we have been, and will con
tinue to be, cautious of admitting into these pages any loose
conjecture. But after all that we have read, it would be
difficult to believe that the Antwerp press had stood still,
either last j'ear or the present. An edition of Tyndale's
Testament has been long assigned to about this period,
though we are not able to fix it, by adducing such curious evi
dence, as in preceding cases. Hackett, however, as early as
May 1527, has hinted at as many as 2000 having been for
sale at Frankfort ; and Joye affirms that the Dutch, as he calls
them, had printed it a third time. We may, therefore, with
all safety, put down another, or the fifth edition, to 1529.
It is quite possible that there might have been one last year,
as well as this ; but, at all events, Tyndale himself will re
print his Testament next year.

1530.] TVNDALE'S PROGRESS. 241

SECTION VII.
tyndale's progress in the old testament  PRACTICE OP PRELATES —
STATE OP ENGLAND  WOLSEy's PINAL RUIN, SICKNESS, DEATH  PERSE
cution goes on  king and prelates denounce the scriptures 
Latimer's bold remonstrance — new testaments burnt — another,
THE sixth edition — VIGOROUS IMPORTATION — ^DEATH OP S. PTSHE.
We have come to a more noted period in our Translator's
eventful life. From the variety and importance of his pub
lications which had now appeared in print, it is evident that
the past and the present had been years of great and incessant
activity on his part ; nor were his opponents less active. The
bench of Bishops, now headed by the civil power, were firmly
leagued together, and arrayed against him. Considering all
that Tyndale already knew, it is quite apparent from his
writings, that he had, long before this time, been prepared in
spirit for martyrdom. Eesolved to tell the whole truth, and,
as far as he knew, nothing but the truth, his path lay right
before him. When pressed out of measure, he might and did
seek for quiet and safety, that he might pursue his work ; but
he was of one mind — and no peril, no prospect of danger, could
turn him. Depending on the sword of the Spirit for success,
and feeling, as he had translated, that " the wrath of the God
of heaven appeareth against all ungodliness and unrighteous
ness of men, who withhold the truth in unrighteousness," he
must have resolved to suppress nothing, or sooner " die upon
his shield," — a better than that of the ancient warrior, because
the shield of faith.
Tyndale's translations of the five books of Moses were soon
in circulation through his native country. His treatise en
titled " The Practice of Prelates," was also this year in
England ; and his " Answer to the Dialogue of Sir Thomas
More," will follow. After disposing of Wolsey and the pre
lates in general, he had taken up the production of Wolsey's
successor in office. Two Lords Chancellor against one poor
expatriated Exile, might seem to be fearful odds, but time
will show who gained the victory.
That portion of the Sacred 'Volume now sent into England,
has frequently been referred to by previous authors, as being
VOL. 1. Qt

242 THE OLD TESTAMENT. [boOK I.
"the first edition of Tyndale's Pentateuch;'''' but that this is
incorrect, will at once appear from the following collation.
Genesis, in black letter, 76 leaves, with this colophon at the end, — " Emprented
at Marlborow, in the land of Hesse, by me, Hans Luft, the yere of our Lorde,
M.D.xxx., the xvii dayes of Januarii." Exodus, in roman letter, 76 leaves ;
Leviticus, roman letter, 62 leaves ; Numbers, in black letter, 67 leaves ; Deuter
onomy, in roman letter, 63 leaves. There is a separate title and a prologue to
each book ; at the end of Genesis, Exodus, and Deuteronomy, and at the be
ginning of Numbers, are tables expounding certain words. There are a few
notes in the margins, and throughout the whole, ten wooden cuts. There is no
colophon or date, except that already given, attached to Genesis. From all this,
but especially from inspection, it is evident that these five books were printed
at separate presses ; Genesis for certain, and probably Numbers, at Marburg.
Deuteronomy, and for aught we know. Exodus and Leviticus, at Hamburgh.
That they were circulated at first, separately, in England, is evident, because
they were thus distinctly denounced ; first. Genesis and Deuteronomy, and then
the whole five books, but still distinctly noted. At the same time, when the
whole were finished, Tyndale meant them to be bound together, as he then
printed a general preface, which may have led to the popular description of
" the Pentateuch, first edition."
The rarity of these five books, entire, is almost equal to that of the first
octavo New Testament of 1 525. Only one perfect copy is known to exist, which
once belonged to Mr. Wilkinson, and is now in the library of the Right Hon.
Thomas Grenville. The next best copy, as it has been completed, in the finest
fac-simile, from the preceding, once belonged to Mr. Tutet. It was purchased
at the sale of his books, by the late Mr. Heber, and from his collection by Mr.
Grenville ; who only seems to have parted with it, on obtaining his present
unique perfect book. We know not what the perfect copy cost, but this second
was advertised for sale in 1836, by Thorpe of London, at fifty guineas. Little
did Tyndale imagine that, at the distance of more than three centuries, the
labour of his hands would be so highly estimated.
Besides these two, all the other copies known to exist, are incomplete. That
in the Museum at Bristol, wants the book of Genesis ; that in Zion College, pre
sented by Mr. Lewis, the book of Deuteronomy, and besides, the marginal notes
are cut off, as directed by Act of Parliament in January 1643 ! The copy in
the British Museum wants the first and last and two other leaves ; the one at
Cambridge is also imperfect. In the Bodleian library at Oxford, there is a
beautiful copy of Genesis alone.
Tyndale's next publication was "The Practice of Prelates ;"
and, as far as it regards the subjects introduced, as well as the
manner in which they are handled, it is, in some respects, the
most remarkable of all his controversial writings. More than
ever bent upon the emancipation of his country from mental
bondage, he longed to see the thrmie established in righteous
ness ; but he could entertain no hope of this until the power
behind it, which had risen above the throne itself, was laid
prostrate. " If that King of the grasshoppers," said he,

1530.] PRACTICE OF PRELATES. 243
" which devoureth all that is green, were destroyed ; then
were the kingdom of our caterpillars at an end." In his able
exposure of this noxious system, he explains it to his readers,
in one place, by the following graphic parable : —
" To see how our holy Father came up, mark the ensample of an Ivy tree.
First, it springeth out of the earth, and then a while creepeth along by the
ground, till it findeth a great tree : then it joineth itself beneath alow' unto the
body of the tree, aud creepeth up a little and a little, fair and softly. And at
the beginning, while it is yet thin and small, that the burden is not perceived,
it seemeth glorious to garnish the tree in winter, and to bear off the tempests
of the weather. But in the mean season, it thrusteth roots into the bark of the
tree, to hold fast withal ; and ceaseth not to climb up, till it be at the top, and
above all. And then, it sendeth his branches along by the branches of the tree,
and overgi'oweth all, and waxeth great, heavy, and thick ; and sucketh the
moisture so sore out of the tree and his branches, that it dioaketh and stifleth
them. And then the foul ivy waxeth mighty in the stump of the tree, and be
cometh a seat and a nest for all unclean birds, and for blind owls which hawk
in the dark, and dare not come at the light.
« Even so the Bishop of Rome, at the beginning, crope along upon the earth,
and every man trod upon him in this world. But as soon as there came a
Christian Emperor, he joined himself unto his feet, and kissed them, and crope
up a little with begging, — now this privilege, now that, — now this city, now that ;
to find poor people withal and the necessary ministers of God's word. — And the
alms of the congregation, which was the food and patrimony of the poor and
necessary preachers, that he called St. Peter's patrimony, — St. Peter's reuts, —
St. Peter's lands, — St. Peter's right ; to cast a vain fear and superstitionsness into
the hearts of men ; that no man should dare meddle with whatsoever came once
into their hands, for fear of St. Peter, though they ministered it never so evil ;
and that they which should think it none alms to give them any more, (because
they had too ranch already,) should yet give St. Peter somewhat, to purchase an
advocate and an intercessor of St. Peter ; and that he should, at the first knock,
let them in.
" And thus, with flattering and feigning, and vain superstition, under the name
of St. Peter, he crept up and fastened his roots in the heart of the Emperor ;
and with his sword climbed up above all his fellowships, and brought them under
his feet. And as he subdued them with the Emperor's sword, even so, by sub-
tility and help of them, after that they were sworn faithful, he climbed above
the Emperor and subdued him also ; and made him stoop unto his feet, and kiss
them another while. Yea, CoelestiDus crowned the Emperor Henry the Fifth,
holding the crown between his feet. And when he had put the crown on, he
smote it off with his feet again, saying — that he had might to make emperors
and put them down again."
Then, " he made a constitution, that no layman should meddle with their
matters, nor be in their councils, or wit what they did ; that the pope only
should call the council, and the empire should but defend the pope, provided
alway, that the council should be in one of the pope's towns, and where his
power was greater than the Emperor's. Then, under a pretence of condemn
ing some heresy, he called a General Council, where he made one a patriarch,
^ The converse to our aloft.

244 PRACTICE OF PRELATES. [bOOK 1.
another cardinal, another legate, another primate, another archbishop, another
bishop, another dean, another archdeacon, and so forth, as we now see.
" And as the Pope played with the Emperor, so did his branches and his mem
bers, the bishops, play in every kingdom, dukedom, and lordship ; insomuch,
that the very heirs of them by whom they came up, hold now their lands of
them, and take them for their chief lords. Aud as the Emperor is sworn to the
Pope ; even so, every king is sworn to the Bishops and Prelates of his realm ;
and they are the cbiefest in all Parliaments. Yea, they and their money, and
they that be sworn to them, and come up by them, rule altogether.
" And thus, — the Ivy tree hath under his roots, throughout all Christendom,
in every village, holes for foxes, and nests for unclean birds, in all his branches,
— and promiseth unto his disciples all the promotions of the world."
But it was when, in the same publication, he came down to
what he styled " the practice of our time," and " the cause of
all that we have suffered these twenty years," that Tyndale's
powerful sentences were so deeply felt. Other men, before this
year was done, might sing a requiem over the grave of Wolsey,
but before he died, this despised and unpatronised exile had al
ready exposed to public view his entire policy ; and withal, so
ably, that it is still quoted by the best of our historians. By
Burnet and Strype in former times ; by Turner and Tytler in
our own day.
Wolsey, it is true, we shall soon see, was descending to the
tomb, but what did that signify ? Sir Thomas More, had just .
come into power. He had opened the first Parliament which
had been held for years, and with what was said to be, an elo
quent oration. What then must have been his surprise and
regret, if not his indignation, to find the man whom he had
laboured to overwhelm by his sophistry, and all the quip and
merry turns in his Dialogue, reviewing this very session of
Parliament, and the first bills that were passed under his ad
ministration ? Exposing the proceedings as only so many
strokes of policy, Tyndale showed that they had been merely
clearing away the brushwood, or lopping the branches of a tree,
which would grow,' again, while it ought to have been uprooted
from the soil of Eiigland. " The root yet left behind, whence
all that they have for a time weeded out, will spring again, by
little and little, as before ; if they, as their hope is, may stop
this light of God's word that is now abroad. These few last
words show the soul of our Translator. The authority of the
Divine word, was, in his mind, paramount to every other con
sideration, and this was the cause of his now speaking out so
boldly ; but it certainly was no common proof of talent and of

1530.] PRACTICE OP PRELATES. 245
an enlarged mind, that so early after Parliament rose, Tyn
dale should be able to send such a publication into England ;
embracing, as it did, not merely the corruption of past ages
traced to its source, but the national doings of the day, down
to the end of March in the present year, if not later. Glan
cing, too, at what he styles " the blasphemies of More in his
Dialogue," he reserves himself for a full answer before long.
And « whence," said he " cometh all this mischief? 'Verily, it is the hand of
God, to avenge the wantonness of great men, which will walk without the fear
of God ; following the steps of the high prelates, contrary to their profession ;
and to avenge also the wrongs, the blasphemies and subtle persecuting of his word."
One of the latest eulogists of Sir Thomas More is Sir
James Mackintosh, and a more able and fascinating pen could
not have been employed ; but in his just indignation at the
brutality of Henry in putting More to death, and his warm
admiration of the Chancellor, he is not the first who has shot
rather beyond the mark. " He was," says he, " the first Eng
lishman who signalised himself as an orator, the first writer of
a prose which is still intelligible, and probably the first layman
since the • beginning of authentic history, who was Chancellor
of England."^
It is not improbable that Sir James had never thought of
looking into the pages of More's opponent in controversy.
Tyndale's prose, however, in one sense, it must never be for
gotten, has been read in Britain ever since, and that too "every
Sabbath day ;"'fbr notwithstanding all the confessed improve
ments made on our translation of the Bible, large portions in
almost every chapter still remain verbally the same as he first
gave them to his country. In this, it is true, he was merely a
translator, but then the style oi his translation has stood the
test of nearly ten generations. It has been their admiration
all along, and it will continue to be admired while the lan
guage endures.
But independently of his translation, the purity of his na
tive language was maintained by Tyndale in as high a degree
as by any of his contemporaries. We have already given one
specimen from his present publication. And even as to his

2 Hist, of England, ii., p. 179. To such an ahle judge, the " oratory" may he conceded ; hut
as for lay Chancellors there had heen at least six before Sir Thomas More. The last had been
Sir Thomas Beaufort, under Henry IV., but authentic history had certainly begun long before
then. The clerical Lords Chancellor since, form an index to ecclesiastical power, now on the
decline. The "intelligible prose" must ho noticed above.

246 PRACTICE OF PRELATES. [^BOOK I.
opponent, it may safely be questioned, if in the wide compass
of More's controversial writings there is one passage to be
compared with the following, whether as to pathos or simple
beauty. It was abundantly intelligible in the year 1530, it
must have gone with a knell to the heart of the King's new
adviser, and it will speak for itself, even now. It is the
solemn appeal of Tyndale to his King and Country, after
Parliament and the Bishops had drawn the sword of perse
cution from its sheath, and placed it, naked, in the hands of
their Sovereign.
" I beseech the King's most noble grace, therefore, to consider all the ways
by which the Cardinal and our holy bishops have led him, since he was first
King ; and to see whereunto all the pride, pomp, and vain boast of the Cardi
nal is come, and how God hath resisted him and our prelates, in all their
wiles. We, having nothing to do at all, have meddled yet in all matters ; and
have spent for our prelates' cause, more than all Christendom, even unto the ut
ter beggaring of ourselves ; and have gotten nothing but rebuke, and shame,
and hate, among all nations ; and a mock and a scorn thereto, of them whom
we have most holpen. For the Frenchmen of late days, as the saying is, made
a play or disguising at Paris, in which the Emperor danced with the French
King, and wearied them, the King of England sitting on a high bench and look
ing on. And when it was asked, why he danced not, it was answered, that he
sat there but to pay the minstrels their wages only ! As who should say, we
paid for all men's dancing !
" Aud I beseech his Grace also, to have mercy on his own soul, and not to suf
fer Christ and his Holy Testament to be persecuted, under his name any lon
ger, that the sword of the wrath of God may be put up again, which for that
cause, no doubt, is most chiefiy drawn.
" And I beseech his Grace to have compassion on his poor subjects, which
have ever been unto his Grace, both obedient, loving, and kind ; that the
realm utterly perish not, with the wicked counsel of our pestilent prelates. For
if his Grace, which is but a man, should die, the Lords and Commons, not know
ing who hath most right to enjoy the crown, the realm could not but stand in
great danger.
" And I exhort the Lords temporal of the realm, that they come and fall be
fore the King's Grace, and humbly desire his Majesty to suffer it to be tried,
who of right ought to succeed, aud if he or she fail, who next, yea, and who
third. And let it be proclaimed openly. And let all the Lords temporal be
sworn thereto, and all the Knights, and Squires, and Gentlemen, and the Com
mons above eighteen years old, that there be no strife in the succession. For
if they try it by the sword, I promise them, I see none other likelihood, but that,
as the Cardinal hath prophesied, it will cost the realm of England.
" And all that be sworn unto the Cardinal, I warn them yet once again, to
break their oaths, as I did in ' the Obedience.' And all my Lord Cardinal's
privy secretaries and spies, by whom lie worketh yet, I warn them to beware be-
time.3 My Lord Cardinal, though he have the name of all, yet he wrought
3 Thus Tyndale was not improbably the first to inform his country of what turned out to be
tho fact, that in 1S30 Wolsey was forming conspiracies against the government, both in England
and with Heme, to revenge his fall. See Harl. MS. No. 296, p. 38. Halle, p. 773. Turner's
Henry VIII. chap. xxv.

1530. J PRACTICE OP PRELATES. 247
not all of his own brain ; but of all wily and exercised in mischief, he called
unto him the most expert, and of their counsel and practice, gathered that
which most seemed to serve his wicked purpose.
" And all that be confederate with the Cardinal, and with the Bishops, upon
any secret appointment, be they never so great ; I rede them to break their
bonds, and to follow right by the plain and open way, and to be content, and not
too ambitious ; for it is now evil climbing, the boughs be brittle. And let them
look well on the practice of Bishops, how they have served all other men in
times past, and unto what troubles they have brought them that were quiet.
Many a man, both great and small, have they brought to death in England,
even in my days, beside in time past, whose blood God will seek once. Let
them learn, at the last, that it is but the cast of the Bishops, to receive the
sacrament with one man, secretly upon one purpose, aud with another man,
as secretly upon the contrary, to deceive all parties. For of perjury they make
as much conscience as a dog of a bone ; for they have power to dispense with
all things, think they. — And unto all subjects I say, that they repent ; for the
cause of evil rulers is the sin of the subjects, as testifieth the Scripture ; and
the cause of false preachers is, that the people have no love unto the truth, —
2 Thess. ii. — We be all sinners, an hundred times greater than all that we suf
fer. Let us, therefore, each forgive the other, remembering, the greater sinners
the more welcome, if we repent, according to the similitude of the riotous Son.
For Christ died for sinners, and is their Saviour, aud his blood their treasure to
pay for their sins, — and his merits, that goodly raiment to cover the naked
deformities of our sins.
" These be sufficient at this time, although I could say more, and though
other have deserved that I more said : yea, and I could more deeply have en
tered into the practice of our Cardinal, but I spare, for divers considerations, —
and namely, for his sake which never spared me, nor any faithful friend of his own,
nor any that told him truth ; nor spareth to persecute the blood of Christ, in as
clear light as ever was, and under subtle colour of hypocrisy, as ever was any
persecution, since the creation of the world."
Thus did Tyndale prove, that he was intimately acquainted
with all that was going on in England, up to the moment of
his publication, as well as able to give sound advice ; an evi
dence of such talent that Sir T. More could not but recognise
it, two years afterwards, though he aifects to despise the
writer. "Then," says he, "have we ' the Practice of Prelates,'
wherein Tyndale had wente to have made a special show of his
high worldly wit ; and that men should have seen therein that
there was nothing done among princes, but that he was fully
advertised of all the secrets ; and that so far forth, that he
knew the privy practice made between the King's highness,
and the late Lord Cardinal, and the reverend father, Cuthbert,
then Bishop of London, and me."* A facetious vein of style
4 The idea which Sir 'I'homas would very fain turn to ridicule was this,— that Wolsey, in bow
ing, as we have found him do, to the storm which burst upon him, did so, with some lingering
hope of restoration to favour or power in some way or other ; and certainly nothing was more
likely, even supposing that there was no secret understanding between any parties.

248 PRACTICE OF PRELATES. [bOOK I.
continued to be the favourite mode of Sir Thomas. Perhaps
he preferred it for effect, or saw no necessity for any other ;
but Tyndale was ever in earnest, to the end.
" And, finally, if the persecution of the King's Grace, and of other temporal
Lords, conspiring with the Spirituality, be of ignorance, I doubt not but that
their eyes shall be opened shortly, and they shall see, and repent, and God
shall show them mercy. But, and if it be of a set malice against the truth, and of
a grounded hate against tite law of God by the reason of a full consent they have
to sin, and to walk in their own ways of ignorance ; whereunto, being now past
all repentance, they have utterly yielded themselves, to follow with full lust,
without bridle or snaffle, which is the sin against the Holy Spirit : then, ye
shall see even shortly, that God shall turn the point of the sword, wherewith
they now shed Christ's blood, homeward to shed their own again, after all the
ensamples of the Bible.
" And let them remember that I, well toward three years agone, to prevent
all occasions and all carnal beasts that seek fleshly liberty, sent forth ' the true
Obedience of a Christian,' which yet they condemned, but after they had con
demned the New Testament as right was, whence the Obedience hath his au
thority. New, then, if when the light is come abroad, in which their wickedness
cannot be hid, they find no such obedience in the people unto their old tyranny,
whose fault is it ? This is a sure conclusion : any obedience that is not of love,
cannot long endure ; and in your deeds can no man see any cause of love :
and the knowledge of Christ, for whose sake only a man would love you, though
ye were never so evil, ye persecute. Now, then, if any disobedience arise, are
ye not the cause of it yourselves I Say not, but that ye be warned."
As far, therefore, as intelligent and skilful, though pungent,
warning could go, Tyndale had thus nobly done his duty. He
had fully exposed the once aspiring Cardinal, now sinking into
ruin, and the enormous expense entailed on the country by
his tortuous administration ; he had faithfully warned his
Sovereign, and put the country on its guard, as to the state
persecution, which, we have seen that the new Chancellor as
well as the prelates had advised. Few men, if indeed any
one of that age, could have written such an exposition of the
times, as Tyndale had just given ; and yet his labour for this
year was not at an end. He had commenced his reply to Sir
Thomas More's Dialogue, and in the printed edition of his
works it is said to have been made in 1530 ; but as it certain
ly did not appear in print till next year, we defer till then say
ing more of a production which Henry the VIII. was so eager
to see, that a part of it at least was actually written out, bv
his Envoy in Brabant, and sent him for perusal before its pub
lication. This, too, as we shall find, was done without Tyn
dale's knowledge, and it is mentioned now simply as a proof

1530.3 STATE OF ENGLAND. 249
of his powerful influence, as well as the interest attached to
any thing which might come from his pen.
Upon returning to England, before we advert again to the fiery op
position of the hierarchy, and the decided progress in the cause of truth
notwithstanding all, two individuals demand notice. First, the King,
and then Wolsey, his fallen minister.
Cranmer must soon have felt that he had entered into the service of
an impetuous and impatient Master ; and, whatever were his own
opinions, it is strange if he did not see also, a very licentious one.
His treatise once finished, in the beginning of this year, no time was
to be lost in making use of it, abroad, as well as at home. And now
the greater part of 1530 was to witness the strange spectacle, of an
English monarch consulting all Europe, respecting the legitimacy of his
marriage, with a Queen to whom he had been united above twenty
years, and the possibility of his being separated from her. A spectacle
the more glaring from the manifest purpose of the King, as well as the
steps taken to efiect it. The Pontiff, and the Emperor, and the foreign
Universities, were all to be moved on the question. Charles remained
firm on the one side, and Henry on the other, while, with regard to the
Universities, as well as learned individuals, money was about to be em
ployed on both sides, as well as other means.' Such was the sphere in
which Cranmer first moved.
So early as December last. Sir Thomas Boleyn, Drs. Lee, Stokesly,
Cranmer, and various others, had been deputed by Henry to obtain the
attestation of foreign Universities in favour of his wishes ; these opinions
being intended to affect the Lords and Commons in Parliament, as well
as the rest of his subjects, many of whom were still decidedly opposed.
Sir Thomas Boleyn, however, must first be created Earl of Wiltshire and
Ormond ; when he and his party were instructed to repair first to the
Pontiff, then to Charles V. at Bologna, and there plead the cause.
Upon their arrival, with the long wonted ceremony of hissing the Pope's
foot, compliance was declined or omitted ; most probably the fi/rst

5 As to money having been employed, there can be no question, however anxious Burnet was
to diminish the amount. Any one who turns over only one volume in the British Museum,
Vitellius, B. xiii., will be fully satisfied on this point. " I doubt not," says Dr. Croke in one
letter, " but all Christian Universities, if they be well handled, will earnestly conclude with your
Highness ;" but then again, " Caesar, hy threats, prayers, money, and sacerdotal infiuence,
terrifies our friends, and confirms his own."
c " Henry," says Lord Herbert, " wrote letters with his own baud to (Ghinucci) the Bishop
of fp'orcester, and Sir Gregory Casalis, then at Bologna, that he had sent Sir Thomas Boleyn,
newly created Earl of Wiltshire and Ormond,^with John Stokesly and Edward Lee, as his am
bassadors to the Emperor, and that they should advise together what was to be done." Tho
letters were dated 8th Dec. 1529 ; and Burnet adds, that " Cranmer went with them, to justify
his book in both these Courts. This Jerome de Ghinucci, once Auditor of the Apostolic
Cliamber, was the same man who, in 1518, summoned Luther to appear at Rome within sixty
days. He was afterwards, as already stated, made Bishop of Worcester, of which he was de
prived four years after this, on tho ground of his not residing in England. He had never seen it."

250 THE ROYAL DIVORCE [bOOK I.
instance for many hundred years, and it is curious enough that it should
have fallen to the lot of Lady Anne's father. To send him, however,
on such an errand, was, to say the least, a strange and indelicate pro-
ceediog ; and, accordingly, it exposed him to the cutting irony of the
Emperor, who was still at Bologna, since his coronation on the 24th of
February. After intimating to the Earl his repugnance to receive, in such
a case, a party so interested as himself, Charles said that " he was resolved
not to abandon his aunt, the Queen of England, whose cause was that of
truth and justice, and whom he was bound in honour to defend." The
Earl could only reply, " that he attended not as a father, but as his
Sovereign's minister ; and that no ill-humour from his Spanish Majesty
would prevent the execution of what Henry intended."^ .
As for Clement, he was, at first, more cautious, but, in the end, to
oblige Charles, by the 7th of March he issued an order, commanding
Henry, during the process, to treat Catharine as his wife, and not to
marry another ; informing him that he had been cited to appear before
the Consistory at Rome, where " he would hear the matter disputed, and
according to right do justice." Nor could any other reply be given by
one who was simply a prisoner at large, and could act only as the
Emperor dictated. Lord Wiltshire and Dr. Lee returned home by way of
Paris, but Stokesly went on to Padua, and Cranmer to Rome itself, where
he remained for months ; but where, however, Clement took care never
to hear bim '' dispute the matter." By way of empty compliment,
indeed, he gave to Cranmer the title of " Penitentiary for all England."
It was only strange that he should accept it ; but if this was the first,
it would have been well had it been the last of those inconsistencies
which remain attached to him. In history, however, to palliate or
conceal the defects in any character, would be to rob posterity of all
its benefit.
It may easily be imagined, that all this was a great deal too much for
the heated impatience of the English Monarch ; and had his subjects
only been now ready to have gone along with him, it is almost certain that
he would not have waited for any foreign party. While, therefore, the
Bishops were brooding over fresh measures, and still stronger, as we
shall explain presently, with regard to the destruction of the Scriptures,
a very different subject engrossed the cogitations of Henry; and it
seems not at all improbable, some will say evident, that he actually had
gone so far as he did, with their measures, in order to secure more fully
their concurrence with his ovm, immediately afterwards. This was an
address, by way of intimidation, to Clement. The opinions of certain
foreign Universities, and of learned individuals, in favour of Henry's
separation, were arriving, and, by the month of June, this letter or
7 Bishop of Tarbe's letter, in Le Grand.

1530.] ONCE MORE. 251
address being ready, it was to be sent off" as soon as signatures could be
obtained. The Pontiff' was here very pointedly informed, that if he de
layed longer what they styled justice, some other remedy would certainly
be tried. The reader, of course, has not forgotten that the idea of
Henry himself being " Head of the Church," had already been suggested
by Crumwell, and that it had taken full possession of his mind ; but his sub
jects were not, as yet, prepared for such a step ; though the hierarchy and
all its dependences lay at his feet, as they are to feel, in time convenient.
The signatures to this document are of some importance, as affording
some light with regard to Henry's critical situation at the moment.
After Wolsey's degradation and banishment from the court, for months,
one should not have supposed that hia name would have been regarded
as any ornament ; but then it might stiU have great weight at Borne, and
here it stands at the top of the list. Though so late in the year, nothing
positive seems as yet to have been suspected of him. At aU events, so
eager was the King to have the Cardinal's name, that Brereton, one of
his privy counsellors, and Wriothsley, King-at-Arms, were sent down
from London ; and arriving at Wolsey's on the I6th of June, he was
raised out of his bed, near the dead of the night to sign this letter, that
they might reach the Earl of Shrewsbury before the morning.^ But
though the Cardinal of York had subscribed, here we find only four
Bishops ; Longland of Lincoln being the only one of eminence.^ As for
others, they took part with the Queen. Fisher, West, and Standish
were of her council ; and Tunstal, though formerly with the King, seems
to have so far changed his opinion. The number of Abbots might seem
to compensate for this, as they had great influence, and were very
wealthy ; but had they, by this time, only suspected that the dissolution
of monasteries was so near, assuredly there had not been so many of their
signatures. We look in vain for the new Lord Chancellor's name.
Eighty-one signatures were ultimately obtained.'"
This letter was not long despatched, before Wolsey's artful proceedings
had excited apprehension ; nor was the influence of Catharine, at the
Court of Rome, undreaded. As a precautionary step, something more
must be done than merely wait for any reply to this menacing epistle.
On the 1 6th of September, therefore, a proclamation was issued "pro-
8 See the graphical account of this in Cavendish's life of Wolsey, by Singer, vol. i., p. 252.
Wolsey signed with great good will apparently, but most probably as a blind, "and gave each of
them four old sovereigns of gold, desiring them to take it in gree" (good will) " saying that ifhe
had heen of greater ability, their reward should have been better." But they were not contented,
and Cavendish was far from being pleased with their accepting the money "so disdainously."
9 The other three were Sherburn of Chichester, Kite of Carlisle, and Rawlins of St. Davids.
10 Namely— The two Archbishops, four Bishops, and twenty-two Abbots, two Dukes, two
Marquises, thirteen Earls, twenty-five Barons, eleven Knights and Doctors, or about fifty laymen
out of eighty-one. Herbert and Turner date this letter on the SOth of July, and represent it as
proceeding from the Lords and Commons in Parliament. But there was no Parliament sitting,
as Burnet has remarked, and the letter was sent about for signature. Ho also asserts that the
letter bears date the 13th, which is most probable, as the King was gathering signatures by the
roiildle of June. The name of Sir Thomas More, though Lord Chancellor, is not subscribed here.

252 WOLSEY'S FINAL RUIN. [^BOOK I.
hibiting any person to purchase from Rome, to publish or divulge any
thing, heretofore within this year past purchased, or to be purchased
hereafter, prejudicial to Henry's royal prerogative, or to the hindrance
of his noble, virtuous, and intended purposes !" Such a step could not
pass unheeded. " It was," says Halle, " much mused at, and every word
of the same well noted. Some said it was made because the Queen had
purchased a new Bull, for the ratification of her marriage ; others said,
it was made because the Cardinal had purchased one, to curse the King,
if he would not restore him to his old dignities, and suffer him to correct
the Spirituality, and he (the King) not meddle with the same." It
was no doubt an effectual stop-gap against both parties ; but " this last
conjecture," Halle adds, " sounded most like the truth ;" and the sequel
will show how far it was correct or well grounded.
It was in these circumstances that the once aspiring Cardinal was fast
approaching his tombless grave, and so far from restoration to his " old
dignities," he was soon to bid farewell, — "a long farewell to all his
greatness.'' Whatever were the misdemeanours with which Wolsey had
been charged in the close of last year, Henry, on the 12th of February,
had granted him a free pardon, assigned to him a liberal donation,
amounting in money and moveables to above £6000 sterling ; and had
left him in possession of the revenues of Winchester and York.
From Esher he had removed to Richmond park, in March, and from
thence, ultimately took up his abode at Oawood Castle, twelve miles from
York. StUl, however, it was not in Wolsey's nature to remain passive
under disgrace. He was gaining most effectually on the hearts of the
people, carrying himself to all ranks, as Shakspeare said, "sweet as
summer ; " and thus there seems to be too much reason to believe, laying
a train by which he might influence, if not overawe the King. The first
suspicions of Wolsey's policy and proceedings, appear not to have come
to a point till the very time when this proclamation was issued ; but
even as early as the I8th of August, Crumwell, in about the last letter he
ever wrote to him, had warned him very seriously of their existence.
" Sir, some there be that doth allege that your Grace doth keep a great
house and family, and that ye are continually building. For the love of
God, therefore, I again, as I ofierUimes have done, most heartily beseech
your Grace to have respect to every thing ; and, considering the time, to
refrain yourself, for a season, from all manner (of) building, more than
mere necessity requireth ; which, I assure your Grace, shall cease, and
put to silence some persons that much speaketh of the same." He then
adds significantly, — " In my opinion, your Grace being as ye are, I sup
pose ye would not be as ye were, to win a hundred times as much as ever
ye were possessed of.""
11 Wolsey's Correspondence iu the Chapter House, vol. iii,, No. 08.

1530.3 WOLSEY'S FINAL RUIN. 253
In short, as his secret movements in England, and his correspondence
with Rome were detected, he was arrested for high treason by the Earl
of Northumberland and Sir Walter Walsh, and ordered up to London
for trial. By various historians it has been supposed, that this step was
adopted with the view of rendering Wolsey more conformable to the di
vorce. But had he not subscribed the threatening address to Clement ?
and except it was actually found out that this was only a stroke of policy,
how could he seem more conformable ? He was arrested on Friday the
4th of November, and on the 6th he was upon his way to London ;
the very day he had fixed for his being enthroned at York, as Arch
bishop. "The Lords of Norfolk and Suffolk have told me," said
the Freuch^ambassador, in writing to his court on the 10th of November,
" that they have many important matters against him, and many grave
accusations ; and among these, as the King informed me, that he has
been machinating against his Majesty, both in the kingdom and abroad ;
and has mentioned to me where and how ; and that one of his own
servants had discovered it, and laid the accusation. These new things
much aggravate the old ones. I greatly lament his misfortune, but
cannot remedy it."'^
Wolsey professed himself to have no fear, but he could not disguise
it ; the shock was unexpected at the moment, and he soon sunk under
it ; for though he set out on his journey in safe keeping, he could move
no farther than Leicester Abbey. The most melancholy feature of his
dying hour was, that he literally expired with the language of a persecu
tor on his lips. Addressing himself to Sir William Kingston, the Con
stable of the Tower, whom Henry had sent down to convey him, he said :
— " Well, well. Master Kingston, I see the matter against me, how it is
framed ; but if I had served God as diligently as I have done the King,
He would not have given me over in my grey hairs. I pray you, with
all my heart, to have me most humbly commended unto his royal
Majesty. And say furthermore, that I request his Grace, in God's name,
that he have a vigilant eye to depress this new sect of Lutherans, that it do
not increase within his dom,inion,s through his negligence, in such a sort,
as that he shall be fain at length to put harness upon his bach to svhdue
them;" and after exhausting himself by a long harangue in the same
style, referring to Wiohliffe and Sir John Oldcastle, he closed with these
words, — "from the which mischief, God, of his tender mercy defend us !
Master Kingston, farewell. I can no more, but wish all things to have
good success. My time draweth on fast. I may not tarry with you.
And forget not, I pray you, what I have said and charged you withal :
for when I am dead, ye shall peradventure remember my words much

12 Le Grand 3, p. 529. This was evidently the language of sympathy and regret, — it was that
of his former friend and inmate, Giovanni Joacchino Passano, commonly called Joachin, and
afterwards Seigneur de Vaux, originally a Genoese merchant.

254 WOLSEY'S ILLNESvS, AND DEATH. [boOK I.
better." "And even with these words," adds Cavendish, "he began to
draw his speech at length, and his tongue to fail ; his eyes being set in
his head, his sight failed him."
He had arrived at this Abbey only on Saturday evening, and now
breathed his last, at eight o'clock on the morning of Tuesday, the 29th
of November. The body was dressed in his robes, and in less than
twenty-two hours committed to the grave ; for by six o'clock on Wednes
day morning. Cavendish, his confidential servant, and the other parties,
had left for London.
Thus the man who had been literally clothed in purple or scarlet and
fine linen, and fared sumptuously every day, — having daily in his hall
three special tables spread for his principal officers ; who had the highest
nobility for his household servants ; his steward, treasurer, and comp
troller in waiting, with their white robes, as in the King's palace ; his
master-cook, in damask satin, with a chain of gold round his neck ; with
hundreds of individuals, of various ranks, in daily attendance on his
person : This man who had a most penetrating judgment, in consequence
of a well furnished mind ; — who had raised himself from humble rank to
the highest degree of power, of wealth, and of worldly dignity, which
had ever been enjoyed by any English subject ; — who had not only
governed England for the space of twenty years, but infiuenced the most
important affairs of Europe ; and during that period, had been courted,
flattered, caressed, by the Kings of the civilized world ; — this man
dies, not merely in obscurity, but disgrace ; and though the charge
of high treason hung over him unrefuted, with his last breath he
enforces persecution ! !
In vain had he for years, been preparing for himself a monument of
brass, of exquisite workmanship and at great expense. He may be buried
in an abbey, but the very grave will, before long, be so treated, that no
man in England shall be able afterwards to point to the spot where his
bones were laid ! Since 1524, or in other words, for the las six years
of his prodigious power, though uncertain whether he should be interred
in Italy or England, Wolsey had been preparing for posthumous glory.
" He had begun," says Lord Herbert, " a monument for himself long
since, (wherein, as appears by our records, he had not omitted his own
image), which one Benedetto, a statuary of Florence, took in hand in
1524, and continued till 1629, receiving for so much as was already done
4250 ducats ; the design whereof was so glorious, that it exceeded far
that of Henry the Seventh. Nevertheless, dying in this manner. King
Henry made use of so much as he found fit, and called it his. Thus did
the tomb of the Cardinal partake the same fortune with his college, as
being assumed by the King."
Wolsey was the man with whom the dissolution of monasteries origirv-
ated, employing Crumwell as one subordinate agent ; and it is a singular

1530.] HIS GRAVE UNKNOWN. 255
fact, that he had thus laid the train for his final resting-place being very
soon disturbed. In less than seven years after this, and by this same
Crumwell's authority, his servant and successor, Leicester Abbey was dis
solved — the very place where Wolsey was now interred, had been be
reaved of all its ornaments and plate, its lead and bells ; and the visitors
were only waiting one word from Crumwell to deface the buildings."
A hundred years after this, Corbet, the Bishop of Norwich, supposing
he had found the spot, in his own uncouth rhyme, exclaims : —
" And though from his own store Wolsey might have
A Palace or a College for his grave, —
Yet here he lies interr'd,— as if that all
Of him to be remember'd, were his fall.
Nothing but earth to earth, nor pompous weight
Upon him, but a pebble or a quoit."i4
About the year 1716, the very place of interment could not be ascer
tained. " That great lover of antiquity. Brown Willis, Esq.," says Carte
the English historian, " having an extraordinary veneration for Cardinal
Wolsey as the original founder of Christ Church in Oxford, desired me
to try if I could find out the sepulchre of the Cardinal, which I did,
hoping that when I had provided tools and labourers, some others would
have contributed with me to the expense ; but finding that only one
person would contribute twelve-pence, I desisted."
"In the year 1787," says the Cambridge Chronicle of the 2d of June,
" as a labourer was digging for potatoes upon the spot where the high
altar was supposed to stand, he found a human skull, with several other
bones, all perfect. From the situation of the place, and other circum
stances, it was conjectured, at the time, that this might be the identical
skull of Wolsey ! "
Thus, when he died, he carried nothing away, neither did his glory
descend after him. Perhaps there never was another instance in the
history of this country, which reminds one so strongly of that "great
power " which the King of Israel said he saw " spreading like a green
bay tree, — yet he passed away, and lo, he was gone : yea, I sought him,
but he could nowhere be found ! " Monuments, indeed, he left behind,
which stUl remain as proofs of his taste in that age, as well as of his pro
digious wealth ; nor is the nation, even at this moment, entirely free of
a peculiar influence, which, as Vicar-Oeneral, he first imparted to Henry
the Eighth. This will be explained hereafter, when once Crumwell has
stepped into his shoes, as the second, and far more influential, but the
last Vicar-General.
The virulent opposition now manifested to Tyndale's trans
lation of the Scriptures, and his other writings, it will be un-
13 Cotton MS. Cleop. E. iv. fol. 21.5. " Corbet's Northern Journey.

256 PERSECUTION GOES ON. [book I.
derstood, could only refer to his publications before this year ;
so that what we are now going to relate, may be regarded as
no slender testimony to their powerful effects upon his native
country. As for the " Practice of Prelates," as soon as it be
gins to be known and felt, we shall find other measures resort
ed to, besides that of denunciation in England,
The first person who excites notice in 1530, was that poor
old and blind, literally blind man, the Bishop of Norwich once
more. He felt sorely annoyed by the circulation and effects
of these English books. Three years ago, he had contributed,
with great good will, towards the purchase made by Warham,
of Tyndale''s New Testaments, — a vain expedient, as might
have been anticipated, to prevent their getting into the hands
of the people. But he was as warm in the cause as ever, and
his own words will best display the spirit with which he was
agitated, though now in the eightieth year of his age ! His
letter is addressed, as before, to his friend, the Archbishop.
" After most bumble recommendations, I do your Grace to understand, that
I am accumbered with such as keepeth and readeth these erroneous books in
English, and believe and give credence to the same, and teacheth others, that
they should so do. My Lord, I have done that lyeth in me for the suppression
of such persons ; but it passeth my power, or any ' spiritual' man for to do it.
For divers saith openly in my dioeess, that the King's Grace would that they
should have the said erroneous books, and so maintaineth themselves of the
King.T'i Whereupon I desired my L. Abbot of Hyde,l6 to shew this to the
King's Grace, beseeching him to send his honourable letters, under his seal,
down to whom he pleases in my dioeess ; that they may show aud publish that
it is not his pleasure, that such books should be had or read, and also punish
such as saith so. — The said Abbot hath the names of some that cracketh in the
King's name, that their false opinions should go forth, and will die in the quar
rel ; that their ungracious opinions be true ; and trusteth by Michaelmas day
there shall be more that shall believe of their opinion, than they that believeth
the contrary. If I had known that your Grace had been at London, I would
have commanded the said Abbot to have spoken with you ; but your Grace
may send for him, when ye please, and he sliall show you my whole mind in
this matter, and how I thought best for the suppression of such as holdeth
these erroneous opinions ; for if they continue any time, I think they shall
UNno us ALL !
" The said Abbot departed from me on Monday last ; and sith that time I

'5 This may seem strange,— but it is by no means unaccountable. The reader may call to
mind the anecdote respecting " The Obedience," p. 219. Henry waa a strangely capricious being,
saying one thing to day, and doing another to-morrow. Any of his loose expressions of favour
would be eagerly caught up, and often repeated, so that nothing was more likely to follow than
the impression of which Nix here complains. But ere long the Lords of Parliament, led on by
the Bishops, will try to fix his Majesty, and make the royal trumpet give a certain sound.
16 John Salcot, alias Capon, D.D. Abbot ot Hyde, who was made Bishop of Bangor afterwards
at Croydon by Cranmer I9th April 1534, when ho surely must have professed other sentiments.

1530.] THE KING AND THE PRELATES. 257
have had much trouble and business with others in like matters ; as they say,
wheresomever they go, they hear say, that the King's pleasure is, the New Tes
tament in English shall go forth, and men should ham it, and read, it. And,
from that opinion, / can by no means turn them, but (except) I had greater au
thority to punish them than I have. Wherefore, I beseech your good Lord
ship to advertise the King's Grace, as I trust the said Abbot hath done before
this letter shall come unto your Grace, that a remedy may be had.
" But now it may be done well in my dioeess ; for the gentlemen and the
commonality be not greatly infected ; but merchants, and such that hath their
abiding not far from the sea. The said Abbot of Hyde can shew you of a
Curate, aud well learned, in my dioeess, that exhorted his parishioners to be
lieve contrary to the Catholic faith. There is a College in Cambridge, called
Gunnel Hall, of the foundation of a Bishop of Norwich. 17 I hear of no clerk
that hath come out lately of that College, but sa/ooureth of the frying-pan,
though he speak never so holily.18
" I beseech your Grace to pardon me of my rude and tedious writing to you :
the zeal and love that I owe to Almighty God cause me this to do ! And thus
Almighty God long preserve your Grace in good prosperity and health. At
Hoxne, the xiiii day of May 1530, Your obediensary and daily orator." 19
But there was no occasion for this miserable old man being
so urgent. Little did he know how deeply Warham and his
brethren were impressed with the impending danger, if these
books were not seized and burnt. The highest authorities
were now all alive to the perils of the hierarchy. For some
time, the united strength of the most able opponents in the
kingdom — Lord Chancellor More, Warham, Tunstal, and
Gardiner, had been employed in framing an authoritative list
of all the heresies detected in Tyndale's writings, with a de
nunciation of them all. Tyndale's name, too, in connexion
with his New Testament and Pentateuch, was now still more
distinctly branded, even by royal authority. These prelates
and their assistants had contrived to find out about two hun
dred heretical sentences in only six publications, of which one
hundred and seven were charged upon " Tyndale and Fryth."
" All which great errors and pestilent heresies, being contagious and dam
nable, with all the books containing the same, with the translation also of
Scripture corrupted by William Tyndal, as well in the Old Testament as in the
New, and all other books in English contaimog such errors ; the King's Highness
present in person, by one whole advice and assent of the Prelates and clerks, as
well of the Universities, as of all other assembled together, determined utterly
to be repelled, rejected, and put away out of the hands of his people, and not
to be suffered to get abroad among his subjects."
17 Referring to Gonvill, now Gonville and Caius College.
18 These men seem to insinuate that they literally smelt a heretic, for it was a cant phrase
among them. West, the Bishop of Ely, applied it to Dr. Barnes. Indeed, a similar style was
as old as the days of Chaucer — " / smell a LoUer in the wind."
19 Cotton MS., Cleopatra, E. v., fol. 360.
VOL. 1. R

258 THE KING AND BISHOPS [bOOK I.
After this followed a long " Bill in English to be published by the Preachers,"
that his Highness' pleasure and determination should be known in " all his
Realm." From this it is worth while to quote a few significant sentences and
phrases, as some index to the virulence of the whole —
" Wherefore, you that have the books called — ' The Obedience of a Christian
Man— the Sum of Scripture — the Revelation of Antichrist — the Supplication of
Beggars — Mammon — the Matrimony of Tyndale — the New Testament in Eng
lish, of the translation that is now printed,' and such other books in English —
detest them — dbhor them — keep them not in your hands — deliver them to the supe
riors, such as call for them : And if by reading of them heretofore, any thing re
mains in your breast of that teaching, either forget it, or, by information of the truth,
expel it. This you ought to do ; and being obstinate, the Prelates of the Church
ought to compel you ; and your Prince to punish and correct you, not doing the
same. Finally, it appeared that having of the whole Scripture is not necessary
to Christian men ; and like as the having of the Scripture in the vulgar tongue
and iu the common people's hands, hath been by the Holy Fathers of the Church
iu sometimes thought meet and convenient, so, at another time, it hath been
thought not expedient to be communicate amongst them. Wherein, forasmuch
as the King's Highness, by the advice and deUberation of his council, and the
agreement of great learned men, thinketh in his conscience that the divulging
of this Scripture, at this time, in the English tongue, to be committed to the
people, should rather be to the farther confusion and destruction, than the edi
fication of their souls. And it was thought there, in that assembly, to all and
singular in that congregation, that the King's Highness, and the Prelates, in so
doing, not suffering the Scripture to be divulged and communicate to the people
in the EngUsh tongue, at this time, doth well. ' And / also think ' (was the
preacher to say) ' and judge the same ; exhorting and moving you, that in con
sideration his Highness did there openly say and protest, that he would cause
the New Testament to be by learned men faithfully and purely translated into
the English tongue : to the intent he might have it in his hands ready to be
given to his people, as he might see their manners and behaviour meet, apt,
and convenient to receive the same.' "
At the close it is said, " his Grace's Highness being in person in the Chapel
called the Old Chapel, which sometime was called St. Edward's Chamber, sat
on the east side of the Parliament chamber, within his Grace's Palace at
Westminster, upon the 24th day of May, the year of our Lord 1530, and in the
twenty-second year of our reign. And then and there, iu the presence of all
the personages there assembled, required three Notaries to make public and
authentic instruments, and set to thereunto our seal accordingly." The Notaries
attesting were Thomas Ashley, Richard Watkyns, and Matthew Grafton ; the
last of whom had been frequently employed by Tunstal in 1 528.
This original document, closely written on eight skins of
parchment, may still be seen in the Library at Lambeth
Palace.^" At the end there is an array of twenty names,
pointing out the most noted persons present on this occasion,
to which they add, " with many more learned men of the said

20 It is engrossed in Warham's Reg. fol. 188, and in Wilkins, vol. iii., p. 727. Tho heresies,
falsely so called, are well answered by Foxe ; and the " Bill to be published by the Preachers,"
is given by Collier, without abridgment.

1530.] DENOUNCE THE SCRIPTURES. 259
Universities, in a great number assembled, then and there
together witness to the premises required and adhibited."
But although the language employed was no doubt intended
to convey the idea, it by no means follows, that they indi-
mdually assented ; far from it. A minority there was, we
know from other sources, though we cannot give their names.
More and Warham, Tunstal and Gardiner, the framers of the
whole, besides others, of course cordially approved of every
word ; but Hugh Latimer was among the number present, and
this has perplexed or misled more critics than one.^' Perhaps
he had no business to be there, however anxious to know what
was going on ; but the occasion of his being in such bad
company admits of explanation, after which he will appear in
his noblest character.
Latimer had been preaching, ever since he saw Wolsey at
Whitehall, and before then he had argued for the Scriptures
being given to all. For some time, also, before the present
period, it had been in his favour, that his old opponent, West,
the Bishop of Ely, took part with Queen Catherine, and was
one of her Advocates. Henry, eager to have the assent of
the University of Cambridge to his divorce, had sent down
Dr. Butts, the physician, to promote this object. Latimer,
whatever may be said, approved of the divorce, and, therefore,
so pleased if not aided the Doctor, that he invited him to ac
company him to London. Introducing him to the King, he had
been oflSciating before him at Windsor in the month of March.
In the afternoon of Sunday the 27th, while Latimer was
preaching, the Vice-Chancellor of Cambridge, Dr. William
Buckmaster, arrived with the University's letters for his Ma
jesty .^^ The King was not altogether satisfied with their de
cisions, but Latimer was already high in favour. " At after
noon," says Buckmaster himself, " I came to Windsor, and
also to part of Mr. Latimer's sermon, and after the end of

21 One of these, Henij Wharton, under the assumed name of Anthony Harmer, was very
severe. In his criticisms on Burnet, he says, " Latimer was one of those divines, who, (being
deputed by the University of Cambridge,) joined with Archbishop Warham, and other Bishops
and divines, in condemning all English translations of the Scripture ; and solemnly subscribed
this determination, the publication of the H. Scripture in the vulgar tongue, is not necessary to
Christians; and the King's Majesty and the Bishops do well in forbidding to the people the common
use of the H. Scripture in the English tongue. This was done in the year 1530." Wharton ought
to have known better than this. No one subscribed but the three Notaries. Latimer was not
deputed by the University. But more than this, the whole representation is not only incorrect,
but the reverse of the truth.
22 Not Dr. Edmonds, as erroneously stated by some writers.

260 LATIMER TO THE KING. [bOOK I.
the same, I spake with Mr. Secretary — and so after even
song I delivered our letters in the chamber of presence, all
the Lords beholding. His Highness gave me there great
thanks, and talked with me a good while. But by and bye,
he greatly praised Mr. Latimer's sermon, and, in so praising,
said on this wise : ' This displeaseth greatly Mr. Vice-Chan
cellor yonder. Yon same,' said he unto the Duke of Norfolk,
' is Mr. Vice-Chancellor of Cambridge,' and so pointed to
jjjg -"23 ijij^g jjg^^ jg^y.^ after another conversation with Henry,
the King having told him that he would have their final and
a better decision, Buckmaster was dismissed home after Easter;
but Latimer still remained, and continued preaching.
Meanwhile, Warham's party were already sitting in council
at Westminster, and Latimer, not having left London, was
present among others, on the 24th of May, but his account of
the meeting afterwards was this. Eeferring his Majesty to that
very day, he tells him, "As concerning your last proclamation,
prohibiting such books, the very true cause of it, and chief coun
sellors were they, whose evil living and cloaked hypocrisy these
books uttered and disclosed. And howbeit that (although)
there were three or four that would have had the Scripture to
go forth in English, yet it happened there, as it is evermore
seen, that the most part overcometh the better ; and so it
might be that these men did not take this proclamation as
yours, but as theirs, set forth in your name ; as they have
done many times more, which hath put this your realm in
great hindrance and trouble, and brought it in great penury."
These proceedings, says Burnet, were printed in June, but
when once they were sent forth through the country, so far
from having assented to them, they proved the urgent motive
to one of the noblest acts of Latimer's varied life — his well
known letter to Henry the VIIL, of this year. The words
already quoted are taken from it, and though it be an antici
pation, by way of despatching all we require to say of Latimer
at present, a few sentences more will explain his views and
feelings, as to these Bishops and their doings.
" Your Grace," says he, " may see what means and craft the Spmtuality (as
they will be called) imagine to break and withstand the acts, which were made
23 MS. c. c. c. Burnet's Reform, iii., app. p. 23, ed. 1716.

1530.3 LATIMER TO THE KING. 261
in your Grace's last Parliament, agahist their superfluities. Wherefore they
that thus do, your Grace may know them not to be true followers of Christ." 24
Alluding then to the results of this proclamation, he goes on to say, " There
fore pleaseth it your good Grace, to return to this golden rule of our Master
and Saviour Jesus Christ, which is this, ' by their fruits ye shall know them.'
For where you see persecution, there is the Gospel, and there is truth ; and
they that do persecute, be void and without all truth ; not caring for the clear
light which ' is come into the world,' and which shall utter and shew forth every
man's works. And they whose works be nought, dare not come to this hght,
but go about to stop it and hinder it, letting (obstructing) as much as they may,
that the Holy Scripture should not be read in our mother tongue, saying that it
would cause heresy and insurrection ; and so they persuade, at the least way they
would fain persuade, your Grace to keep it back. But here, mark their shameless
boldness, which be not ashamed, contrary to Christ's doctrine, to gather figs of
thorns, and grapes of bushes, and to call light darkness, and darkness light,
sweet sour, and sour sweet, good evil, and evil good, and to say, that that which
teacheth all obedience, should cause dissension and strife. But such is their
belly wisdom, wherewith they judge and measure every thing, (in order) to
hold and keep still this wicked Mammon, the goods of this world which is their
God ; and hath so blinded the eyes of their hearts, that they cannot see the
dear light of the Sacred Scripture, though they babble never so much of it.
"But as concerning this matier, other men have showed your Grace their
minds, how necessary it is to have the Scripture in English. The which thing also
your Grace hath promised by your last proclamation : the which promise, I
pray God that your gracious Highness may shortly perform, even to-day before
to-morrow. Nor let not the wickedness of these worldly men detain you from
your godly purpose and promise.
Nor was Tyndale's New Testament, or even the Pentateuch only arrived this
year, forgotten on this occasion. " For what marvel is it," says he, " that they
being so nigh of your Council, and so famihar with your Lords, should provoke
both your Grace and them to prohibit these books, which before, by their own
authority, have forbidden the New Testament, under pain of everlasting damna
tion ? For such is their manner ; to send a thousand men to hell, ere they send
one to God : and yet the New Testament, and so I think by the other, (the
Pentateuch or the old) was meekly offered to every man that would and could,
to amend it, if there were any fault." Thus repeating to Henry the precise
language of our Translator, though now so denounced by name.
Even the Lord Chancellor More was not spared. " And take heed whose
counsels your Grace doth take in this matter. For there be some that for fear
of losing their worldly worship and honour, will not leave their opinion ; which
rashly, and that to please men withal, by whom they had great promotion, they
took upon them to defend by writing, so that now they think that all their felicity,
which they put in this hfe, should be marred, and their wisdom not so greatly
regarded, if that which they have so slanderously oppressed, should be now put
forth and allowed.
" Wherefore they be sore drowned in worldly wisdom, that think it against
their worship to acknowledge their ignorance : whom I pray to God that your
Grace may espy, and take heed of their worldly wisdom, which is foolishness
before God : that you may do that which God commandeth, and not that which
seemeth good in your own sight, without the Word of God : that your Grace

2^ The acts in reference to mortuaries, pluralities, and non-residence, at the close of 1529.

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

1530-3 NE^ TESTAMENTS CONSUMED. 263
and there were openly burned."^^ That Tunstal was acting
for Stokesly, till his return from the Continent, and recording
what was doing in the diocese till then, is evident from several
documents at the close of his Eegister.^®
There was, however, a great difference between the effects
of this burning, and that in the year 1526. Then the people,
generally, were not aware of the value of what they saw con
sumed : but it was far otherwise now^ and this alone ys a proof
that the cause of Divine Truth, which the Bishops would
2fi Strype, and several other writers, erroneously have ascribed this burning of books to
Stokesly, as he was then Bishop of London elect, but all this was Tunstal's doing alone. Stokesly
was then in Italy, as already noticed. Tunstal had been translated to Durham, by a bull dated
18th Feb. 1530, and confirmed to that See on the 25th of March. — Bymer, xiv. p. 364. Before
his removal, it may be added, he had bestowed much money in furnishing a library in Cam
bridge, both of printed books and manuscripts; but the printed Scriptures in EngUsh, with
other good books, he had separated for destruction, and most cordially would he act for Stokesly,
till he came home. Wood in one place represents Stokesly as installed on the 19th of July,
but this he could not be. In June he was at Bologna, very busy in Henry's service, and there
is a despatch from him as late as 23d Se^terahex.— Herbert, p. 329. Probably he did not arrive
in England for some time after this, as he was not iustalled Bishop of London till the 20th of
December.— food's Fasti. And hence it is, that, when he consigned Bayfield to the flames,
on the 20th Nov. 1531, he dates it " ihe Jirst jeax of our consecration."
26 One of these documents has rather perplexed some inspectors of the Register. It is the
bull of Leo the Tenth, against Luther and his doctrines, though dated as far back as 1520, which
has been formally copied and inserted in 1530. The fact is, that in most of these ancient
Registers, from that of Baudake, beginning in 1306, down to that of Compton in 1700, there are
various instruments to be found, bearing date before the time of their respective Bishops. Some
cause, in the Bishop's estimation, called for the exhibition of the original document, and hence
its insertion at a later period, even though not recorded at the time. Without attention to this,
the most ridiculous blunders may be committed. Thus, here we have a bull, though dated in
1520, inserted ten years later, or immediately after certain proceedings against Dr. Edward
Crome in 1530, and before others against Latimer. But this insertion is highly significant, and
the mystei7 admits of an easy solution. It is notorious that Tunstal and Sir Thomas More were
at once zealous and united in the persecution of men called heretics, as well as violently opposed
to the hooks they had published ; the Bishop's famous license to Sir Thomas also preceding this
document : and though Tunstal saved his own head, no one Bishop was more slow in the admis
sion of Henry's assumed supremacy, so that we shall find him hesitating even next year.
Both these men persecuted, without the King's writ, and Tunstal being thus busy for years,
preferred at this juncture, the bull of Leo, as the ground and warrant of his proceedings, to that
of Henry's sanction as " Head of his Church." It will be recollected that neither Tunstal's nor
More's name were affixed to the letter sent to the Pontiff.
This view is strengthened, or rather confirmed, by a list, or column of names, written on the
last leaf of this copy of the bull. There are nineteen foreigners, beginning with Luther and his
adherents, and three Englishmen, or Tyndale, Brightwell, and Roy. These are the names
of those very authors whose books had been proscribed and condemned in 1530. The transla
tions, expositions, and tracts, of at least fifteen, out of these twenty-two living writers, " im
ported into the City of London," had just heen condemned, as given hy Foxe. In this list of
names we observed the ink to be faded, and therefore it had been written afterwards, but, by
internal evidence, not long after. Thus, the three Englishmen, who are placed by themselves,
last in the list, and marked Angli on the right, are " Willmus Tyndall, Willmus Roy, Apostata,
Ricus Brightwell." Here Roy alone is distinguished as apostate, he alone being b. friar, and
belonging to the Monastery of " Grenewyche," as marked on the left, and agreeably to the in
formation furnished by Tyndale himself, in his first edition of the " Wicked Mammon." But
the last appellation, Brightwdl, being that which was afBxed by Fryth to his first publication,
" the Revelation of Antichrist in 1539," shows that " Richard Brightwell" was still supposed to
be the real name of some person. This fixes tho time of writing to about 1531, at the latest.
The strangely mistaken use made of this list, in a recent sketch of Tyndale, occasioned a reviewer
in the Christian Observer of 1836 no little research, without his being able to arrive at any
distinct solution. The length of this note may therefore be excused. Another instance of an
old document copied into this Register, and in connexion with one of the men who finally ap
prehended Tyndale, will occur afterwards, in its proper place.

264 NEW TESTAMENTS IMPORTING. [boOK I.
fain have crushed, was making decided progress. This burning
" had such an hateful appearance in it, being generally called a
burning of the Word of God, that people from thence concluded,
there must be a visible contrariety between that book, and the
doctrines of those who handled it; by which both their prejudice
against the clergy, and their desire of reading the New Testa
ment was increased.^
In corroboration of this statement, it is certain that neither
the purchase at Antwerp, nor the burning at Paul's Cross,
had any effect on the importations into this country, except
the reverse of what was intended and desired by the enemy ;\
and before long Tunstal himself was fully sensible of this.
" Afterwards," says Halle, " when more New Testaments
were imprinted, they came thick and threefold into England,
the Bishop of London," (now of Durham,) " hearing that still
there were so many, sent for Augustine Packington, and said
to him — ' Sir, how cometh this, that there are so many
New Testaments abroad, and you promised and assured me
that you had bought alir Then, said Packington — ' I
promise you, I bought all that then was to be had; but I
perceive they have made more since, and it will never be better,
as long as they have the letters and stamps ; therefore, it were
best for your Lordship to buy the stamps too ! and then you
are sure.' The Bishop smiled at him, and said — ' Well,
Packington, well ;' and so ended the matter."
And so, perhaps, ended the device of purchasing books in
order to burn them ; but it will not be long before we find these
enemies proceed to men themselves, and, with a bitter zeal,
still more inflamed, consign them to the fire ; for very soon after
this, seizing and burning men instead of their productions, or
the books in their possession, became the order of the day.
But it is with books we have now to do, and there is no doubt
that while Wolsey was descending to the devouring grave,
and the Bishops, with the King at their head, were imagin
ing a vain thing, the printing press was as busy as ever.
Another edition of Tyndale's New Testament was executed
this year, and it is the more worthy of notice, that there ap
pears to have been a positive connexion between him and it.
The author is perfectly aware that the edition of 1 534, has
-1 Burnet.

1530.] DEATH OF SIMON FYSHE. 265
been styled the second genuine edition of Tyndale, but so
many mistakes have been detected already, that one need not
feel any surprise if this should prove another.
It has, indeed, been often stated, that with the money
received from Tunstal, Tyndale reprinted the New Testament,
and Hamburgh has also been mentioned as the place where
one edition was printed. Tyndale had, as we have seen,
gone to Hamburgh, and there is no evidence to be found of his
having returned to Antwerp during the whole of this year.
But whether it was executed in Hamburgh or elsewhere, of
his having now printed an edition, though he had no time as yet
to revise the version, there can be little or no doubt. Foxe, and
Strype, and Tanner, expressly assign this edition to Tyndale,
the last stating Marburg as the place of printing. But there
are corroborating circumstances as to the book itself. It is
not till the close of this year, or rather the following spring,
that we hear of Tyndale having a brother, and resident in Lon
don ; and if the records of the Star Chamber are to be received
as evidence, it is there distinctly stated, that he " sent the
Testaments, and divers other books, to his brother, John
Tyndale, a merchant in London." This impression, too, has
been pronounced to be more correct than the Antwerp editions,
at least so said the late Bishop Tomline : and when we come
to John's apprehension and appearance before Sir Thomas
More, as well as the importations by Eichard Bayfield, little
doubt will remain as to this reprint coming from the original
translator, although he had not found leisure as yet to im
prove the translation.
About the end of this year an incident occurred, which
may seem unaccountable, as out of keeping with the usual
current of events ; were it not that the capricious temper of
the monarch admitted both of words and actions, directly at
variance with each other. Mr. Fyshe, the author of " the
Supplication of Beggars," we found had been in London
in the summer of 1526, as well as in 1528 ; and, according
to his wife's representation, in Foxe, " he had been absent
now the space of two years and a-half." His tract, as we
have seen, had interested Henry, when first he saw it in
1526 ; and this excellent woman having gained access to the
King, he engaged that her husband should " come and go
safe, without peril, and that no man should do him harm,"

266 TYNDALE'S PROGRESS. Qbook I.
if she brought him to the royal presence. Emboldened by
the King's words, she went and brought him. His Majesty
conversed with him, it is said, for above three hours, and, in
the end, desired him to take his wife home, for she had taken
great pains for him. Fyshe had fled formerly for fear of the
Cardinal, and now he replied — " he durst not so do, for fear
of Sir Thomas More the Chancellor, and Stokesly the
Bishop of London." The King, taking the signet from his
finger, recommended him to the Lord Chancellor, charging
him not to molest him. More received the signet as a
sufficient safe-guard, of course, but enquired if he had any
discharge for his wife ? She had displeased the friars, by
not allowing them to say their Grospels in Latin in her house,
as they did in others, and insisted that they should say them
in English. Next morning, More actually sent his man for
her, but her young daughter being sick of the plague, pre
vented his approach, as well as any farther molestation.
Within six months after this, Mr. Fyshe himself died of the
same disease, and was interred in St. Dunstan's, the very same
chwrch where Tyndale had been accustomed to preach in 1523.
The Chancellor, in his loose and mendacious style, represented
him as recanting before he died, of which there is not the
slightest evidence. His widow was afterwards married to a
gentleman of the same profession as her first husband, Mr.
Baynham, of whom we shall hear before long.^^

SECTION VIII.
FOBMIDABLE OPPOSITION  PURSTTIT APTBB TYNDALE BY THE KINO AND
OBUMWELL — STILIi IN VAIN — TTNDALE'S ANSWEE TO SIR T. MORE  EPIS
TLE OF JOHN EXPOUNDED  JONAH, WITH A PROLOGUE  CRITICAL STATE
or ENGLAND  RENEWED PERSECUTION  BROTHER OE TYNDALE  BILNEY
 BAYEIELD  MANY BOOKS IMPORTING  CONSTANTYNE CAUGHT  ESCAPES
—PERSECUTION ABROAD  POWERFUL REMONSTRANCE FROM ANTWERP
WITH CRUMWELL, INCLUDING THE KING AND THE LORD CHANCELLOR.
The principal feature of the present year was that of deter-
S8 See Wood's Ath. by Bliss, i., p. 59-60, and Foxe's " Story of Simon Fyshe." The latter is
full of mistakes as to years, a not unusual fault, but the substance of his narrative often supplies
the corrective. Foxe traees the hand of Anne Boleyn in this transaction, and this is not im
probable. But, at the same time, it is particularly worthy of remark, that the incident took
place just at the period when Henry had received the noble letter of Latimer already referred
to, and it may be allowed to have produced some temporary impreasioo. Surely it must.

1531.] GOVERNMENT PERSECUTION. 2(57
mined opposition to Divine truth, abroad as well as at home ;
for although one man had been raised up by Grod to lead on
the faithful, unquestionably it was truth alone which occa
sioned all the uproar, not the opinions of men. And as to
our native land especially, if we should still farther discrimi
nate, it was through the Book of Cod, in our native language,
that Divine truth now penetrated into the heart of this country.
Last year had witnessed the Eoyal denunciation of our Trans
lator by name, as well as all that he had then published ; but
since then, by his " Practice of Prelates," he had advanced
one step farther, in combating the darkness and superstition
which covered the land. That tract had been read by men of
every grade, from the palace itself, down to the hamlet ; by
citizens of London, and husbandmen in Essex, in Suffolk, and
elsewhere. Here he had not only implored, but warned the
King to beware of persecution, and faithfully gave his judicious
opinion with regard to the divorce ; that miserable question
still in discussion throughout Europe. By this year, however,
Henry had nearly got this question framed, according to his
own liking, and as he was soon to bring it before Parliament,
he must have felt incensed by Tyndale's reference to its pro
ceedings, not to say that the next would lie open to a second
review. Besides, Sir Thomas More had but lately come
into office, and he, with the Bishops, had cordially concurred
in advising persecution, having secured the royal name to
sanction and enforce their measures. The safety of Tyndale,
therefore, was now in far greater hazard, than it ever had
been in the days of the Cardinal. Wolsey had been roused
from his lair, chiefly by the Satyre of Eoye, and his chase
of the prey had ended with his own downfall ; but the truth
and good sense contained in Tyndale's last production, was
like a spur by far too sharp for the passions and the pride of
such a man as Henry the Eighth. His anxiety to seize
the man, or allure him into the kingdom, will be found to
harmonise with the growing ferocity of his character. Tyn
dale's escapes, during this year, must have illustrated the ten
der care of a gracious Providence; but the mystery now is, how
he had contrived to make such progress at the press. Yet
once engaged he had determined not only to maintain his
ground, but advance in the prosecution of his great enterprise.
This year was, therefore, distinguished by the appearance of not

268 PURSUIT AFTER TYNDALE RENEWED. [boOK I.
fewer than three distinct pieces. His answer to Sir Thomas
More's Dialogue ; his Exposition of the First Epistle of John;
and his translation of the Prophet Jonah, with a long preface
or prologue.
The annoyance and persecution of Tyndale personally, how
ever, preceded the appearance of any of these pieces, and it is
due to their contents that this should first be noticed. De
nunciation of the Scriptures, and of all that he had published,
would now no longer suffice. The King was incensed, and be
fore the summer of this year, would have dealt with anything
of Tyndale's, as Jehoiakim did of old with Jeremiah's roll.
The Priests of the day also, as in the case of another ancient
Prophet, had thought of the man, if not said, — " the land is
not able to bear all his words." The strong arm of power must
be stretched out to reach him if possible, and, no doubt, there
were not a few who imagined, that his days were now numbered.
Amidst all other affairs, the apprehension of Tyndale at this
period, held a place in point of importance, which has never be
fore been fully explained. It would certainly be too severe, to
ascribe all the measures adopted to Henry alone, even though
he should appear most conspicuous, and engaged in eager pur
suit, through the instrumentality of three, if not four, indivi
duals ; for still the head and hand of Sir Thomas More, and
the hearts of the Bishops, sanctioned all ; but it will be far
more melancholy, if Crumwell, so lately come into power,
should appear to be a most willing agent, and even Cranmer,
for many a day, nay, throughout the whole of Tyndale's life
time, evince no sympathy whatever !
The Government persecution of our Translator, which had
now commenced, lends a peculiar emphasis to every page he
had already emitted, but more especially to the publications
of the present year.
In December last, the aunt of Charles, Lady Margaret, or
Eegent of the Low Countries, had died, and the Emperor
had nominated his sister, Mary, Queen of Hungary, to suc
ceed. She, however, did not assume the reins of govern
ment till October of this year. Whether this interregnum
was deemed favourable to the apprehension of Tyndale, is not
distinctly expressed ; but certainly no time was lost in tak
ing advantage of it ; and it was during this season that he
was next so keenly pursued. Hackett, who is already well

1531.] PURSUIT AFTER TYNDALE RENEWED. 269
known to the reader, returned to England after Lady Mar
garet's decease, bearing a letter, dated 3d January 1531, from
the Emperor to Henry ; ^ but he was sent abroad again that
same year, and had an audience in June, at G-hent, with
Mary, the new Eegent.^? Most gladly would he have appre
hended the Translator of the books he had so repeatedly
burned ; but, independently of him, or immediately after the
death of Margaret, if not before, it had been resolved to send
two accredited Envoys to the Low Countries, one of whom, if
not both, were charged with special instructions in reference
to Tyndale. The first, Mr. Stephen Vaughan, was much
employed in commercial and pecuniary negociations, down to
as late a period as 1546. The second was Thomas Wrioths
ley, uncle to the first Earl of Southampton, afterwards Lord
Chancellor, and the second Earl. The first, by far the most
candid of the two, was stationed at Barrow and Antwerp,
and the second, a uniform enemy of the truth, repaired to
Brussels.^' The draught of their credentials afterwards,
upon Lady Mary's appearance, and as corrected by Henry's
own hand, is now in the Museum. ^^
So early as the 22d of January, Vaughan writes to Crum
well ; and, on the 26th, we have his first letter to the King
himself, the whole of which will disclose how much in earnest
his Majesty had been, to lay hold on this eminent man, or
get him within his grasp. The reader will have to bear with
the style of his Majesty's correspondent, as well as his ful
some anxiety to please his royal Master ; but there is no his
tory to be compared with letter history, whether in regard to
the evolution of character, or the actual state of things —
" Most excellent Prince, and my most redoubted Sovereign, mine humble
observation due unto your Majesty — My mind continually labouring and thirst
ing, most dread and redoubtable Sovereign, with exceeding desire to attain the
knowledge of such things as your Majesty commanded me to learn and practice
in these parts, and thereof advertise you, from time to time, as the case should
require. And being often dismayed with the regard of so many mischances,
as always obviate and meet with my labours and policies, whereby the same
(after great hope had, to do something acceptable unto your Highness' pleasure)
turn suddenly to become frustrate, and of none effect, bringing me, doubtless.

29 Cotton MS. Galba, B. ix., fol. 234. 30 Idem, fol. 238.
31 Vaughan, in short, was the successor to Hackett, as King's agent or royal merchant, at a
salary of twenty shillings per day, the usual sum to ambassadors ; and equal to about dFsflOO
per annum, of the present time. This man will prove to have been an eiive of Crumwell's.
32 Galba, B. x., fol. 38, no date.

270 PURSUIT AFTER TYNDALE [bOOK I.
into right great sorrow and inquietude, considering that. Wherefore, lately,
I have written three sundry letters unto Willyam TyndaU, and the same sent,
for the more surety, to three sundry places — to Frankfort, Hamburgh, and
Marleborough, (i. e. Marburg ;) I then not being assured in which of the same
he was. I had very good hope, after I heard say in England, that he would,
upon the promise of your Majesty, and of your most gracious safe-conduct, be
content to repair and come into England, that I should, partly therewith, and
partly with such other persuasions as I then devised in my said letters, and,
finally, with a promise which I made him — that whatsoever surety he would
reasonably desire, for his safe coming in and going out of your realm, my
friends should labour to have the same granted by your Majesty — (but) that
now, the bruit and fame of such things (as since my writing to him) hath
chanced within your realm, should provoke the man, not only to be minded to
the contrary of that whereunto I had thought, without difficulty, to have easily
bi'ought him, but also to suspect my persuasions to be made to his more peril
and danger ; than, as I think, if he were verily persuaded and placed before
you, (your most gracious benignity, and piteous regard natural, and custom
always had, towards your humble subjects considered, and specially to those,
which, (ac)knowledging their offences, shall humbly require your most gracious
pardon,) he should ever have need to doubt or fear. Like as your Majesty
as well by his letter, written with his own hand, sent to me for answer of my
said letters ; as also by the copy of another letter of his, answering some other
person, whom your Majesty perhaps had commanded to persuade by Uke means
may plain apperceive — which letters, like as together I received from the
party, so send I, herewith inclosed to your Highness.
" And whereas I lately apperceived, by certain letters directed to me from
Mr. FitzwiUiam,33 Treasurer of your household, that I should endeavour my
self, by all the ways and means I could study and devise, to obtain you a copy
of the book, which I wrote was fimished, by Tyndall, answering to a book put
forth in the English tongue by my Lord Chancellor, and the same should send
to your Majesty, with all celerity — I have undoubtedly so done and did, before
the receipt thereof. Howbeit, I neither can get any of them, nor, as yet, (is it)
come to my knowledge that any of them should be put forth ; but being put
forth, I shall then not fail, with all celerity, to send one unto your Highness.
" My business is such, during the marts, as giveth me Uttle or none occasion
to go abroad, whereby I might, by chance, hear some things meet for yom'
gracious knowledge. — From Barrow, the 26 January, anno 1S30," i.e. 1631.3*
Vaughan, before he became irritated, was extremely solici
tous to please the King, and was therefore anxious about the
favourable reception of this, his first despatch ; he therefore

33 Sir William Fitzwilliam is meant, afterwards Earl of Southampton, the nephew of
Wriothsley, already mentioned. The occasion of his being knighted, as reported by Stowe, was
curious enough. He was one of those who subscribed the articles against Wolsey, but after his
downfall, or in April last, he entertained him most kindly at his house in the country near Peter
borough. *' Being called before the King, and demanded how he durst entertain so great an
enemy to the State ? His answer was that he had not contemptuously or wilfully done it, but
only because he had been his master, and partly the means of his greatest fortunes." The King
was so well pleased with his answer, that, saying, "himself had too few such servants," im
mediately he knighted him, and afterward made him a Privy Counsellor.— Stowe's London.
He died before his uncle, or in 1542, and Wriothsley himself, one of the ambassadors now before
us, was then created Earl of Southampton, under King Edward, or immediately after Henry was
laid in his grave. 31 Cotton MS. Galba, B. x., fol. 42.

1531.] BY THE KING AND CRUMWELL. 271
accompanied it with the following — " To his Eight Worship
ful Mr., Master Thomas Crumwell, in London;" who had
recommended him to his Majesty's notice.
" Sir, — Here see you my rudeness and inability to be a writer to so great a
Prince, but his gracious benignity encourageth thus to do ; which chancing to
be acceptable to his Majesty, shall be to me an exceeding pleasure, and other
wise, the contrary. Wherefore, I most heartily pray you to wait a time for
the delivery thereof, to be taken when you think his Highness will immediately
look upon them ; for then may it chance, if any fault be, your goodness towards
me will excuse the same in the best manner.
" Herewith I send you the copy of one of Tyndalle's letters, which he sent
to me ; the other, for lack of leisure, I could not copy, being so long a matter.
The ' Dialogue of Okham,' I have delivered to Mr. Tuke, who will bring you it
in his mail, and will depart within four days next. 35 I pray you let me know
how the King taketh my letters, as soon as it is possible.
" It is unlikely to get Tyndall into England, when he daily heareth so many
things from thence which feareth him. After his book, answering my Lord
Chancellor's book, be put forth, I think he will write no more ! The man is of
a greater knowledge than the King's Highness doth take him for, which well ap
peareth by his works. Would God he were in England."
This envoy of Henry's, it may have been observed, alludes
to some other person who had also written to Tyndale, and to
whom he had replied. This could not be Wriothsley, other
wise he would have named him ; but Vaughan's impression
evidently was, that various individuals were now out in pur
suit, and had been commissioned to seize the same man, or
entice him into England. Tyndale also had replied to
Vaughan, though still he could not find him out. In the
meanwhile, chancing to meet with a part of the intended
answer to Sir Thomas More, in manuscript, he immediately
informs Crumwell, and actually sits down to copy it out for
the King. February and March had passed away, when at
last, and most unexpectedly, Tyndale himself gave him the
benefit of a personal interview. Still more deeply interested,
without loss of time, on the next day, or 18th of April,
Vaughan despatches the following letter to his royal Master,
from Antwerp, where Tyndale then was : —
35 "A dialogue between a knight and a clerk, concemiog the power spiritual and temporal."
Thus early was this dialogue published abroad, which was afterwards printed by Berthelet, cum
privilegio of Henry VIII. William of Ockham, so called from the village of that name, in Surrey
where he was born, the author of this dialogue, written in thebeginning of the fourteenth century,
was the pupil of Duns Scotus, and afterwards his acute opponent, as head of the Nominalists.
This notable little tract was written about 1305, to answer or silence the Clergy of the day, that
the Boman Pontiff might exercise any jurisdiction over the temporalities of Princes ; or the
Church so called, be exempted from contributing in time of need, either for the relief of the
poor, or the security of the nation where they abide. See Old/s British Librarian, p. 5. Should
Tyndale yet escape, this was a book quite to CrumweWs taste, as to other men at home.

272 PURSUIT AFTER TYNDALE [bOOK I.
" Please it your Majesty to be advertised, how that of late I obtained a copy
of one part of Tyndale's book, answering to the book put forth by My Lord
Chancellor ; whereof immediately I gave knowledge to my Master, Mr. Crum
well, and him required thereof to advertise your Highness, as appertained (to
him.) Which copy being rudely written, interfined, and difficult to be read,
methought uncomely and not meet, in so vile array, to be sent to the hands of
your Majesty. The regard whereof moved me to write it again, that it might
come to your most gracious hands, the more legible and easy to your reading.
Which part I have herewith sent unto your highness ; thinking that the matter
therein contained, (for the modest order thereof,) in regard of his former writ
ing, will somewhat better Uke you, than some other of his works, which he hath,
with less advisement, more rashness, and ruder spirit, put forth before this time.
This part, which your Grace receives now, is but a third or fourth part of his
sole work ; but comprehendeth, in effect, the substance and pith of the other
parts ; where he particularly answereth to every chapter of my Lord's book,
with such grounds as he hath laid in his first part, though he use in it a larger
circumstance. The second part, I have in likewise obtained, which I will
in likewise write, and send unto your Grrace, with all convenient speed and
celerity. "The day before the date hereof, (17th of April,) I spake with Tyndale with
out the town of Antwerp ; and by this means. He sent a certain person to seek
me, whom he had advised to say, that a certain friend of mine, unknown to the
messenger, was very desirous to speak mth me ; praying me to take pains to
go unto him, to such place as he should bring me. Then I (said) to the mes
senger, — ' What is your friend, and where is he ?' ' His name I know not,' said
he, ' but if it be your pleasure to go where he is, I will be glad thither to bring
you.' Thus doubtful what this matter meant, I concluded to go with him, and
followed him, till he brought me without the gates of Antwerp, into a field
lying nigh unto the same, where was abiding me this said Tyndale.
" At our meeting — ' Do you not know me ?' said this Tyndale. ' I do not well
remember you,' said I to him. ' My name,' said he ' is Tyndale.' ' But, Tyn
dale,' said I, 'fortunate be our meeting !' Then Tyndale — ' Sir, I have been ex
ceeding desirous to speak with you.' ' And I with you ; what is your mind V
' Sir,' said he, ' I am informed that the King's Grace taketh great displeasure
with me, for putting forth of certain books, which I lately made in these parts ;
but specially for the book named " The Practice of Prelates," whereof I have no
little marvel, — considering that in it, I did but warn his Grace, of the subtle de
meanour of the Clergy of his realm, towards his person ; and of the shameful
abusions by them practised, not a little threatening the displeasure of his Grace,
and weal of his realm : in which doing, I showed and declared the heart of a
true subject, which sought the safe-guai'd of his royal person, and weal of his
Commons : to the intent, that his Grace thereof warned, might, in due time,
prepare his remedies against their subtle dreams. If, for my pains therein taken,
— if for my poverty, — if for mine exile out of mine natural country, and bitter
absence from my friends,^f for my hunger, my thirst, my cold, the great
danger wherewith I am every where compassed ; — and finally, if for innumer
able other hard and sharp fightings which I endure, not yet feeling of their
asperity, by reason (that) I hoped with my labours, to do honour to God, true
service to my Prince, and pleasure to his Commons ; — how is it that his Grace,
this considering, may either by himself think, or by the persuasions of others,
be brought to think, that in this doing, I should not show a pure mind, a true
and incorrupt zeal, and affection to his Grace ? Was there in me any such

1531.] BY THE KING AND CRUMWELL. 273
mind, when I warned his Grace to beware of his Cardinal, whose iniquity he
shortly after proved, according to my writing 1 Doth this deserve hatred 1
"Again, may his Grace, being a Christian prince, be so unkind to God,
which hath commanded his Word to be spread throughout the world, to give
more faith to wicked persuasions of men, which presuming above God's wisdom,
and contrary to that which Christ expressly commandeth in his Testament, dare
say, that it is not lawful for the people to have the same, in a tongue that they
understand ; because the purity thereof should open men's eyes to see their wicked
ness ? Is there more danger in the King's subjects, than in the subjects of all
other Princes, which, in every of their tongues have the same, under privilege
of their sufferance 2 As I now am, very death wer-e more pleasant to me than life,
considering man's nature to be such as can bear no truth.'
"Thus, after a long communication had between us, for my part, making
answer as my poor wit would serve me, which was too long to write ; I assayed
him with gentle persuasions, to Imow whether he would come into England ;
ascertaining him that means should be made, if he (only) thereto were minded,
without his peril or danger, that he might so do : And that what sm-ety he
would devise for the same purpose, should, by labour of friends, be obtained
of your Majesty. But to this he answered — that he neither would, nor durst,
come into England, albeit your Grace would promise him never so much surety ;
fearing lest, as he hath before written, your promise made, should shortly be
broken, by the persuasion of the Clergy ; which would affirm, that promise
made with heretics ought not to be kept.
" After this, he told me how he had finished a work against my Lord Chancel
lor's book, and would not put it in print, till such time as your Grace had seen
it ; because he pereeiveth your displeasure towards him, for hasty putting forth
of his other works, and because it sliould appear that he is not of so obstinate
mind, as he thinks he is reported unto your Grace. This is the substance of
his communications had with me, which, as he spake, I have written to your
Grace, word for word, as near as I could by any possible means bring to re
membrance. My trust, therefore, is that your Grace wiU not but take my
labours in the best part. I thought necessary to be written to your Grace.
" After these words, he then, being something fearful of me lest I would
have pursued him, and drawing also towards night, he took his leave of me,
and departed from the town, and I towards the town — saying, ' I should shortly,
peradventure, see him again, or if not, hear from him.' Howbeit, I suppose,
he afterward returned to the town by another way, for there is no likelihood
that he should lodge without the town. Hasty to pursue him, I was not, be
cause 1 had some likelihood to speak shortly again with him ; and in pursuing
him, I might perchance have failed of my purpose, and put myself in danger.
" To declare to yom- Majesty, what, iu my poor judgment, I think of the
man, I ascertain your Grace, I have not communed with a man  " 36

But, thus abruptly, does the manuscript break ofi". The
character about to be given, no doubt, from what we have
read, a favourable one, was most probably more than Henry
could bear ; and it would only have been in perfect conformity

36 Cotton MS. Titus, B. i., fol. 67, dated at " Antwerp the 18th day of April,"— as appears by
Crumwell's reiily.
VOL. I. S

274 PURSUIT AFTER TYNDALE [bOOK I.
with his passionate manner, if he tore it off, and burnt it ;
for the conclusion is nowhere else to be found. Sufficient,
however, remains, to render the reception of such a letter,
at this time, and from his own envoy, rather remarkable.
Vaughan, it is evident, was above all things anxious to please
his royal Master, but he must have been sadly out of his
reckoning, if he imagined that such a communication as this,
would prove at all acceptable. His copying, with his own
hand, a part of Tyndale's answer to More, may be excused,
as explaining the impatience of Henry to see it ; but that he
should send to the King, Tyndale's remonstrance, even in such
terms as he had now penned it, was certainly one false step,
as it regarded his own advancement in royal favour ; and
the character given at the close, must have been a second.
However, since the letter was sent and received, it is obvious
to remark, that, after Latimer's sterling counsel, not four
months ago, and that of Tyndale himself now, if Henry goes
on to sin, it must be with his eyes open.
Tyndale's having sent for Vaughan, is also worthy of notice.
His predecessor, Hackett, would have apprehended Tyndale
immediately, nay, and from what we have read, would have
consigned him to his native land, without a sigh, not as a
heretic only, but as a traitor. Hackett, however, had been
providentially removed from Antwerp, and Vaughan will turn
out to be a man of a very difierent stamp ; though certainly
he does not seem to have been aware that he was acting with
too much temper and candour, to secure the approbation of
his fiery and impetuous sovereign. But be this as it may, in
his next letter, very soon after this, Vaughan had made
mention of John Fryth also, wishing to know from his Majesty
what was his pleasure in regard to him, if he should happen
to meet with him.
We have already hinted that Vaughan was an eleve of
Crumwell's, and it will now be very apparent. The envoy
was acting in a manner too mild or straightforward, ever to
rise in the royal favour; and, therefore, this letter of the
1 8th of April, as well as that which followed, demanded im
mediate notice, lest he should go farther wrong. The policy
which Crumwell himself was pursuing may with all safety be
inferred, from the style in which he tutors this man ; while at
the same time the entire letter discovers to us a view of his

1531.] BY THE KING AND CRUMWELL. 275
character at this moment, which we leave the production
itself first to explain.
" Stephen Vaughan, I commend me unto you, and have received your letters
dated at Antwerp the 18th day of April, with also that part of Tyndale's book,
inclosed in leather, which ye, with yom- letters, directed to the King's Highness.
After the receipt whereof, I did repair unto the court, and there presented
the same unto his Royal Majesty, who made me answer for that time ; that
his Highness, at opportune leisure, would visit, oversee, and read the contents,
as well of your letters, as also the said book. And at my next repair thither
it pleased his Highness to call for me — declaring unto me as well the contents
of yom- letters, as also much of the matter contained in the said book of Tyn
dale. And albeit that I might well perceive that his Majesty was right well
pleased, and right acceptably considered your diUgence and pain taken, in
the writing and sending of the said book, as also in the persuading and exhort
ing of Tyndale to repair into this realm ; yet his Highness nothing liked the
said book, being filled with seditious slanderous lies, and fantastical opinions,
shewing therein neither learning nor truth. And farther communing with
his Grace, I might well conjecture that he thought, that ye bear much affection
towards the said Tyndale ; whom, in his manners and knowledge in worldly
things, ye undoubtedly in your letters do much allow and commend : Whose
works being replete with so abominable slanders and lies, imagined and only
feigned to infect the people, declareth him both to lack grace, virtue, learning,
discretion, and all other good quaUties ; nothing else pretending in all his
works, but to seduce and deceive.
" The King's Highness, therefore, hath commanded me to advertise you, that
his pleasure is that ye should desist, and leave any farther to persuade, or at
tempt the said Tyndale to come into this realm. Alleging that he, perceiving
the maUcious, perverse, uncharitable, and mdurate mind of the said Tyndale,
is in manner without hope of reconciUation in him, and is very joyous to have
his realm destitute of such a person — ^than that he should return into the same ;
there to manifest his errors and seditious opinions, which (being out of the
realm by his most uncharitable, venomous, and pestilent books, crafty and false
persuasions,) he hath partly done already. For his Highness right prudently
considereth, if he were present, by all likelihood he would shortly, (which God
defend) do as much as in him were, to infect and corrupt the whole realm, to
the great inquietation and hurt of the common-wealth of the same.
" Wherefore, Stephen, I heartily pray you, inall your doings, proceedings,
and writing to the King's Highness, ye do justly, truly, and without dissimula
tion, shew yourself his true, loving, and obedient subject ; bearing no manner
(of) favour, love, or affection to the said Tyndale, nor to his works, in any
manner of ways, but utterly to contemn and abhor the same. Assuring you,
that in so doing, ye shall not only cause the King's Royal Majesty, whose good
ness at this time is so benignly and graciously minded towards you, (as by your
good diUgence and industry to be used to serve his Highness, and eschewing
and avoiding to favour and allow the said Tyndale his erroneous works and
opinions,) so to set you forwards, as all your lovers and friends shall have great
consolation in the same. And by the contrary doing, ye shall acquire the in
dignation of God ! — displeasure of your Sovereign Lord, and, by the same cause,
compel your good friends, which have been ever glad, prone, and ready to
bring you into his gracious favours, to lament and sorrow, that their suit in
that behalf, should be frustrate and not take effect, according to their good

276 PURSUIT AFTER TYNDALE [^BOOK I.
intent and purpose. Having, therefore, firm trust, that, for the love ye owe
to yourself, me, and your friends, ye will beware from henceforth to enter into
any opinions, whereby any slander, dishonesty, danger, or suspicion, might
ensue towards you, whereof, I promise you, I would be as sorry as your natu
ral father.
" As touching Fryth, mentioned in your said letters, the King's Highness
hearing tell of his towardness in good letters and learning, doth much lament
that he should in such wise as he doth, set forth, shew, and apply his learning
and doctrine, in the semination and sowing such evil seeds of damnable and
detestable heresies ; maintaining, bolstering, and advancing the venomous and
pestiferous works, erroneous and seditious opinions of the said Tyndale, and
other such. Wherein his Highness, like a most virtuous and benign Prince
and governor, having charge of his people and subjects ; and being very sorry
to hear tell that any of the same should, in such wise, run headlong and digress
from the laws of Almighty God, and wholesome doctrine of holy Fathers, into
such damnable heresies and seditious opinions ; and being ever inclined, wiUing,
and greatly desirous to foresee and provide for the same ; and much desiring
the reconciUation of the said Fryth, firmly trusting that he be not so far as yet
inrouted in the evil doctrine of the said Tyndale and others ; but that, by the
grace of God, loving, charitable, and friendly exhortations and advertisements
of good people, he may be called again to the right way ; hath willed me to
write unto you, that ye, therefore, with your friendly persuasions, admonitions,
and wholesome exhortations, counsel and advise the said Fryth — if ye may con
veniently speak with the same — to leave his wilful opinions, and, like a good
Christian, to retm-n into his native country, where he assuredly shall find the
King's Highness most merciful and benignly, upon his conversion, disposed to
accept him to his grace and mercy. Wherefore, eftsones ^again) I exhort you,
for the love of God, not only utterly to forsake, leave and withdraw your affec
tion from the said Tyndale, and all his sect, but also, as much as ye can, politicly
and charitably to allure the said Fryth, and other such persons, being in these
parts, which in any ways ye shall know, or suppose to be fautors and assistants
to the same, from all then- erroneous minds and opinions. In which doing ye
shall not only highly merit in Almighty God, but also deserve high thanks of
the King's Royal Majesty, who will not forget your devoir and labours in
that behalf, so that his Majesty may evidently perceive that ye effectually do
intend the same."
Crumwell then closes his letter by enforcing on Vaughan
a vigilant attention to certain shipments of grain, — to the
Emperor's afifairs, — the advance of the Turk into Germany, —
the abiding of the Emperor in the Low Countries, — his agree
ment with the Princes of Germany ; and if in all these things
Vaughan can only make his allegiance and service apparent
unto his Majesty, — then Crumwell doubts not that it will be
to his " singular profit and ad/eancement^ ^
This communication is so corrected, and recorrected, in the
original draught, that it has been no easy matter to decipher
it ; but the above is word for word as nearly as might be,
37 Cotton MS. Galba, B. x., fol. 338.

1531.] BY THE KING AND CRUMWELL. 277
the letter as it must have been sent.''* It is in vain to say
that it is any thing else than the production of a crafty,
heartless, and time-serving politician ; fearful, it may be, that
his own credit might suffer, through Vaughan's defect in what
was then styled " politic handling." After the letter was fin
ished, however, it must be observed that Crumwell added a
postscript or saving clause, apparently softening his stern com
mands as to Tyndale ; but in fact only suggesting another
snare, by which, if possible, to entrap him. Of this last pas
sage Vaughan immediately availed himself; and as the King's
business demanded haste, he writes in reply on the 20th of
May, or only two days after receiving the above.
"Pleaseth it your Royal Majesty to be advertised how upon the receipt of certain
instructions lately sent to me from my Master, Mr. Crumwell, at the command
ment of your Majesty, — I immediately endeavoured to learn such things as were
contained in the said instructions ; and although the time since the receipt of the
said instructions, which was but two days before the date hereof,39 is so short, as
were right hard for me therein fully to answer to your Majesty to every of the
same, yet hath it seemed to me not necessary, for lack of knowledge of the
whole to desist and leave to write such part as I have already learned."
He then intimates his having heard that the Turk and King Ferdinand have
made peace, — ^that " the Germans and the Emperor agree not, nor are likely,
considering the earnest labour of the same Germans made to the Emperor, for
the stablishing and advancement of their doctrine, and the deaf ears of the Em
peror, nothing inclined to hear or regard the same," — that Brabant and Flan
ders have offered to give the Emperor twelve hundred thousand crowns on cer
tain conditions, — that Mary, Queen of Hungary will be " Governante" of these
Low Countries, and that the Emperor will remain in these parts ; — after which
he thus proceeds : —
" As touching a young man being in these parts named Frithe, of whom I
lately advertised your Majesty, by my former letters, and whom your Eoyal
Majesty giveth me in commandment, with friendly persuasions, admonitions,
and wholesome counsels, to advertise to leave his wilful opinions and errors, and
to retm'n into his native country. I shall not fail according unto your most
gracious commandment to endeavour, to the uttermost of my power, to persuade
him accordingly, as soon as my chance shall be to meet with him. Howbeit, I
am informed that he is very lately married in Holland, and there dwelleth, but
in what place I cannot tell. This marriage may, by chance, hinder my persua
sions. I suppose him to have been thereunto driven through poverty, which
is to be pitied, his qualities considered."
Whatever Vaughan might think of the general tenor of

38 It has been asserted that the King himself corrected this letter, but this is a mistake. There
is nothing of his hand-writing here, nor is it probable that he ever saw either the draught or copy.
It is, in fact, 3^ scold from Crumwell to a person of inferior authority, though he will before long
dihcover himself to be a man of spirit. Vaughan was not to be brow-beat, even by Crumwell.
39 Consequently tho preceding letter of Crumwell's must have been dated before the 18th of
May. And Vaughan immediately tries to please, nay flatter, his Royal Master.

278 PURSUIT AFTER TYNDALE. [bOOK I.
Crumwell's thundering letter, he had resolved immediately to
avail himself of the artfully softened conclusion or postscript,
already referred to. He knew not where Fryth was to be
found, but Tyndale was still at hand. He therefore goes on : —
" I have again been in hand to persuade Tyndale ; and to draw him the
rather to favour my persuasions, and not to think the same feigned, I showed
him a clause contained iu Master CrumweU's letter, containing these words fol
lowing — ' And notwithstanding other the premises, in this my letter contained,
if it were possible, by good and wholesome exhortations, to reconcile and con
vert the said Tyndale from the train and affection which he now is in, and to
excerpte and take away the opinions sorely rooted in him, I doubt not but
the King's Highness would be much joyous of his conversion and amendment;
and so, being converted, if then he would retura into his realm, undoubtedly
the King's Royal Majesty is so inclined to mercy, pity and compassion, that he
refuseth none, which he seeth to submit themselves to the obedience and good
order of the world.' In these words I thought to be such sweetness and virtue,
as were able to pierce the hardest heart of the world : and as I thought, so it
came to pass. For after sight thereof, I perceived the man to be exceeding al
tered, and to take the same very near unto his heart, in such wise that water
stood in his eyes ; and he answered, 'what gracious words are these !' 'I assure
you,' said he, 'if it would stand with the King's most gracious pleasure to grant
only a bare text of the Scripture to be put forth among his people, like as is put
forth among the subjects of the Emperor in these parts, and of other Christian
Princes, — ^be it of the translation of what person soever shall please his Majesty,
I shall immediately make faithful promise never to write more, nor abide two
days in these parts, after the same ; but immediately repair into his realm, and
there most humbly submit myself at the feet of his Royal Majesty, offering my
body, to suffer what pain or torture, yea, what death his Grace will, so that this
be obtained. And tiU that time, I will abide the asperity of all chances, what
soever shall come, and endure my life in as much pains as it is able to bear and
suffer. And as concerning my reconciliation, his Grace may be assured, — that
whatsoever I have said or written, in all my Ufe, against the honour of God's
Word, and (if) so proved ; the same shaU I before his Majesty and all the world ut
terly renounce and forsake, — and with most humble and meek mind embrace
the truth, abhorring all error soever, — at the most gracious and benign request
of his Royal Majesty, of whose wisdom, prudence, and learning I hear so great
praise and commendation, than of any creature living ! But if those things
which I have written be true and stand with God's word, why should his Majesty,
having so exceUent a gift of knowledge in the Scriptures, move me to do any
thing against my conscience?' — with many other words, which were too long to
write.40 " I have some good hope in the man, and would not doubt to bring him to
some good point, were it that something now and then might proceed from
your Majesty towards me, whereby the man might take the better comfort of
my persuasions. I advertised the same Tyndale that he should not put forth
the same book, till your most gracious pleasure were known : whereunto he an-

10 All this language, however, put in tho mouth of Tyndale, it must be borne in mind, came
from a man who was exceedingly eager to please his royal Master. No one, therefore, can now
imagine that Tyndale's words wore correctly given.

1531.] ' ALL IN VAIN. 279
swered,— mine advertisement came too late, for he feared lest one that had his
copy, would put it very shortly in print which he would let if he could ; if not,
there is no remedy. / shall stay it, as much as I can. As yet it is not come
forth, nor will not in a while, by that I perceive."4i
Here, however, and perhaps unexpectedly by the reader,
the subject drops for months ; but, for the best of all reasons.
Tyndale had something else to do, than to continue in conver
sation with this man. He retires from public view, and pro
ceeds with vigour in his work. His letters, here mentioned, as
sent to England, we have been unable to find. They must
have added greatly to our interest, as well as enabled us to
correct some of the expressions which Vaughan has evidently
put into the mouth of Tyndale, to please the King, since
Crumwell had so enjoined. His ofier to Henry of " a bare text
of the Sacred Volume," as a " sine qua non," was all-important;
only that text must be a genuine and intelligible one, otherwise,
Tyndale was to pursue his own path. But although we can
not follow our Translator to the exact place of his retreat, we
now come with far greater advantage, to whatever he may
publish. He had a character to maintain, which was still
most shamefully traduced, and traduced alike by his opponent
in controversy, by Master Crumwell, and the King. The
Scriptures he had translated, besides the cause of God and
his truth, which he had so promoted in England, alike re
quired him to speak out ; while the account now given,
must not only set the courage and energy of the man in a
stronger light, but lend additional emphasis to every page.
We have witnessed Henry's apprehension and anxiety re
specting Tyndale's answer to Sir Thomas More. He would
have rejoiced in its suppression ; but the fact was, it had been
much farther advanced at press, than the author himself sup
posed. It was actually in England before Tyndale himself
was aware, or, as will appear afterwards, by the month of
April this year, and therefore, it now demands some notice.
This new Lord Chancellor, the admiration of foreign
countries as well as his own, had employed sarcasm and

41 Cotton MS. Galba, B. x., fol. 5, 6. If we could rely upon the testimony of George Joye, the
individual to whom Tyndale now referred was Fryth,— ¦w\io he says, corrected Tyndale's Answer
to Sir T. More at the press, printing it in Amsterdam. The same young man who before long.
will meet the Lord Chancellor personally, as well as the Bishops assembled ; and answer them
all, in a style such as neither Crumwell or the King now anticipated.

280 TYNDALE'S ANSWER [book I.
sophistry throughout three hundred folio pages, chiefly against
Tyndale and his translation. But why such a laborious and
wordy production, if manifest error, and only one solitary
heretic were all the host to be devoured ? Yet thus unwisely
did Sir Thomas proclaim the power of his opponent ; while
one page after another only proved, that he was contending
for victory, and not for truth.
In commencing his answer to this dialogue, a form which
was evidently adopted with a view to eflTect, Tyndale singles
out or describes the readers, to whom he addressed himself.
" The grace of our Lord, the Ught of his Spirit, to see and to judge, true re
pentance towards God's Law, and a fast faith in the merciful promises that are
in our Saviour Christ, fervent love toward thy neighbour, after the ensample of
Christ and his saints, be with thee, O reader, and with all that love the truth,
and long for the redemption of God's elect."
Of the subtle and vague or indefinite style of More's pro
duction, Tyndale had frequently just reason to complain ; and
in one place he thus describes these great defects : —
" M. More declareth the meaning of no sentence, he describeth the proper
signification of no word, nor the difference of the significations of any term ; but
runneth forth confusedly, in unknown words and general terms. And where
one word hath many significations, he maketh a man sometime believe that many
things are but one thing ; and sometimes he leadeth from one signification unto
another, and mocketh a man's wits. As he juggleth with his term Church,
making us in the beginning understand cdl that believe, and in the conclusion, the
Priests only. He teUeth not the office of the Law, he describeth not his Penance,
nor the virtue thereof, nor use ; he declareth no sacrament, nor what they mean,
nor the use ; nor wherein the fruit of confession standeth ; nor whence the
power of absolution cometh, nor wherein it resteth, nor what Justifyingmeaneth."
Besides all this artful caution on More's part, he evidently
placed great reliance on the power of his wit or drollery, his rib-
baldry, and downright abuse; supposing, in the employment of
all these in turn, that every man would be affected by repartee,
as powerfully as he was himself.*^ But he knew not the man
whom he had now thus assailed. Tyndale, it is true, was no
cynic, and he had no objection to an occasional sally of wit, —

42 He even showed mercy to one man, whose name was Silver, when he was just about to
consign him to the flames ; but simply for a stroke of wit ! More, in conveying him to be
burnt, punned on his name, as if he had no heart, at a moment so distressing to every natural
sensibility. " Silver must be tried in the fire," said he. It was the lucky thought of the man to
answer—" Ay ! but quich-silver will not abide it." This paronomasia had the cflFcct which reason
and pity had failed to produce. More was delighted with it, and dismissed him ! So little had
principle, in this instance, to do with persecution. — Strype — Turner.

1531.] TO MORE'S DIALOGUE. 281
" A Christian's wit,— that inoifensive light,
A beam that aids, but never grieves the sight."
But since the antagonist had chosen to be playful and profane,
as well as low and foul by turns, Tyndale would, of course, by
no means descend to his level. On the contrary, he seems,
in his reply, as though he had resolved that his short and pithy
sentences should stand out in bold contrast to the wire-drawn
and verbose sophisms of his opponent. He twits him occa
sionally with what is facetiously styled his " poetry," but
" still he was serious in a serious cause.
And understood too well the weighty terms
That he had ta'eu in charge. He would not stoop
To conquer him by jocular exploits.
Whom truth and soberness assailed in vain."
And certainly, in a few lines, he often demolishes an entire
folio page of "the first Englishman who signalised himself
as an orator."
The translation of the New Testament into the vernacular
tongue was, however, the great eye-sore to Sir Thomas, though
what he styled the wickedness of Tyndale's other productions,
was plentifully denounced. Tunstal had boasted of his having
found two thousand errata, and More had spoken of a thousand
texts by tale, as being erroneous, but now they are all reduced
to the general rendering of about six words. Tyndale had
translated ecclesia into Congregation, and not chwrch, — he used
elder, and not priest, — knowledge or acknowledge, and not
confession, — repentance, and not penance, — favour, and not
grace, — love, and not charity. These were his mighty of
fences, and no wonder than More at \&^&t professed to be shocked
and offended, for certainly these simple and faithful renderings,
once read in their connexion, shook to its very foundations
that fabric which the Chancellor had strained all his powers to
defend. We have said professed, as there is so much evidence
that Sir Thomas was still a free-thinker to his dying hour.
In reply, Tyndale appealed to the Greek original, and to
More's acquaintance with the language, before himself, and
completely triumphed. At the commencement, when refer
ring to the very first controverted word, " congregation," he
lent his opponent a blow, which he afterwards showed that he
felt exceedingly, but could not parry. Erasmus and More
were bosom friends ; and as the latter had published the
Greek and Latin New Testament in parallel columns, eight

282 TYNDALE'S ANSWER TO MORE'S DIALOGUE. [bOOK I.
years before this ; and had, under More's own roof, written
Moria, or " The Praise of Folly," a satire on the very sys
tem which he now defended, Tyndale enquires —
" But how happeth it that M. More hath not contended in likewise against
his darling Erasmus aU this long while ? 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 /or other
wise minded than he now writeth."
When he came to the other terms complained of. Sir
Thomas was still as pointedly answered. For example,
metanoia. Repentance —
" He cannot prove that I give not the right English unto the Greek word.
But it is a far other thing that paineth them, and biteth them by the breasts.
There be secret pangs that pinch the very heart of them, whereof they dare
not complain. The sickness that maketh them so unpatient is, that they have
lost their juggling terms. These things to be even so, M. More knoweth well
enough ; for he understandeth the Greek, and he knew them, long ere 1. But so
blind is covetousness, and drunken desire of honour. 43 So now the cause why
our Prelates thus rage, and that which moveth them to call M. More to help,
is, not that they find just causes in the translation, but because they have lost
their juggling and feigned terms, wherewith Peter prophesied they should make
merchandise of the people."
In this " Answer to Sir Thomas More's Dialogue," there
are to be found some interesting passages illustrative of Tyn
dale's sentiments as to Christian doctrine. Thus, in refe
rence to the doctrine of Paul and James with regard to
justification being in perfect harmony, he says —
" When Paul saith, faith only justifieth, and James, that a mau is justified
by works, and not by faith ; there is a great difference between Paul's only and
James's only. For Paul's only is to be understood, that faith justifieth in the
heart and before God, without help of works, yea, and ere I can work. But
James's only is this wise to be understood, that faith doth not so justify, that
nothing justifieth save faith — for deeds do justify also. But faith justifieth in
the heart and before God, and the deeds before the world only, and maketh
the other seen, as ye may see by the Scriptures — Rom. iv. And the same
mayest thou see by James, when he saith — ' Abraham offered his son, and so
was the Scripture fulfiUed, that Abraliam believed God, and it was reckoned
unto him for righteousness, and he was thereby made God's friend.' How was
it fulfilled ? before God ? Nay, it was fulfilled before God many years before,
and he was God's friend many years before, even from the first appointment
that was made between God and him. But it was fulfilled before us, who can-

is Covetousness, on the part of the Bishops— desire of honour, on the part of the Chancellor.

1531.] TYNDALE'S SENTIMENTS. 283
not see the heart — which can see nought in Abraham more than in other men,
save by his works.
" And what works meant James ? Verily the works of mercy. As if a
brother or a sister lack raiment or sustenance, and ye be not moved to com
passion, nor feel their diseases, what faith have ye then ? No faith, be sure,
that feeleth the mercy that is in Christ — ^for they that feel that, be merciful
again and thankful. But look on the works of our Spirituality, which will not
only be justified with works before the world, but also before God. They have
had all Christendom to rule these eight hundred years ; and as they be only
anointed in the head, so have they only been King and Emperor — and have
had all power in their hands — and have been the doers only, and the leaders
of those shadows that have had the name of Princes — and have led them
whither they would — and have breathed into their brains what they listed.
And they have wrought the world out of peace and unity, and every man out
of his welfare — and are become alone well at ease — only free — only at liberty
— only have all things, and only do nought therefore — only lay on other men's
backs, and bear nought themselves. And the good works of them that have
wrought out of faith, and gave their goods and lands to feed the poor, them
devour they, also alone. And what works preach they t Only those that are
to them profitable, and whereby they reign in men's consciences as God : to
offer — to give— to be prayed for — and to be delivered out of purgatory— and
to redeem your sin of them — and to worship ceremonies — and to be shriven —
and so forth.
" When Mr. More is come to himself, and saith, ' the first faith and the
first justifying is given us without our deserving.' God be thanked ! and I
would fain that he would describe me what he meaneth by the second justify
ing. I know no more to do, when I have received all mercy and aU forgive
ness of Christ freely, than to go and pour out the same upon my neighbour."
Before leaving this controversy for the present — one which
interested and agitated so deeply at the time, and the effects
of which remain to the present hour — it may be remarked,
that, independently of his sound reasoning, there was in Tyn
dale's style and manner, a solemnity, of which the Lord Chan
cellor was more than half afraid, and which he knew neither
how to manage or evade. This grave style of writing some
times referred to himself, sometimes to the translation, and
at others, to the parties in opposition.
In reference to himself, More having said — " When Tyndale was apposed of
his doctrine, ere he went over sea, he said and sware he meant no harm." To
this Tyndale replies — " He sware not, neither was there any man that re
quired an oath of him ; but he now sweareth by Him, whom he trusteth to be
\aved by, that he never meant, or yet meaneth any other harm, than to suffer
f'd that God hath prepared to be laid on his back, for to bring his brethren
unto the Ught of our Saviour Jesus ; which the Pope, through falsehood, and
corrupting such poets as ye are, leadeth in the darkness of death."
Referring to the subject of translations in the mother
tongue, so hardly driven was the Chancellor, that he had

284 TYNDALE'S SENTIMENTS. [booK I.
the weakness to insinuate that there were ancient translations,
(Saxon or English,) which it was not unlawful to read !
" As for other old ones," he had said, "that were before Wickliffe's days, remain
lawful, and be in some folks hands had and read." — « What," repUes Tyndale,
" may not M. More say by authority of his poetry ? There is a lawful trans
lation that no man knoweth ! which is as much as no lawful translation. Why
might not the Bishops shew which were the 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 here
unto — How happeneth it that ye defenders translate not one yourselves, to
cease the murmur of the people, and put to your own glosses, to prevent here
tics ? Ye would, no doubt, have done it long sinccj 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 heme 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 for years —
where M. More was their special orator, to feign lies for their purpose.
And as for all the parties now in opposition — " Mark," says Tyndale to his
reader, at the outset — " Mark, whether it were ever truer than now ; the
Scribes and Pharisees, Pilate, Herod, Caiaphas, and Annas, are gathered to
gether against God and Christ : but yet, I trust, in vain ; and he that brake
the counsel of Ahitophel, shaU scatter theirs. Mark, whether it be not true,
in the highest degree, that for the sin of the people, hypocrites shall reign over
them. Wherefore, it is time to awake, and to see, every man with his own
eyes, and to judge, if we wiU not be judged of Christ when he cometh. And
remember, that he which is warned, hath none excuse, if he take no heed.
Herewith, farewell in the Lord Jesus Christ, whose Spirit be thy guide and
doctrine, and the light to judge withal."
But even this answer was not sufficient in Tyndale's ap
prehension. He regarded Sir Thomas as the official attor
ney in their spiritual court ; and as he had put forth, after
this Dialogue, another thing in folio, entitled, " the Supplica
tion of Souls," &c., by way of reply to the notable tract of
Fyshe — " the Supplication of Beggars," it must not be al
lowed to pass, although Tyndale did not choose to name Sir
Thomas. It was this piece which led him to designate More
as " the Proctor of Purgatory," elsewhere ; and as he had
resolved to print an exposition of the first Epistle of John, he
there, without any controversial form, met, most judiciously,
even more than had been advanced by the Lord Chancellor,
in relation to purgatory and the worship of saints, image wor
ship, and other evils ; explaining to the people how they might
detect false teachers.
From these two consecutive publications, one is at no loss
to ascertain, what were Tyndale's sentiments on two important

1531.] TYNDALE'S SCHOLARSHIP. 285
points : the existing state of literature among the priests, and
the condition of those who at least professed to be Christians.
With regard to literature, and addressing himself to More
directly, having asserted that " out of the ceremonies sprang
the ignorance of the Scriptures," he then proceeds, —
" For as soon as the prelates had set up such a rabble of ceremonies, they
thought it superfluous to preach the plain text any longer, and the law of
God, faith of Christ, love toward our neighbour, and the order of justifying and
salvation ; forasmuch as all such things were played before the people's faces,
daily in the ceremonies, and every child wist the meaning — until at the last,
the lay people had lost the meaning of the ceremonies ; and the prelates, the
understanding of the plain text, and of the Geeek, Latin, and especially of the
Hebrew, which is most of need to be known, and of all phrases, the proper
manner of speakings, and borrowed speech of the Hebrews. Remember ye
not how, within this thirty years and far less, and yet dureth to this day, the
old barking curs. Dun's disciples, and the like draff, called Scottists, 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 1 Some beating the pulpit with their fists for madness, and roaring out
with open and foaming mouth — that if there were but one Terence and 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 aU good learning decayed, and was utterly lost, since men gave them to
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 Pater-noster, Fiat voluntas tua sicut in coelo et in
terra, and answer thereto."'**
Then, as to the condition of the people, before his exposition
of the Epistle of John, having laid down this axiom — " The
knowledge of our baptism is the key and the light of the
Scripture, for to understand it, is to understand the Law and
the Gospel." He then remarks —
44 After such a passage as this, and many others might be adduced from the writings of T5^^-
dale, that such an author as M 'Knight, when introducing his translation of the Epistles, could re
present Tyndale as little more than acquainted with Latin, and therefore translating from the
Vulgate, must appear strange ; but throughout he labours to depreciate former translations, as
if to recommend his own. if he did not choose to inform himself, he had much better have been
sitting at Tyndale's feet, to learn the meaning of " justification through the righteousness of
Christ." Dr. Herbert Marsh, the late Bishop of Peterborough, has been still more unfortunate.
Though quite ignorant of Tyndale's character and attainments, he determined to be more
pointed, and, descending to particulars, he would insist that Tyndale translated from the Ger
man ! Dates were far too insignificant to engage his notice, and so he laboured on, to prove that
Tyndale was much more of an adept in languages than he actually was. By his theory, Tyndale
had gone to Germany, and to Luther, and acquired his language so perfectly, as to be able to
translate our New Testament from it!- But for all this, there was left only one year, or little
more ! ! He has been triumphantly refuted in two successive letters by Professor Walter of the ,
East India College, Herts. The Bishop, however, never had the grace to confess his mistake, but
kept on reprinting his blunders to the end of life. The Germanisms he thought he had found
in Tyndale, he might have found, in abundance also, in the style of Sir Thomas More himself,
who certainly knew nothing of German, it is singular enough, that no English prelate
should have ever made himself acquainted with the history, character, and acquirements of
William Tyndale.

28C EPISTLE OF JOHN. [bOOK I.
" Now, we be all baptised : but, alas ! not one, from the highest to the
lowest, ever taught the profession or meaning thereof. And, therefore, we
remain aU blind generally, as weU our great Rabbins, for aU their high learn
ing which they seem to have, as the lay people : yea, and so much the more
blind are our great clerks, that where the lay people, for a great number of
them, are taught nought at all, they be aU wrong taught— so that the light
which they bring with them to understand the Scripture withal, is utter dark
ness, and as contrary unto the Scripture, as the devil unto Christ. By reason
hereof, the Scripture is locked up, and become so dark to them, that they grope
for the door, and can find no way in, and it is become a maze unto them, in
which they wander as in a mist. — It is become - turn-again lane unto them,
which they cannot go through, nor make three fines agree together. And
finally, the sentences of the Scripture, are nothing but very riddles unto them,.
at the which they cast, as the blind man doth at a crow ; and expound by
guess, an hundred doctors an hundred ways ; one man in twenty sermons
aUeging one text after twenty fashions, having no sure doctrine to cleave unto ;
and all for lack of the right knowledge of the profession or meaning of our baptism.
" Another conclusion is this : As he which ever creepeth along by the
ground, and never climbeth, cannot fall from on high ; even so no man that
hath the profession of his baptism written in his heaa-t, can stumble in the
Seriptm-e, and fall into heresies, or become a maker of divisions and sects, and a
defender of vrild and vain opinions. For the whole and only cause of heresies
and sects is pride.
" Now, the Law of God, truly interpreted, robbeth all them in whose hearts it
is written, and maketh them as bare aa Job, of all things whereof a man can be
moved to pride. And, on the other side, they have utterly forsaken themselves,
with all their high learning and wisdom ; and are become the servants of Christ
only, which hath bought them with his blood ; and have promised in their
hearts unfeignedly to follow Him, and to take Him only for the author of their
religion, and His doctrine only for their wisdom and learning, and to maintain
it in word and deed, and so keep it pure ; to build no strange doctrine there
upon, and to be the highest never, but fellow with their brethren ; and in that
fellowship to wax ever lower and lower, and every day more fervent unto his
weaker brethren, after the example and image of Christ, after his commandment
and ordinance, and not in feigned words of the Pope."
And still addressing himself to his reader, or the people at
large, having quoted that passage : "all the Scripture was
given of God by inspiration, and is good to teach withal, to
improve and so forth ;" he proceeds : —
" Ye see by the example of Christ and the Apostles, how they confounded
the Jews, with the same Scripture which they had corrupt, and understood them
amiss after their own darkness ; and, ye see, by the example of us now also, how
we have manifestly improved the hypocrites in an hundi'ed texts which they
had corrupt, to prove their false opinions, brought in besides the Scripture, and
have driven them off. And they be fled, and openly confess unto their shame,
that they have no Scripture, and sing anotjier song, and say they received them by
the mouth of the Apostles !
"Unto which I answer here grossly, seeing they are answered before; —
' That as he were a fool, wliich would trust him to teU his money in his absence.

1531.] SCRIPTURE AND TRADITION. 287
that hath picked his purse before his face ; even so, sith ye have corrupt the open
Scripture before our eyes, and (are) taken in the manner which ye cannot deny ;
we were mad to believe that that which hath lain fifteen hundred years, as ye
say, in your rotten maws, should now be wholesome for us. Can ye bear us in
hand, and persuade us, think ye, with your sophistry, to believe that ye should min
ister your secret traditions, without ground truly, when we see you minister the
open Scripture falsely ? Can ye bewitch our wits with your poetry, to beUeve
that ye should minister your secret traditions for our profit, when we see you
corrupt the open Scripture to the loss of our souls, for your profit? Nay, it is
an hundred times more hkely that ye should be false in secret things than in
open. And therefore, in the very sacraments, which the Scripture testifieth
that Christ himself ordained them, we must have an eye unto your hand how
ye minister them. As we restore the Scripture unto her right under
standing, FROM YOUR FALSE GLOSSES, EVEN SO DELIVER WE THE SaCRAMENTS UNTO
THEIR RIGHT USE, PROM TOUR ABUSE.
So spake this alumnus of Oxford, above three hundred and
ten years ago ; while at the same time, one idea, then broached
by his enemies, and especially by his controversial opponent, he
wished his countrymen to mark, as an old and hackneyed device.
" The light that rebuketh them, they call seditious; that it maketh subjects to
rise against their Princes, — which thing the hypocrites laid sometimes to the
Prophets, as ye may see in the Old Testament ; and at last they laid it unto
Christ's charge, as ye may see in the gospel, and to the charge of the Apostles,
as ye may see in the Acts. But at all such times, the hypocrites themselves
stirred up such a sword to maintain their falsehood, that evermore a great part
of the world perished through their own mischievous incensing and provoking
Princes to battle. They laid to Wickliffe's charge, and do yet, that his doctrine
caused insurrection, — and so they say now likewise, that God's Word causeth in
surrection ; but ye shall see shortly that these hypocrites themselves, shall rise
one against another, and some against themselves. Ye shall see them run out be
fore the year come about, that which they have been brewing, as I have marked,
above this dozen years."
Hackett, when at Antwerp, first lent such base counsel to
Wolsey, and we have seen how readily Henry himself had
followed it, to the disgrace of his ambassador. The idea, or
device, of constructive treason had been fully sanctioned by the
Bishops and Sir Thomas More, and now also Crumwell had
joined in the cry. Among other passages, the preceding was
intended for all these parties, as well as to arm the people with
that fortitude, which must be added to faith.
The concluding expression, however, as formerly hinted, is
an important one, in relation to Tyndale himself. He kept
himself much in the background, and it is only by such inci
dental hints, that any one can ascertain how early his mind
had been enlightened, as to the corruptions reigning around

288 JONAH TRANSLATED. [bOOK I.
him ; and so enlightened, as to be engaged in "marking" them.
The expression seems to go a great way towards establishing
the character of Tyndale, as that of a man whose heart God
himself had moved, independently of all influence from his
contemporaries, whether at home or abroad.*^
But to crown all in the year 1531, nothing could possibly
have been more seasonable or appropriate, than " Jonah ,•" that
book of sacred writ, which Tyndale now printed for his country.
The critical position of England, and the situation of the Trans
lator himself, sufficiently account for its appearaiice, at this
moment. Tyndale was now getting fast into the heat of the
battle. The Bishops of England, as a body, with Tunstal the
ablest of them all, were against him ; the Lord Chancellor, as
a man and as a licensed writer, was against him, nay, the
wrath of the King, as " the roaring of a Lion," was against
him. On high principle, for the sake of Divine truth alone, he
had to encounter an entire people in the persons of its rulers ;
nor was he slow to advance. The book of Jonah spoke alike
to the peasant and the prince. It contained the memorable
example of a great King bowing before the majesty of the
Voice of God. " The people of Nineveh believed God — from
the greatest of them, even to the least of them ;" and this was
precisely what Tyndale longed for the people of England to
do ; and would their haughty and licentious monarch have
now only risen from his throne, and laid aside his robes, like
the King of Nineveh, and urged his subjects " to cry mightily
to God," saying, " let them turn every one from his evil way,
and from the violence that is in their hands" — nothing could
have filled the Translator with higher delight. The Ninevites
" repented at the preaching of Jonas," but for more than five
years the New Testament had been in England, and even
Scotland, and " a greater than Jonas was there." Tyndale
besides, to evince the ardour of his mind, had prefixed a long
prologue to the book, — an admirable production, and peculiarly
adapted for the moment, in which he once more boldly cried
to his country.
•' As the envious Philistines stopped the wells of Abraham, and filled them
up with earth, to put the memorial out of mind, to the intent "that they might
challenge the ground ; even so the fleshly-minded hypocrites stop up the veins
45 See before, page 28.

1531.] TYNDALE TO HIS COUNTRY. 283
of life, which are in the Scripture, with the earth of their traditions, false simili
tudes, and lying aUegories ; and that, of like zeal, to make the Scriptm-e their
own possession and merchandise, and so shut up the kingdom which is in God's
Word ; neither entering in themselves, nor suffering them that would." To
induce his countrymen to search the Divine Word for themselves, he then adds
— " The Scripture hath a body without, and within a soul, spirit, and life. It
hath without a bark, a sheU, and as it were an hard bone for the fleshly minded
to gnaw upon : but within it hath pith, kernel, marrow, and all sweetness for
God's elect whom he hath chosen, to give them his Spirit, to write his Law
and the faith of his Son in their hearts." But still to lead the nation to Re
pentance, was now his main object, and hence we have many forcible appeals —
" Since the world began, wheresoever repentance was offered, and not re
ceived, there God took cruel vengeance immediately. As ye see in the flood
of Noah, in the overwhelming of Sodom and Gomorrah, and all the country
about ; and as ye see of Egypt, of the Amorites, Canaanites, and afterwards of
the very IsraeUtes ; and then at the last of the Jews too, the Assyrians, and
Babylonians, and so throughout all the empires of the world.
" Gildas preached repentance to the old Britons that inhabited England :
they repented not ; and therefore God sent in their enemies upon them on every
side, and destroyed them up, and gave their land to other nations ; and great
vengeance hath been taken in that land for sin, since that time.46 Wickliffe
preached repentance unto our fathers not long since : they repented not, for
their hearts were indurate ; but what followed ? They slew their true and right
king, and set up three wrong kings in a row, under which aU the noble blood
was slain up, and half the commons too ; what in France, and what with their
own sword, in fighting among themselves, for the crown ; so the cities and towns
decayed, and the land was brought half into a wilderness, in respect of that it
was before." Tyndale, however, would arrogate nothing to himself; but in re
ference to the Word of God, now and formerly sent, he then adds —
" And now Clirist, to preach repentance, is risen yet once again out of his
sepulchre, in which tlie Pope had buried him, and kept him down with his piUars
and pole-axes, and all disguisings of hypocrisy — with guile, wiles, and false
hood, and with the sword of all princes, which he had blended with his
false merchandise. And as I doubt not of the ensamples that are past, so I am
sure that great wrath will follow, except repentance turn it back again and
cease it." *7

*e Gildaa ia no favourite with one of our modem historians ; yet he concludes by saying —
*' There is too much reason to fear, that many of the deformities, {which bis coarse daubing has
distorted almost into incredibility,) degraded the character, and aceelerated the downfall of our
ancient British predecessors." — Turner's Ang. Saxons.
47 Dr. Marsh, in pursuing his blind theory, was unable to imagine any other reason for Tyn
dale publishing Jonah at this critical period, except that Luther had translated it into German
before him ! Referring every thing to Luther, was the artful cant of the sixteenth century, to
answer every cruel and evil purpose ; and, without any malicious feeling, the practice has been
too often blindly followed to the present day ; bnt it would have been worthy of all the Bishop's
talents rather to have searched, and then exposed the mistaken bias. Professor Walter, in
meeting this idea, has the following curious note — " It is only from the connexion between
the mission of Jonah, and endeavours to reform the religion of States, that I can account for
the long list of separate editions of this Prophet, published in the sixteenth and seventeenth
century. In Mash's Le Long, twenty-two editions, with Latin versions, or paraphrases, are
enumerated, besides tho vernacular translations." It is only strange that in the letters of Mr.
Walter, any doubt should have been expressed as to the translation of the prophet into English,
having accompanied the Prologue ! Without this, the entire Prologue would have been unin
telligible, while it contains abundant internal evidence that the prophetical book was appended.
It was the " Prologue to the Prophet Jonas," and went with it, that all might " read Jonas
VOL. I. T

290 STATE OF ENGLAND. QbOOK I.
But now, and notwithstanding all, as it is well known,
neither Henry nor his advisers were to be moved from their
course. It was, as we shall find, a year of most savage
cruelty, though Tyndale was now " pure from the blood of
all men, having not shunned to declare to them the whole
counsel of God."
After this brief and very imperfect survey of the present
year's exertions, let the reader only contemplate the state of
his native land. He remembers the restless ambition, and
but recent death, of her fallen Prime Minister. Let him
now mark the one subject which engrossed her monarch's
mind ; the furious counsels and blind infatuation which occu
pied the united strength of her government, and then say,
whether the value of such a man as our Translator has ever
been fairly appreciated. But was there no one at home, not
one man in all England to lift the warning voice ? " None to
guide her among all the sons she had brought forth ? There
was Hugh Latimer, it is true, but if his voice was now
drowned, then was there not even one, save and except
this exiled Christian patriot I Yet he, as we have seen, had
been already denounced by name, and in the foulest terms,
by the highest authority, under the desecrated name of
Christianity, as doing God service ! Nay, and he had been
so harassed by emissaries, that, as he himself expressed it,
" very death would have been more pleasant to him than life."
Such was his reward from man, but his work was not
finished ; and that God whom he so served, though He did not
as yet put to silence " the lying lips, which spake grievous
things, proudly and contemptuously, against the righteous ;"
yet did He, in a most wonderful manner, " hide the object
of their hatred, in the secret of his presence," from the pride
and the power of man. Tyndale had yet five years to live.

fruitfully, and not as a poet's fable, but as an obligation between God and the soul." Sir Thomas
More does not even glance at the Prologue. " Then have we Jonas, made out by Tyndale,"
which he could not mention without another specimen of his usual facetiouaness. That no
copy of this edition is known to exist, is not surprising. Dr. Cotton suggests, that, in the days
of burning, it may have been given up, to save a New Testament ; but be this as it may, since
there was no evidence of the quarto New Testament, printed in 1525, till only the other day,
a copy of the first " Jonas " may yet transpire. In reference to Tyndale, the Vatican has never
yet been searched. Let this hint sufBce, and some one of our countrymen, when in Rome,
remember it. The proof of the existence of Jonas, and upon English ground, this year, is to
be found in the list of books denounced by Stokesly, on the 3d of December, which will come
before us presently. It is the last on the list—" .Tonas in English."— See Lambeth MS., No.
me, fol. 66.

1531.3 STATE OF ENGLAND. 291
Upon returning into England, and before adverting to the spirit of
persecution properly so called, at the commencement of this year the
reader has only to recoUect the counsel that Crumwell gave to Henry
VIII., at his/rsi interview with him. It was then observed that there was
something to he first obtained from the clergy, in the matter of Henry's
divorce ; and on this account it was politic to fetch a compass through
out the whole of last year, before the advice could be followed out.
Ahout the end of that year, (1530) the King saw that he could now carry
his purpose : he and Crumwell understood each other, and the latter was,
of course, ready to act. There certainly was a consistency of character in
Crumwell at this period, if we include his own advancement as the end
in view, and desire to please the sovereign as the means of effecting it ;
so that while seeking to ensnare the Translator of the Scriptures abroad,
he was every whit as anxious to humble the clergy at home. Parliament
had been opened on the 6th of January, and the Convocation assembled
the next day. But before this, as a preliminary step to what the King
and his adviser intended, the Attorney-General had filed a bill of indict
ment in the Court of King's Bench, against the whole body of the clergy,
for having acknowledged Cardinal Wolsey's legantine authority, and
acted under him ! When the Convocation met, they must have soon re
solved not to appear in court, by counsel, since they never did ; but they
were eager to compound for a pardon. Wolsey, unfortunately for the
entire body, had yielded up the whole of his property to the King ; but
this was a fearful precedent. And if it was fearful now, it had been not
less vexatious to these men from the day he thus acted. When the said
statute of Provisors was passed, power had been conferred on the Crown
to dispense with its operation, and thus save any party from incurring a
premunire. Wolsey had not acted so blindly as not to procure from his
Master a permission, under the great seal, by which he was empowered
to do all he ever did. Had he then, we repeat, only acted with spirit,
he would have stood on his defence ; but instead of doing this, he
crouched, from fear of bodUy harm, and gave up all !
The moment, therefore, had now come, when Henry could send Crum
well, with his own signet, to the Convocation. " Crumwell, coming boldly
into the clergy house, and there placing himself among the Bishops,
began to make his oration — Declaring unto them the authority of a King,
and the office of subjects ; — and especially the obedience of Bishops and
Churchmen under public laws, necessarily provided for the profit and
quiet of the Commonwealth : which laws, notwithstanding, they had all
transgressed, and highly offended in derogation of the King's royal
estate, falling under the law of Premunire, — in that they not only had
consented to the power legantine of the Cardinal, but also in that they
had also all sworn to the Pope, contrary to the fealty of their Sovereign
Lord the King, — and therefore had forfeited to the King all their goods

292 THE BISHOPS IN TROUBLE. [BOOK I.
and chattels, lands, possessions, and whatsoever livings they had ! " The
Bishops remonstrated, of course, but it was all in vain ; only, as they de
sired a respite, they were allowed time to consider what they should, or
rather must, do. Thus the precedent of Wolsey, in sacrificing all that
he had, proved like a mill-stone round the neck of every man who had
been under him ! He had, in past days, been the idol, the boast, and
glory of his order ; but what would they not, or did they not, say of him
now 1 Still, whatever might have been the principles or opinions of these
men, the reader must be fully aware, from what has been already stated,
that nothing could be more harsh or inconsistent, nay unjust, if not
illegal, on the part of Henry, than the entire proceeding, even although
it had ended here : but here, neither the King nor Crumwell intended
it should end. Meanwhile, the southern province, or that of Canterbury,
agreed to offer the King not less than one hundred thousand pounds,
or £20,000 annually for five years to come. The northern province, or
that of York, some time after, compounded for eighteen thousand eight
hundred and forty pounds.*^
Such was the advantage taken of Wolsey's last step, so far as his
brethren were concerned : but this was not all he left behind him, by
way of legacy or precedent, to his country at large. He had introduced
into England a species of authority or power, called spiritual, superior
even to that of a Legate a latere. He had arrived from France under
the higher character of Vicar-Oeneral ; and his Sovereign having en
joyed only a transient gratification, in ruling the clergy, through such a
medium, it will not surprise the reader if that had only provoked his
appetite. Crumwell had unproved upon this idea ; and now money alone
will not suffice. The m«n who were to pay it, must do so under a new
character. They had agreed to offer this immense sum ; but the far
more serious question, now pressing for consideration, was, to whom were
they to pay it ? To the King of course ; but then, under what charac
ter ? As King only, or as any thing more ? If they either petitioned or
addressed him, in mitigation of punishment, — how were they to ad
dress him 1
And so now a question rose, compared with which, the entire substance
of the whole body — ^their goods and chattels, their lands and livings
— were but like the drop of a bucket, or the small dust of the balance —
a question which was to affect not England alone, but Great Britain and
Ireland, with all their dependences in other quarters of the world, for
many generations. The fact was, that the anticipated moment had now

¦»8 "This was a prodigious fine," says Collier, "at that time of day, and 'tis probable, was
twenty tiroes the value of the same sum at present." We calculate the amount, however, at
only fifteen times,-and even this makes it fl,782,600 sterling! Thus did Henry recover to
himself almost, if not all the money that Wolsey took with him to France, in 1527, professedly
to uphold the Pontiff.

1531.3 HENRY'S SUPREMACY. 293
arrived, when it was convenient to divulge that no subsidy would be
accepted, unless his Majesty were acknowledged in the petition or
address, as " Head of the Church."
The moral deportment of these two men, the King and Crumwell, who
were now pressing this question to its decision, we need not describe.
They are both before the reader, and, by succeeding acts, their characters
will be farther developed.*'' Crumwell, of course, sought only his own
personal advancement, at least this secretly prompted all his advice ;
and as for the office of Vicar-General or Vicegerent, of what was about to
be denominated the Church of England, whether he thus early had it in
view for himself, or not, it is certain that he alone at last reached it ; and,
moreover, that the office also died with him, as being no longer neces
sary, either for the support or security of the King. The title, as gained
by Wolsey, and its effects, may have first suggested the idea of its con
tinuance, upon English ground, but the anomalous office was no longer
needed, when the superior was once securely seated, k^ for Henry,
granting that he was at present only the advised party, never was advice
more willingly accepted, nor more eagerly pursued.
The acknowledgement, as first proposed to be inserted in the petition
or preamble to the Bill of Subsidy was this — " Henry the Eighth," &c., —
" the Protector and Supreme Head of the Chiurch and the Clergy of
England." To this opposition was made, and the subject was put off
to another day. The article being expressed in such general terms,
they were afraid it might be misunderstood in future ages, and inter
preted or wrested to an immoral or presumptuous sense.*" Warham
of Canterbury, however, at last supported the designation, and even
Fisher of Rochester consented upon one condition, that these words be
added — " et quantum per legem Christi licet" — " as far as by the law
of Christ is lawful." But this addition being reported to Henry, he
at once replied, that he would have " no tantum or quantum in the
business, but let it be done out of hand." The words in addition certainly
admitted of every variety of opinion, and even the Headship was very
differently interpreted. Some, according to Burnet, " understood this
headship to be only a temporal authority, even in ecclesiastical matters ;
and they thought that by the laws of Christ, the secular authority ought
not to meddle in ecclesiastical matters." But others thought that the
magistrate had a full authority, even in ecclesiastical matters ; but that
the administration of this was so limited by the laws of the Gospel, that

49 Crumwell, though not present at the sack of Rome, is said to have certainly been there in
earlier life, when soliciting pardons for the people of Boston, in company with one Geffrey
Chambers. His contrivance for gratifying the palate of Julius II. in I5I0, by certain presents of
jelly, made after the English fashion, might be true ; but if so, he was now about to furnish
Clement VII., the quondam Bishop of fForcester, with a course of proceeding by no means
pleasing to his taste, or that of any future Pontiff.
.50 " Ne termini, &c., in sensum improbum traherentur."— Journal qf Convocation.

294 HENRY'S SUPREMACY. [^BOOK I.
it did not warrant him to command anything, but what was conform to
these,—" so that the words being equivocal, were differently understood
even by those who subscribed and afterwards swore them !" They had
" great reasoning among themselves," but Crumwell and the Judges
coming to them in February, by the 11th of that month the article was
thus expressed,—" We recognise his Majesty to be the singular (sole)
protector of the Church and Clergy of England, and our only Sovereign
Lord, and, as far as by the law of Christ is lawful, also our Supreme
Head."5i The form being thus agreed on, Warham offered it to the
whole body — all were dlemt : on which he said, " Whosoever is silent,
seems to consent ;" and to this one replied, " then we all are silent !"
Thus the Bill of Subsidy passed the Upper House ; but lo, on its being in
troduced to the Commons, they demurred. The fact was, that they
were afraid of themselves, and wished to be included in the pardon
granted : upon which Henry, in a rage, now disclosed all the baseness
of his character. " Wherefore," said he to the Speaker, " since you have
denied your consent to the pardon of the Clergy, I must inform you that
such consent is not necessary ; I can pass it under my Great Seal ; and,
look ye, I shall be well-advised, before I pardon those who endeavour to
restrain my liberty, and compel my mercy !" The Commons were
terrified, when Henry sent them a pardon, through his Attorney-General,
having now brow-beat and conquered both Houses.
After all this violent turmoil, however, the work of Henry was not yet
finished, — his title not yet generally acknowledged. Tunstal of Dur
ham, who belonged to the province of York, with some others in the
north, professed to have serious objections and great difficulty at this
crisis. That they did not understand the sacred prerogatives of the Re
deemer is certain, or that He alone is the Prophet, the Priest, the
King of his Church on earth, it being the earth especially to which
these offices, as revealed, apply. But still, as the invasion of the Saviour's
Supremacy, and especially of his priestly office, by a Priest in Italy, was
now to be abjured, for on this point, Tunstal, at present, professed him
self to be quite clear, — so now he and others expressed great difficulty,
in knowing how to transfer the same homage to the invasion of his office
as King. There was another difficulty in the person of the monarch, who
could trample on laws, both human and divine, and whose example, as
a man, was filling the air, as it continued to do, with its pestilential ex
halations ; an objection, however, which could be stated only at the
risk of liberty, or of life itself. But the other was put forth by Tunstal
in a formal Protest.
" If," said he, " the words hold forth no more than this meaning, that the
51 —" Ecclesia et cleri Anglicani cujus singularem protectorem Unicum et Supremum Domi-
num, et quantum per Christi legem licet, etiam Supremum cAruT ipsius Majestatcm recog-
noscimna."—Rytner, xiv., p. 414.

1531.3 TUNSTAL'S PROTEST. 295
King is, under Christ, supreme head in his dominions, and particularly of the
English Clergy, in temporal matters : this, as it is nothing more than we are
all willing to acknowledge, so to prevent all misconstructions from heretics, the
clause should be put in clear and decisive language. But, on the other side, if
we are to understand that the King is supreme head of the Church both in
spirituals and temporals, and that this supremacy is conferred upon him, by the
laws of the gospel ; for thus some heterodox and malevolent persons construe the
proviso, — ' quantum per Christi legem licet,' — then this construction being re
pugnant, as I conceive, to the doctrine of the Catholic Church, I must dissent
from it. And notwithstanding the clause of quantum, &c. may be taken by
way of limitation and restriction, yet because the proposition is still somewhat
involved, I think it ought to be still farther discharged from ambiguity. For
' Supreme Head of the Church,' carries a complicated and mysterious meaning :
for this title may either relate to spirituals or temporals, or both. Now when
a proposition is thus comprehensive, and big with several meanings, there is no
returning a single and categorical answer. And, therefore, that we may not give
scandal to weak brethren, I conceive this acknowledgement of the King's
supreme headship, should be so carefully expressed, as to point wholly upon civil
and secular jurisdiction. And with this explanation, the English Clergy, and
particularly myself, are willing to go the utmost length in the recognition. But
since the clause is not, at present, thus guarded and explained, I must declare
my dissent, and desire my protestation may be entered upon the Journal of the
Convocation." Henry professed great respect for Tunstal, and therefore replied to this,
through one of his Casuists. But there were other simUar protests, so that
several months had to elapse, before they could be over-ruled. The Clergy
of the province of York, and especially Tunstal, on the principle already
pursued, were equally exposed to instant prosecution, and yet, it is very
observable, they were never molested ; a clear indication that the whole
affair was only a dexterous stroke of hand, meant to intimidate the
Roman Pontiff, but not, as yet, absolutely to separate from him.
To return, however, for one moment, to the first Bill of Subsidy ; it was
presented to the King on the 1st of April. — But after all, cautious to
avoid the imputation of forfeiture, the money was here granted under
the form of a "benevolence" or "gratuity," and the Clergy do this by
way of gratitude, particularly for the King's having written his book
against Luther ! his having suppressed heresies, and checked the insults
on their body ! It was like a retaining fee to a persecutor.
Yet stiU, Henry had now assuredly gained his object ; for if Rome had
given him one title for his Authorship, this Convocation hadaddeda second,
and, as they chose to express it, partly for the same work. The biU, even
as amended, at once gratified, and answered the design of the monarch ;
" which was to take this unsuspected opportunity of insinuating an ap
pellation, pregnant with pretension, amidst the ancient formularies and
solemn phraseology consecrated by the laws, and used by the high as
semblies of the commonwealth. The new title, full of undefined but

296 FRESH FURY. [SOOK I.
vast claims, soon crept from petitions of the Convocation, into the heart
of Acts of Pariiament."«2
After an organic change such as this, whatever might be sanctioned
by authority, and now took place within the shores of England, could
never, with propriety or truth, be laid to the charge of wij foreign power
or influence ; and the reader, therefore, must be curious to enquire what
were the consequences, or current of events, during the rest of the year ;
more especially, as the very same Convocation which acknowledged the
King's supremacy, still continuing to sit, gave a tone to the times.
If we were to believe Crumwell, when writing to the Con
tinent, in April, soon after the Convocation of this year had
adjourned, as far as the King was concerned, he could not now
appear, except as clothed in the white robes of innocence and
peace. When trying to entice Tyndale into England, as into
a sanctuary, he had talked of " the most gracious benignity"
— " the piteous regard naturaV — " the mercy and grace" of
that " most virtuous and benign Prince and Governor," Henry
the Eighth ! Let the events immediately preceding and fol
lowing such language, now be observed.
The Convocation having not only yielded so far to Henry's
ambition, but given him the promise of a sum equal to above
.£350,000 annually, for five years to come ; perhaps he
thought that, by way of courtesy in return, he must comply
with the wishes of this body ; but be this as it may, we shall
presently find the Clergy and the Star Chamber, in perfect
harmony. It was the triumphant reign of Sir Thomas More,
for the one party, and of Stokesly, Bishop of London, for the
other. Immediately after agreeing to the preamble of the Bill of
Subsidy, or in the 50th Session of the Convocation, enquiry
had commenced, at Stokesly's motion, into the opinions of
Latimer, Bilney and Crome ; and by the 69 th Session War
ham was examining John Lambert before two notaries. In
the intermediate space, finding no living victim, the very
bones of the dead did not escape them ; but emulating the
example of 1428, when they dug up the bones of Wickliffe,
they pronounced judgment on the deceased William Tracy,
Esq. of Todington, because in his last will he had committed
52 Sir .Tames Mackintosh.

1531.] TYNDALE'S BROTHER. 297
his departing Spirit to God, through Jesus Christ alone, and
left no part of his property to the priests, to pray for his soul.''
It was while these transactions were going on, Sir Thomas
More and Mr. Brian Tuke introduced the business of Henry's
divorce before Parliament, by laying before it the sentence of
certain Universities, and the opinions of individuals, amount
ing to a hundred, in its favour, soon after which the House
was prorogued, and the Convocation also dissolved, to the
month of October.
But before then, two of the earliest victims of the present
year had been apprehended and punished ; and just as if the
entire honour of this arduous contest must redound to the
praise of our first Translator, these were no other than his
own younger brother, John, and a devoted friend, Thomas
Patmore, both merchants in London. They appear to have
enjoyed the double honour of passing through the hands of
Sir Thomas More and Stokesly, or the Star Chamber, and
the Bishop's Court.
With regard to the first court, the following statement is
from Foxe's manuscript, which seems fully to ratify the idea
that Tyndale had reprinted his New Testament in 1530.
" There were soon after the coming over of the New Testaments in English,
translated by William Tyndale, which lie sent to his brother, John Tyn
dale, a merchant, apprehended, the said John Tyndale, and Thomas Patmore,
a merchant, and a young man that dwelt about London Bridge, by the Bishop
of London, and brought before Sir Thomas More, being the Chancellor, and by
him committed to ward. After they were brought forth before the Lords in the
Star Chamber, and there were charged with the receiving of Tyndale's Testa
ments, and divers other books, and delivering and scattering the same abroad
in divers places of the city of London, which they confessed, and therefore had
judgment — That they should be sent to the Counter of London, and there to
remain until the next market-day, and then each of them to be set upon a
horse, and their faces to the horse's tail, and to have papers upon their heads,
and upon their outward apparel, that is to say, upon their gowns or cloaks, to
be tacked or pinned thick with the said iVero Testaments and other books. And
at the Standard in Chepe (Cheapside) should be made a great fire, whereinto

53 The sentence, however, had proceeded no farther than that of removal from the grave
yard ; but Parker, the Chancellor of Worcester, in the heat of his zeal, applying for no writ,
burnt the body to ashes. Both Tyndale and Fryth commented powerfully on this transaction :
and Kichard Tracy, Esq., well known as an author afterwards, the son of William, raised a prose
cution against Parker for exceeding his commission. Burnet has stated erroneously, that " he
was turned out of his office, and fined at'400." He continued Chancellor till 1535 ; " but he was
now fined," says Strype, " in a great sum." " It cost him," says HaUe, " three hundred pounds
to procure his pardon.'" This was very well— as it was equal to about £4500 of the present day.
So much for the officious man, who, after entering upon office, had rated Tyndale as though he
had been a dog.^See anno 1522, or page 34.

298 BILNEY. CbOOK I.
every of them (the three) should throw their said books ;«* and, fai-ther, to
abide such fines, to be paid to the King, as should be assessed upon them ;
which penance they observed." Foxe then adds — " this is extant, to be seen
in the records of the Star Chamber." 55
At this period it was not unusual for More, when he suspect
ed his victims might be condemned for any thing else, to deliver
them over, by an indenture, into the paw of the Bishop of
London, but at all events, both these worthy men now fell
into Stokesly's hands. Tyndale was punished by him "for
sending _;?w marks to his brother William Tyndale beyond the
sea, and for receiving and keeping with him, certain letters from
his brother !" As for Patmore, who was charged with saying
" that the truth of Scripture hath been kept from us a long
time, and hath not appeared till now," &c. — " he had long
hold with the Bishop. First, he would not sware — then he
would appeal to the King ; but all would not serve. He was
so wrapt in the Bishop's nets, that he could not get out ; but
at last he was forced to abjure, and was fined to the King, an
hundred pounds."*^
In the month of May, a second edition of Sir Thomas
More's " Dialogue " was published ; and now, during the
rest of the year, persecution became general. Stokesly and
64 The Lord Chancellor could not forbear to indulge his drollery even on this, as upon
other occasions, and no doubt was gratified in having the translation, which he could not write
into disrepute, thus treated; but by ordering these reputable men to the Standard, once
situate close by Bow Church, or opposite to Honey Lane, Cheapside, he meant to fix a stigma,
similar to that which belonged to the " place of skulls " in the days of old. The Standard had
been notorious as the place of occasional execution, for more than two hundred years.
65 MS. Harleian, No. 435, fol. 15. There is a strange mistake, which has run through diffe
rent histories, from the days of the industrious Strype, to the present moment, in regard to the
tine imposed on these London merchants— insomuch that we have found it broadly stated
in a publication, of wide circulation, and dated 1836, that " they were condemned to pay the
enormous sum of eighteen thousand pounds, equal to two hundred thousand pounds at the pre
sent day !" Some others before, startled at the sum, have merely said that the fine was enor
mous. The origin of the mistake may amuse the reader. On the margin of the original manu
script by John Foxe, in the Museum, and as given above, there is the following notandum—
" A foul faute, page 1195, for this some (sum) xviii thousand viii c. xl pounds and x pence, ye
have printed xviii c. xl pounds and x pence." Strype, seeing this, but very unlike his usual
accuracy, took upon him to add, in his Memorials of Cranmer, immediately after the word
"observed"— " The fine set upon them was heavy eneyugh, viz. eighteen thousand eight hun
dred and forty pounds and ten pence— a* was extant to be seen in the records of Vie Star Cham
ber!" thus adding the note at the foot of the MS., applicable only to the authority for his story,
as though it verified the prodigious sum on the margin. The fact, as the reader may begin to
suspect, is, that the sum referred to was that which Hie whole province of Ytrrh agreed to pay to
the King ; see page 292 ; and in the note, Foxe is simply correcting " a foul faute," or
misprint of the York subsidy ! As for the fine, now referred to, it seems as if it had been left
to the " Spirituality," except they were fined twi^i and if it was £I00 each, as may appear
presently, even then it will be allowed by all to have been " heavy enough," being equal to
£I500 each at the present time.
66 Such is Foxe's record in his Acts and Monuments. He states no sum for Tyndale, but we
have supposed it could not be more. The one case, Foxe dates 1530, the other I53I. So that
most probably they both occurred before the 25th of March I53I, as 1530 ran on to that day.

1531.] BILNEY'S MARTYRDOM. 299
the Lord Chancellor, in London ; Warham, and Fisher, and
Longland, elsewhere, were all busy ; and by the month of
August, it seemed as if Henry and his advisers had stepped
into blood, and would have struck down any man who pre
sumed to question or oppose their measures. We might re
peat the sad tale of many, but select only a few cases, as
being peculiarly characteristic of the times. The particulars
are at once humiliating and painful. We have to read them
also amidst the fires that were now kindled in England;
though, amidst all the lurid glare, it is easy to perceive the
rapid and decided progress of truth, or the glorious extent of
that cause, for which Tyndale only lived, and at last died.
The first victim to the flames was Bilney. For though he
had fallen, and, in his own apprehension, past redemption, to
him was given the honour of leading the way in England at
this period, of resistance " unto blood, striving against sin."
If we except the case of John Hitton, of which we know little,
he was the first burnt, after the burning of the Scriptures, for
more than five years past. How long he had remained in
prison after his abjuration, cannot distinctly be ascertained ;
but after his release and return to Cambridge, he was in the
deepest distress of mind for a long season. His agony of
mind was so great, that Latimer afiirms, " his friends dared
not suffer him to be alone, day or night. They comforted
him as they could, but no comforts would serve ! And as for
the comfortable places of Scripture, to bring them to him, was
as though a man should run him through the heart with a
sword !" It was Tunstal who had been the tempter, and the
instrumental cause of all this mental anguish. At last, how
ever, his conscience was quieted only by the same blood of
atonement, which at first had given him such peace and joy.
And ere long, determined no more to dissemble or conceal the
truth, he took farewell of his friends at Trinity Hall, Cam
bridge, saying that he must now go up to Jerusalem^'' He
then went into Norfolk, preaching first from house to house,
and then in the open fields. Making no secret of his former
abjuration, he warned ' all to beware of following his example.
He appears then to have gone down through Essex, and not
improbably visited London itself, as the " Jerusalem" he had
¦57 Acts XX., 22-24.

300 BILNEY'S MARTYRDOM. ^BOOK I.
referred to ; for at one period, six weeks before his apprehen
sion, we find him as near to it as Greenwich. There he com
mitted four of Tyndale's New Testaments, with a budget of
books, to a faithful friend, Laurence Staple, who conveyed
them to Cambridge, and was afterwards called to sharp ac
count for so doing.*" But at last Bilney proceeded to Norwich
itself; and having given a New Testament of Tyndale's, and
his book on " Obedience," to a convert residing there, he was
soon apprehended by authority of the old Bishop. He im
mediately sent up to Sir Thomas More for a writ ; and if it
be correct, as generally stated, it must have been with his
wonted hilarity that he replied — " Go your ways, and burn
him first, and then . afterwards come to me for a bill at my
hand." At all events, Bilney was soon condemned to die at
the stake, and delivered to the Sherifis ; one of whom was no
other than Thomas Necton, the brother of Robert, already
mentioned as a great distributor of books. From dread of
the Chancellor and the Friars, Necton officially was obliged
to receive him ; when he implored Bilney's forgiveness, and
was not present at his death. The night before his execu
tion, the dying martyr, quite composed, resigned, and even
cheerful, among other passages of Scripture, dwelt much on
this one — " Fear not ; for I ham redeemed thee, I have called
thee by thy name, thou art mine. When thou passest through
the waters, I will be with thee-: and through the rivers, they
shall not overfiow thee : when thou walkest through the fire, thou
shalt not be burnt ; neither sliall the flame kindle upon thee?''
It was not that Bilney expected any other than mental sup
port, or that he superstitiously anticipated exemption from
pain ; but " a pain for the time," said he, " whereon, not
withstanding, followeth joy unspeakable." At the stake, he
closed his devotions with the beginning of the 143d Psalm ;
and the second verse — " Enter not into judgment with thy ser
vant, for in thy sight shall no flesh living be justified " — he re
peated, in deep meditation, three times. He had been led
through the Bishop's gate to this spot, called the Lollard's
pit, and there expired in the flames, on Saturday morning,
the 19th of August, amidst the most cruel enemies, and not a
few decided friends.*^
68 See his confession before Stokesly in Foxe.
•''9 The day of Bilney's death has been stated with strange variety. Foxe and Collier are cor-

1531.] BILNEY'S LATIN BIBLE. 301
Thus, although Bilney's progress in divine knowledge may
have scarcely surmounted the superstition of the mass, his
views of divine truth, on the points of the sinner's acceptance
before God through the righteousness of Christ alone, were
clear and most decided, so that he died a martyr for the truth
of God. All Sir Thomas More's sad, if not unprincipled,
attempts to blacken his memory, as though he had recanted
at the stake, only recoiled in ultimate disgrace upon himself.
It was a favourite, though weak device of the Chancellor's,
when he vainly attempted to answer Tyndale next year, to
represent the martj^rs as recanting before death.
If the reader is not aware of the fact, he will be gratified
in knowing that the identical copy of the Latin Bible once
belonging to Thomas Bilney is still in existence. At least it
is said to be in one of the libraries at Cambridge. Manyannota-
tions are inscribed upon its pages with his own hand ; and it
is certainly an interesting circumstance that the passage in
Isaiah, already quoted, which consoled the owner of the book
when in prospect of the flames, is particularly distinguished
with a pen, in the margin. The words if not so marked
with his own hand, must have been by others at the time,
for they received the words as the legacy of a martyr ; they
had them fairly written on tables or in books, and derived
comfort from them till their dying day.
Among the persecutions under Stokesly of this year, there
is one which deserves notice, as one more illustration of the
connexion between Antwerp and London. " Christopher,"
says Foxe, " a Dutchman of Antwerp, for selling certain New
Testaments in English to John Row, book-binder, a French
man, was put in prison at Westminster, and there died."
This could not have been Christopher Mwremund, already
mentioned, as he continued in business to 1541 ; nor is it at all
likely to have been Endhoven, of whom we heard so much.
Christopher was a common name, but it was quite in charac
ter with the times thus to treat a foreigner, for simply im
porting the Word of Life, in the language of the people.
We have no design merely to harrow up the feelings, by

rect. Burnet says the lOth of November, perhaps confounding it with an execution on the 20th,
at London. Even a note in Tunstal's Register, the 3Ist of August, is incorrect. Foxe fixes the
date, by saying it was " St. Magnus day, and on a Saturday:" now in 1531, St. Magnus day, the
Idth August, was Saturday.

302 MARTYRDOM OP BAYFIELD. [book I.
the recital of brutal treatment, having a more important and
profitable object in view ; which is to ascertain, as nearly as
may be, the precise state of things, the rate of progress, and
the extent to which the cause of truth had by this time arri
ved. We have one valuable illustration in the exertions of
Mr. Richard Bayfield, whose history cannot fail to gratify
the reader ; as, among the very hazardous, yet innumerable
instances of the importation of books, he occupied a conspicu
ous place.
Blest himself, at a very early period, with a copy of
Tyndale's New Testament, he laboured for a considerable
time to bring them into the country, along with other valu
able books ; and now, when examined by Stokesly, with what
view he had done all this, he at once replied — " To the intent
that the Gospel of Christ might be set forward, and God the
more glorified in this realm among Christian people."
The year and place of Bayfield's birth cannot be ascertain
ed, but by his own confession he entered the monastery of
St. Edmondsbury as a monk in 1514, and took orders as a
priest in 1518. After the return of Dr. Barnes from Lou-
vain to Cambridge in 1523 he used to visit a Dr. Rufiam,
then in that monastery, who had been one of his fellow stu
dents abroad, and Bayfield, being chamberlain of the house,
became interested with the conversation of the visitor. From
him he ere long received a copy of the New Testament in
Latin, but two citizens of London, Maxwell and Stacy, who
were zealous for the circulation of the Scriptures, and went
round the country, with this in view, presented him with
Tyndale's English New Testament. From the subsequent
history of his life, it is evident that this must have been one
of the earliest copies given away in the country parts. After
being at Cambridge with Barnes, he seems to have not re
turned to his abbey, but proceeding to his friends. Maxwell
and Stacy, in London, he remained there in concealment for a
short time in the close of 1526. At this early period, as
appears by Foxe, he was a suspected person. It is true he
talks, in a vague way of Bayfield su flooring imprisonment and
cruel treatment for two years and nine months, but this was
merely an anticipation, or rather loose summing up of all his
trials. At all events, he fixes the period of his first escape
beyond sea ; Dr. Barnes being then in the Fleet for God's Word,

1531.] MARTYRDOM OF BAYFIELD. 303
which continued till August 1526 ; though Bayfield remained,
in fact, two months longer.
On his first going abroad, Foxe says, " this Bayfield
mightily prospered in the knowledge of God, and was bene
ficial to Master Tyndale and Mr. Frythe, for he brought sub
stance with him, and was their own hand, and sold all their
works, both in France and England." This is a general de
scription of Bayfield's life and services, during at least four
difierent voyages to the Continent, within the last five years.
His first return to England was sometime in the year 1527.
It had so happened that in October 1526, just before leaving
England, he met, in Lombard Street, with three parsons of
his own standing, Edmund Pierson, James Smith, and Miles
Garnet, when some conversation ensued, by no means plea
sant to their ears, but sufficiently explicit as to Bayfield's
sentiments. Having therefore now returned, it must have
been but a very short time before Pierson detected him, as by
the 13th of September 1627, we find his accusation against
Bayfield recorded at full length in Foxe's history.
Once brought before Tunstal, in 1528 he was enjoined for
penance " to go before the cross in procession, in the Parish
Church of St. Botolph's, Billingsgate, and to appear before the
Bishop again on the 25th of April," 1529. The first part he
fulfilled, but not the latter. He had gone to the Continent,
but what may seem strange, he did appear, and presented him
self before Tunstal on the 20th of June : and it was still more
so, if he then had brought over with him any books of the
" new learning."^ However, there being no fresh witnesses
against him, the Bishop merely pronounced upon him sentence
of banishment from the city and diocese of London. But in
the face of this, as Bayfield now entertained no reverence for
their ecclesiastical authority, he went on more determined
than before. In May or June 1630, he arrived at Colchester,
with a cargo of books, which were all successfully sold or cir
culated : an importation specially to be noted, as it was imme-

60 This is by no means improbable ; though truly no dependence can be placed on Sir Thomas
More, except he be confirmed by other circumstances or other authorities. He actually
abounds in unmeasured mendacity when speaking of such men. But he says that Bayfield
" was occupied in two things at once — in suing for pardon for bringing in books and selling
them here secretly, and sending over for more." At the same time this was pardon for his
fopner charges, as already noted, which, though it included nineteen distinct articles by Pier
son, never once alludes to boohs.

304 MARTYRDOM OP BAYFIELD. [bOOK I.
diately after the " burning" at St. Paul's, if not at the
moment ; immediately after the Royal proclamation had been
framed, which Latimer so reprobated; and it is one among other
proofs of books then coming thick and threefold into England,
to the annoyance of Tunstal. Abroad once more, Bayfield
returned with a second importation in November, but landing
at St. Catharine's, the whole parcel fell, as a coveted morsel,
into the hands of Sir Thomas More. Nothing daunted, and
at the very season when Vaughan and Crumwell were trying
to inveigle Tyndale into England, Bayfield had another cargo
upon English ground. These he landed safely in Norfolk,
about the beginning of April, and not being detected, they
were of course circulated far and wide, to the farther vexation
of the poor, infirm, and literally blind Bishop of Norwich, as
well as his brethren. But at last, in the fall of this year,
coming to his old friend Mr. Smith in Bucklersbury, the fre
quent receiver of his books, he was betrayed ; and being
traced to his book-binder's in Mark Lane, he was first com
mitted to the Lollard's Tower, where, and afterwards in
the Bishop's coal-house, he was most barbarously treated.
Being now, however, stedfast in faith, he had made up his
mind to die ; and though tortured to accuse others who had
bought his books, and three times in the consistory of St.
Paul's put to his trial, as to whether he would abjure, he re
mained unmoveable. From such men as now bore sway, he
could expect no mercy, and he received none; indeed, Stokesly
displayed all the ferocity of his character, and behaved in the
most brutal manner. Being condemned, actually upon a
Lord's-day, the 19th of November; on Monday, when he
came to be degraded, as they phrased it, not satisfied with the
mere ceremony, Stokesly with a blow of his crosier, struck
with such violence on the breast of Bayfield, that, falling
backward, his skull was almost fractured, and he swooned
away ! When once he recovered himself, the good man
" thanked God that he was (not degraded but) delivered from
the malignant Church of Antichrist, and that he was come into
the sincere Church of Jesus Christ militant here on earth ;
and " I trust anon," said he " to be in heaven with Jesus
Christ, and the Church triumphant for ever." Nor was he
mistaken, for that day he was in paradise. After this outrar
geous conduct, he was led forth to Newgate, and in about ati

1531 3 RICH IMPORTATION OF BOOKS. 305
hour afterwards committed to the flames. He remained
alive for so long as half an hour, but continued in prayer to
the end without moving !
How many persons, in a greater or less degree, had been, or
were now engaged in the importation of books, it is impossible
to say ; but if we take this one valuable agent as an index,
and refer merely to his last successful adventure, it will be
evident, that amidst all the fury of opponents, a tide had set
in, which it was beyond the power of man to stem.
According to the list of books exhibited against Bayfield, at the head of the
whole, in point of number, we hare William Tyndale. This zealous importer
had brought this year — The five books of Moses, in distinct tracts or volumes
— The New Testament, including the prologue to the Romans — The parable
respecting Mammon — The Obedience of a Christian Man— The Practice of
Prelates, and even The Answer to More ; or ten different publications in all.
There was also one of Fryth's on Purgatory. We give the principal names
of the authors, with the number of publications by each.
By Tyndale there were at least ten, all in English, and in Latin we find
By Luther, . . 5 By CEcolampadius, 4 By Pomeranus, 3
— Melancthon, 5 — P. Lambert, . 4 — Capito, . 2
— Bucer, . . 5 — Brentius, . . 4 — Zuinglius, 1
Besides eight others by various authors — and the Sum of Scripture — The
Primer — The Psalter — The A. B. C. against the Clergy — and The Dialogue
between a Gentleman and a Ploughman. There were, in short, fifty-seven
distinct publications — " of all which books," Bayfield is charged with having
brought " a great number into this realm of England."
On the 3d of December, or only a fortnight after having tortured and
murdered this excellent man, Stokesly proceeded to the denunciation of books.
" The first Sunday of Advent," says the manuscript, " in the year of our Lord
one thousand five hundred and xxxi., these books following were openly at
Paul's Cross, by the authority of my Lord of London, under autheutical seal,
by the Dootor that day preached, prohibited and straitly commanded of no
manner of man to be used, under pain of suspension, and a greater pain, as
more largely appeareth in foresaid authority." This list of books is valuable,
as verifying the present history. We therefore give it verbatim, only arrang
ing the books under their respective authors. No Latin works are mentioned.
By TyndaU  The New Testameut in English, with an introduction to the
Epistle to the Romans *>l — The first book of Moses called Genesis — A prologue in
the iid book of Moses called Exodus — A prologue in the third book of Moses

61 This list is important, as confirmatory of Tyndale having reprinted the New Testament in
1530. None of the Antwerp editions as yet had the Prologue to the Romans inserted, but this
had. Bilney, it has been supposed, had a copy of this impression ; but we know for certain that
it was among the importations of Bayfield this year,— here it is formally interdicted, and John
Tyndale as well aa Patmore having been so treated ; all these circumstances leave but little or
no hesitation that Tyndale reprinted his New Testament in 1530, though he had not time as yet
to revise the translation. In the valuable List of Lowndes' Bib. Manual, Tyndale's edition of 1534
is represented as the Jirst that had the Prologue to the Romans inserted — but this now seems
to be a mistake. He appears to have inserted it first in his reprint of 1530.
VOL. 1. V

306 GEORGE CONSTANTYNE QbOOK I.
called Leviticus — A prologue in the iiijth book of Moses called Numeri — A
prologue in the vth book of Moses called Deuteronomye — The Parable of the
Wicked Mammon — The Obedience of a Christian Man — An Exposition into
the viith chapter to the Corinthians — The Matrimony of Tyndale — The Prac
tice of Prelates — An Answer of Tyndale to Sir Thomas More's Dialogue, in
English — Jonas, in English.
By Fryth. — The Revelation of Antichrist — A Disputation of Purgatory.
By Fyshe. — The Supplication of Beggars — The Sum of Scripture.
By Roye. — The Disputation betwixt the Father and the Son — The Burying
of the Mass, in English, in rhyme — A book against the Seven Sacraments.
A. B. C. against the Clergy — Ortulus Anime, in English — A book against St.
Thomas of Canterbury — A book of Thorpe or of John Oldcastle — The Primer
in English — The Psalter in English, by Joye — A Dialogue between the Gentle
man and the Ploughman.sa N.B . all EngUsh, for they formed the heavy artillery.
In the course of only eight or ten days after this interdict,
both Stokesly and More were busy with another martyr. The
reader may remember JbM Tewksbury, who, in 1529, on being
examined before Tunstal, answered so well, but getting en
tangled by his sophistry, abjured. Moved now by the noble
example of Bayfield, he resolved to confess the truth at all
hazards. On Saturday the 16th of December, Stokesly being
down at Chelsea, condemned him on the spot, in the house of
the Chancellor, and they delivered him to the sherifi's.
Stokesly had been consecrated or installed Lord Bishop of
London on the 20th of December last ; and so whether it was
to give the anniversary some farther celebrity, or as an ap
propriate memorial of the day — ^yet so it was — the sherifi^s
delivered this worthy man to the stake, and he perished in
the flames at Smithfield, on St. Thomas' Eve, the 20th of
December !
Before concluding this first year of Henry's supremacy,
among the men apprehended, we must on no account omit
George Constantyne, were it only on account of the consequences.
We first heard of him in 1528, when the examination of
Robert Necton occasioned his flight. Since that time he had
been in Brabant, and having been originally bred a surgeon,
he had there, by his own account, practised as such. At the
same time, he evidently had taken a deep interest in the im
portation of books, and coming over himself this year, had,
as well as Bayfield, brought books with him ; but he was not

62 See Lambeth MSS., No. 30G, folio 6.'). The Exposition of the Epistle of John by Tyndale had
not yet fallen into their hands. The Satire on Wolsey is here styled " the Bui7ingof the Mass."

1531.] FAILING THROUGH PEAR.

307

possessed of similar fortitude, nor was he ever, like him, to
wear the crown of martyrdom.
Falling into the hands of Sir Thomas More, he appears
evidently (by More's own expressions in the preface to his next
folio against Tyndale) to have been, in some degree, smitten
with the man and his shrewdness. He must have con
versed with him frequently, and at great length, as will
appear presently.
" After divers communications, amongst other things. Master More asked of
him, saying—' Constantyne ! I would have thee be plain with me in one thing
that I will ask ; and I promise thee, I will shew thee favour in all other things,
whereof thou art accused. There is beyond the sea, Tyndale, Joye, and a great
many of you : I know they cannot live without help. There are some that
help them, and succour them with money ; aud thou, being one of them, hadst
thy part thereof, and, therefore, kuowest from whence it came. I pray thee,
tell me who be they that help them thus %'—' My Lord,' quoth Constantyne,
' I will tell you truly : it is the Bishop of London that hath holpen us ; for he
hath bestowed among us a, great deal of money upon New Testaments, to burn
them ; and that hath been, and yet is, our only succour and comfort.' — ' Now,
by my troth,' quoth More, ' I think even the same ; for so much I told the
Bishop before he went about it.' "63
The communications of Constantyne at this moment, there
is now no doubt, had excited great attention. Crumwell will
be seen, presently, to ground his foreign correspondence upon
them ; and, by the man's own account in 15,'59, the King
himself had conversed particularly with him. " His Majesty
reasoned with me himself almost nine years ago," — and Con
stantyne then presumed to form his own opinion of the depth
of the King's learning. But More was the chief cross-
examinator, and Constantyne, very harshly treated, was now
at the lowest point of degradation throughout his varied life.
Very strange indeed were the changes that took place in these
times. How astonished would the Chancellor have been,
could he have been informed of the future path of the person
he then held in irons ! But Sir Thomas was not aware that
he was now conversing with a man who should return to Eng
land after' his death ; who should get into the service of Sir
Henry Norris, and thus become intimately acquainted with
the Court ; who should be present at the death of Henry's

63 Halle and Foxe. This refers to Tunstal's exploit at Antwerp in 1529, though it be evident
that Constantyne is now stretching a point, for the sake of the joke — a style of reply, with
which he well knew that More was often fascinated.

308 PERSECUTION AGAIN, [bOOK I.
now intended Queen; and, moreover, whose son-in-law should
rise to be Archbishop of York, (the very place that Wolsey
himself once occupied,) nay, and become President of Queen
Elizabeth's Council for the North of England ! s*
The Chancellor is represented by one manuscript, as having
put Constantyne in the stocks ;^ but by a subsequent letter it
will appear, that this was another way of expressing that he was
in irons. Sir Thomas, by his ofiicial severity, it will be proved,
at last constrained the man, through fear, to affirm much
more than he could have substantiated, respecting people
abroad, including even Mr. Vaughan, the English Envoy,
himself; and as these forced confessions came out, they soon
found their way across the sea. The Chancellor, it will soon
be evident, had an evil eye fixed upon Vaughan, as having
been far from that rigour which would have gratified him ;
while, on the other hand, the Envoy displeased with the
freedom now used with his character, immediately wrote to
Crumwell on hearing the first rumours.
« I am informed that George Constantyne hath of late declared certain things
against me, before my Lord Chancellor. If it be true, I pray you let me know
what things they be. Be you hereof assm-ed, that he can declare nothing
against me that is truth, to hurt me. Peradventure he hath declared that I
spoke with Tyndale. If so he have done, what hath he herein declared, that I
myself have not signified to the King's Highness 2 Peradventure he hath also
declared, that I laboured Tyndale, upon the King's safe-conduct, to come into
England. This also I have signified to his Highness. What other thing soever
he have declared against me, being ti'ue, I care not for it. If otherwise,
Veritas liberamt."^
Crumwell himself, however, now writes to Antwerp, once
and again counselling the Envoy ; as men of violent spirit
abroad, alone could satisfy the violent at home. But in the
meanwhile, to the no small mortification of our Lord Chan
cellor, Constantyne contrived to escape from his iron chain,
and sailing for the Continent, he arrived in safety at Ant
werp, on the 6th of December !
Vaughan, by this time, was efl'ectually roused, and he will
now disclose to us, very graphically, what had been the actual

64 All these curious particulars will come before us in due course.
C5 Manuscript life of More, edited by Dr. Wordsworth.
66 Cotton MS., Titus, B. i., fol. 368. Strype affirms that « he disingenuously confessed to Sir
Thomas, several of his companions, and disclosed the shipmen, who brought over many of these
books, and the marks of the fardles," or bundles.

1531.3 REACHING TO ANTWERP. 309
state of England for the last nine months. The following in
teresting, and, in some respects, noble letter, from which
Crumwell, at this crisis, might well have taken many a hint,
Vaughan despatched to him, only three days after Constan
tyne had reached his home, his wife, and his children.
" Right worshipful, your humble commendations premised. — The 6th day of
this present month, at mine entrance into the English house in Antwerp from
Tournay, I received your letters which I long looked for, with certain copies
inclosed therein, which I desired to receive. —
" Aud whereas in the same your letters, among other things therein contained
you signify unto me the taking of George Constantyne, and the doubt which your
friends putteth, that the said George will accuse me, not only to be a fautor and
adherent to the Lutheran sect, but also to have given help for and towards the
setting forth of such books and works as be erroneous and suspected : And
therefore cease not, after your ctccustoined manner, with many friendly, loving,
earnest, and discreet exhortations, to move, stir, and persuade me to be circum
spect ; and clearly separating and alienating myself from such sects aild erroneous
opinions ; only to apply and endeavour myself, truly and unfeignedly, to serve
the King his Majesty, in such things as his highness hath trustily commended
unto me in these parts. Promising me thereby the increase of my laud, praise,
and commendation, with other things too long to write.
" To these things before rehearsed, pleaseth your benignity to receive mine
answer in these words following. If Constantyne have accused me to be of the
Lutheran sect, a fautor and setter-forth of erroneous and suspected works, I do
not thereat marvel, for two causes specially. One is, for that my Lord Chancel
lor, in his examination of the said George, and of all other men; (as I am
credibly informed,) being brought before him for eases of heresy, doth deeply
enquire to know, what may be said of me ; and in the examination thereof,
showeth evident and clear desire, in his countenance and behaviour, to hear some
thing of me, whereby an occasion of evil might be fastened against me ; which,
no doubt, shall soon be espied in the patient whom he examineth, — who per
ceiving his desire in that behalf, and trusting, by accusing of me, to escape and
avoid his present danger, of pure frailty and weakness, spareth not to accuse
the innocent. The other is, for that George, besides the imminent peril and
danger in which he was, abiding prisoner in my Lord's house, was vehemently
stin-ed and provoked. What with the remembrance of his poor wife remain
ing here, desperate, bewashed with continual tears, and pinched with hourly
sorrow, sighs, and mourning, and the sharp and bitter threatenings of his poor
(state) and condition, likely to be brought unto an extreme danger of poverty ;
and more hard than the first, by the excess of his misery, to accuse whom they
had longed for, rather than to be tied by the leg, with a cold and heavy iron, hke
a beast, — as appeared by the shift he made to undo the same, and escape such
tortures and punishments. Will not these perils, fears, punishments, make a
son forget the father which begat him 1 And the mother that bear him, and fed
him with her breasts ? If they will, who should (wonder) though he would ac
cuse me, a thousand times less dear to him than either father or mother, to rid
him out of the same 3
" Would God ! it might please the King's Majesty to look into these kinds of
punishments ; which, in my poor opinion, threateneth more hurt to his realm,
than those that be his ministers to execute the same tortures and punishments

310 VAUGHAN'S NOBLE REMONSTRANCE [bOOK I.
do think or conjecture : and by this reason only, — It shall (will) constrain his
subjects, in great number, to forsake his realm, and to inhabit strange regions
and countries, where they will not practise a little hurt to the same. Yea, and
whereas, they (the King's ministers) think that tortures, punishments, and death,
will be a mean to rid the realm of erroneous opinions, and bring men in such
fear, that they will not once be so hardy to speak or look, — Be you assured, and
let the King's Grace be thereof advertised at my mouth, that his highness (shall)
will duly prove, that in the end, it will cause the sect to wax greater, and those
errors to be more plenteously sowed in his realm, than ever afore. For who have
so mightily sowed those errors, as those persons which, for fear of tortures and
death, have fled his realm ? Will they not, by driving men out of his realm,
make the rownt (irruption) and company greater in strange countries, and will
not many do more than one or two ? Will not four write where one wrote afore ?
Counsel you the King's Highness, as his true subject, to look upon this matter,
and no more to trust to other men's policies, which threateneth, in mine opinion,
the weal of his realm ; and let me no longer be blamed nor suspected for my
true saying.
" That I write I know to be true ; and daily do see experience of that I now
write, which, between you and me, I have often said and written, though per
adventure, you have little rega/rded it. But tarry a, while, and you will be
learned by experience. I see it begun already.
" To some men it will seem, by this my manner of writing, that I being, (as
they suppose, and as I have been falsely accused to be) one of the sect, do write
in this manner, because I would that both I and the same sect should be suf
fered without punishment. Nay truly — But rather I would that an evil doer
should be charitably punished, and in such manner as he might thereby be won
with other, than lost with a great many. And let his Majesty be farther assured,
that he will, with no policy, nor with no threatenings of tortures and punishments
take away the opinions of his people, till his Grace shall fatherly and lovingly
reform the Clergy of his realm. For there springeth the opinion. From thence,
riseth the grudge of his people. Out of that, men take and find occasions to
complain. If I say truth, let it be for such received. If otherwise, I protest,
before God and the World, that whatsoever I here write, I mean therein nothing
but honour, glory, and surety of my only Prince and sovereign, and the public
weal of his realm.
"And as to myself, and the fame and opinion of some men had of me. — Let all
men know, whatsoever the world babble of me, that I am neither Lutheran nor
yet Tyndalian, — nor have them or any other, or esteem them and any other,
for my Gods, — nor for the persons in whom, or in whose learning I have any
trust. — Nor yet do trust iu the doctrine and learning of any earthly creatures,
for all men be liars — in quantum homines, as Scripture saith : and again "male-
dictis qui confidit in hominem." Christ's Church hath admitted me ... a learn
ing sufiicient and infallible, aud by Christ taught, which is the Holy Scripture ;
let the world brawl, T am sure to have no other. I find not myself deceived, nor
I trust shall be. As the world goeth, men's learnings are not to be trusted ;
God's learning cannot deceive me (if) that I embrace it humbly and with rever
ence : His learning is an only truth in the World ; and among men, besides
that, is there found no truth ; but the contrary, sin, untruth, corruption, and
wretchedness. " And as to my truth to my Prince and Sovereign, and my service towards
his Grace, be not afraid, nor think that any worldly thing can corrupt my mind,
nor move my body or any member thereof, once to think or do any manner of

1531.] WITH CRUMWELL. 3J1
thing, that shall not both become a Christian man, and also a true and faithful
subject to his Prince. If I were of another sort, and as the more part are, I
might by chance obtain more favour. But whatsoever I do, or shall do to my
Prince, I do it not for any reward, nor thereby seek reward, which, with half
an eye, ye may perceive : And whether I be rewarded or not rewarded, it is
all one to me ; I will nevertheless do my duty. God hath eyes to see, and his
reward prepared, aud will prepare a living for me, wheresoever I be come, no
less than he doth for those his creatures which neither sow nor mow.
" I am unkindly handled, to have such sharp inquisitions made of me in
mine absence : I am (rude)ly handled for my service. Such stripes and bitter
rewards would faint, and make weak the heart of some men towards their
Prince ; but I am the stronger, because I know my ti'uth, and am at defiance
with all men pretending the contrary. What ! should I be longer in declaring
my mind ? Receive you the sum thereof, in short words. I will not be un
true to my Prince, though he were the doublest person of his realm, though
his governance were such as should offend both heaven and earth : as his Grace
is the very contrary, most noble, gracious, benign, and  Am I
not commanded by God, to be obedient to my Prince ? Do I not, by the con
trary, break God's ordinance 1 Am I ignorant in these things, supposeth the
world, whose eyes are covered with ambition, dissimulation, and such like ? 1
can no longer forbear but shew you my mind — it presseth my heart, like a
deadly wound, when I hear that I am otherwise meant. I had much rather
forsake my natural coiuitry, my most dear friends and family, and wander into
some strange region and country, there to lead the rest of my short life, than
thus to be handled for my true service, and my good mind — considering that
truth hath no better estimation, insomuch that it standeth in such danger, and
is so vilely reputed.
" I hear every where, how diligently my Lord Chancellor enquireth of all
those (whom) he examineth in cases of heresy, for me. What are my manners?
my opinions ? my conversations ? my faith ? finally, what is my life entirely ?
And besides him, there be others deputed for such like examinations, which
also make like inquisitions. Wherefore take they so great pains 1 What think
they to hear ? Or what think they that I am less than they ? As concerning
my creation — a man, a sinner, a vessel conceived in sin ; finally, a wretched
creature, barren and devoid of goodness — and this might they consider, without
so great pains-taking. Who so miserable a creature as I am ! beholding him
self to be threatened with men so puissant, would not think himself to be in
great danger ? Who so unkindly and unchristianly entreated, may not wofully
sing the verses painted in your stained cloth, resembling the evertion of Italy —
changing the feminine into the mascuhne^ — Etsola et m^diis herens in fluctibus,
ecce, me miseram quantis undique pressa malis.
" I see there is no remedy — but I must depart out of this country. I am
here suspected above all men. I would it might please his Grace to license me
to come into his realm, and no longer to be occupied iu these things which so
dangerously tlu'eaten my displeasure. I shall be contented to Uve in a corner
of his realm, far from the company of men, and there to pass the residue of
my short time."
It may here be called to mind that we have already seen
one English envoy in no small perplexity, and forced to move
from his ground, in consequence of his zeal in opposing this
great cau.se ; but here wc have the second, and in greater per-

312 VAUGHAN'S NOBLE REMONSTRANCE [^BOOK I.
plexity still. Eager to gratify his impetuous Sovereign, and
his no less temporising superior, Master Crumwell, the man
had, in truth, been only doing his utmost. But being at once
no favourite of Sir Thomas More's, (nor he assuredly of
Vaughan's,) and, at the same time, the pupil of Crumwell,
by whom he had been recommended to Henry ; between the
two, this ambassador was now in a maze. After such sound
advice as he had tendered to his King, and all around him ;
after such fine sentiments as he had now so well expressed ;
one cannot but regret to find, in the end, that he had been
only one of those of whom the Scriptures speak — " their webs
shall not become garments, and there is no judgment in their
goings : they have made them crooked paths : whosoever
goeth therein, shall not know peace." But the secret comes
out at last, and he is frank enough to tell it plainly ; well
knowing, as he must have done, that to such a man as Crum
well now was, it would be no blot in his character — for thus
he proceeds —
" I have too much laboured in truth. My policies have been hero divers.
My conversation amongst men, like unto theirs. Amongst Christian men I
have been a Christian. Amongst Jews, alike to them. Amongst Lutherans, a
Lutheran also. What can I here do, without such policy ? Shall such policies
hurt me, because I used them to compass other things ? Then, either think
they that they sent a fool, or me constrain they to think, that they have no
' discrete perceveraunce ! '
" Another thing that most grieveth me is this, that by this mean I should
lose a most dear friend and special good Master of you, as I have been lately
informed. And that you have excused you to the King's Majesty for me, and
showed to him, that you are very sorry, that ever you commended or advanced
me to his Majesty, — considering that I am one of such sort as I am, and that
you were greatly deceived by me ; supposing that I had been far otherwise dis
posed than I now am. Thus saith my Lord Chancellor, and so it is reported
to me, of his mouth. If you have so done, then again increase my troubles into
a more bitter passion than ever ; and think not that whatsoever you have said,
or shall say, have done, or shall do, it can yet turn my heart from you, of
whom I have received far greater pleasures, than these displeasures. — But
rather I will owe you all my powers, (besides that part which belongeth to God,)
while I live, and will not be driven from you, though my body should extremely
suffer. I speak it not feignedly, intending by such colour and manner of writ
ing to win your favour, or to gape for your gift, — having no need thereof; nor,
God willing, shall have, being right able, par tout, as the Frenchman saith, to
get my living. But I declare by this my writing unto you, the earnest meaning
of my heart, and that thereunto your exceeding merits have drawn me, nolens
volens. Here leave I, to write any farther of this matter, till I hear either from
you, or some other of my friends."
After informing Crumwell of his doings at Tournay, and the Emperor's move
ments, he then adds — "George Constantyne came to Antwerp, after his break-

1531.] WITH CRUMWELL. 313
ing from my Lord Chancellor, the vi. day of December. With him, nor with
none other such, unll I meddle or have to do, considering that I am beaten with
mine own labours. And thus, with most humble heart I bid you farewell, &e. —
from Antwerp the ix. day of December 1S31. — Your answer, if it so stand with
your pleasure. Your humble and true servant, »S'. Vaughan.''^'!
It may only be stated here that Constantyne again went on,
importing books : but it will be remembered that we have given
these instances, merely as a characteristic specimen of this
sad year. " For why stand I here," says Foxe in one place,
" numbering the sand ?" And again, — " So great was the
trouble of those times, that it would overcharge any story to
recite the names of all them, which during those bitter days,
before the coming in of Queen Anne, either were driven out
of the realm, or were cast out from their goods and houses, or
brought to open shame by abjuration. Yet, nevertheless, so
mightily the power of God^s gospel did work in the hearts of good
men, that the number of them did nothing lessen for all this vio
lence and policy of the adversaries ; but rather increased in such
sort, as our story almost suffereth not to recite the particular
names of all and singular such as then groaned under the perse
cution of those days!''' But still besides those whose names are
given, there must have been many who were never detected.
By these furious proceedings, the deep interest abroad, not
one whit diminished, was increased, and in more places than
one, for of course the parties molested fled to different ports.
But on the SOth of December Vaughan concludes the year, by
giving us the result, so far as his own residence and neighbour
hood were concerned. His letter, as before, is addressed to
Crumwell. " I hear of divers, as well men as women, whose persons or names I know
not, nor will know, to be fled out of England, for fear of punishment ; bringing
with them all that ever they can make. So that by this means, it is likely,
that new Tyndales shall spring, or worse than he. I am unwise thus to write,
being so unkindly treated in England in examinations : so that it seemeth tdj
poor house, my body, and finally my life, standeth only in the imtrue reports of
any evil disposed person in the King's realm ; which being examined of me, by
chance evomite or spit out any venom against me, whereby he may trust to es-

07 Cotton MS., Galha, B. x., fol. 21.— For several of the incidents hefore and afterwards men
tioned as to Constantyne, see his own curious memorial to Lord Crumwell, dated 19th August
1539, with its introduction and notes, as first printed in the Archffiologia of I83I, or vol. xxiii.,
pp. 50-70. " The caustic humour with which his remiirks abound," says Mr. Amyot, "serves
to give them additional point and effect." Some farther information furnished hy Constantyne
will occur under the years 153Gand 153i).

314 VAUGHAN DISGUSTED WITH PERSECUTION. [^BOOK I.
cape himself. Doth such unkindness, trow you, move me to use my policy with
these manner of people, or to go about any thing which by chance might either
help or ease ? Nay, truly ; but much rather I am utterly determined, henceforth,
never to intermeddle, or to have any communication, with any one of them ;
but shall rather give place to some other man, which, peradventure, shall have
better luck, than I hitherto have had ; whom they go about thus unkindly to
threaten, beat, rend, and tear for my service. I marvel of their exceeding thrift
to bring me in danger, which never offended them. What Job could here have
patience ? What mind, so quiet, will here not be troubled ?
" Let their manners, their behaviours, their meanings, their communications,
their companies, their opinions, their conversations, the orders of their livings
in all tilings, be as nearly examined as mine ; as subtilly searched and tried as
mine ; by so many sundry persons as mine ; — And what think you ? they shall
be found Innocents % Nay, nocentes, the worse, peradventure, than He, of whom
they so greatly examine. I would they all, which so greatly examine, did know,
I am no heretic, nor for them all, will be made one. I neither have so corrupt
a mind, so evil a conscience, nor so little understanding, as it seemeth they
would I had, which seek ways to destroy the innocent. I pray God amend
them !"e8
Vaughan, it is evident, was now thoroughly frightened, yet
he need not have greatly " marvelled." The reports respecting
him, must, of necessity, have been very contradictory, and the
miserable plight, of which he complained so loudly, was nothing
more than the natural result of those '¦'¦divers policies" which
he had dreamt to be the fruit of wisdom, or the evidence of his
superior talent. He only adds in this letter, — " If in any
part of this my writing, I have erred or offended, I ask thereof
pardon. My passion is so great, I cannot resist. And thus,
&c. — from Antwerp the SOth day of December 15S1." Nor
did he ever write again on this subject. The truth, was, he
was at once alarmed for himself, and disgusted with the pro
ceedings at home ; yet he retained his station, long survived
Sir Thomas More, and remained on the Continent for years.
But if Henry the Eighth be still resolved to have other agents
out in pursuit after Tyndale, he must find some other man than
Mr. Vaughan. Already we have seen a Friar, and two Am
bassadors, completely foiled, and disappointed of their prey;
though still the long pursuit is not even yet at an end ! In
the persons of her rulers at this period, no nation upon earth
had surpassed Britain, in her opposition to Divine truth.
98 Galba, B. ...., fol. 25.

[ 315 ]

SECTION IX.
tyndale's PROORESS  EXPOSITION IK MATTHEW — HIS SENTIMENTS UNDER
PERSECUTION  THE KING NOT APPEASED — RENEWED PURSUIT OF TYN
DALE — NOW BY SIR THOMAS ELYOT — STILL IN VAIN — STATE OF ENGLAND
 PARLIAMENT  THE BISHOPS FINED — THE KINO's AFFAIRS — PERSECU
TION GOES ON — BAINHAM — LATIMER  MORE AGAINST TYNDALE — FRYTH
ARRIVES IN ENGLAND  IN PERIL  IN THE TOWER  WRITING THERE IN
DEFENCE OF THE TRUTH, AND ADDRESSING THE CHRISTIANS IN ENGLAND,
Had Tyndale been only left unmolested, or left to proceed
with the Scriptures, he would, unquestionably, have had some
additional portion finished at press ; but since the year 1628
the reader may now judge of his situation. Already he had
given the New Testament, the Pentateuch, and the Prophet
Jonah, to his native land. The work of Translation, or the
joy of his heart, he still pursued, but without due deliberation,
he would not employ the press. Our English exile fled for
protection to no foreign prince ; nor had he the aid of eminent
literary assistants, like his contemporary, Martin Luther. If
he had hitherto enjoyed the assistance and fellowship of only
John Fryth, this was soon to be withdrawn, by his journey
to the martyr's stake in England ; and though labouring under
the frown of his own monarch, as well as that of all his coun
sellors and bishops, on he went.
Meanwhile, he had one solitary encouragement. He well
knew that whatever he put forth from the press, excited im
mediate notice ; for, in fact, every thing he had yet published,
had enjoyed the honour of being denounced in England, and
interdicted both by royal and priestly authority. The only
piece unnoticed as not being so, his " Exposition of the Epistle
of John," was this year added to the catalogue, and reprobated
in print, by the Lord Chancellor.
Our Lord's Sermon on the Mount, in the gospel by Matthew,
now engaged Tyndale's attention, as demanding to be ex
pounded, owing to the errors which still reigned triumphant ;
and his exposition first came out sometime this year. In this
fundamental portion of the Sacred Volume, he represents tho
Saviour as " opening the kingdom of heaven," which the
enemies " had shut up, that other men should not enter."

316 TYNDALE'S VIEWS OP [booK I.
« He restoreth the key of knowledge which they had taken away,"' having
also " broken the wards, with wresting the text contrary to its due and natural
course, with their false glosses. He plucketh away from the face of Moses, the
veil which the Scribes and Pharisees had spread thereon, that no man might
perceive the brightness of his countenance. He weedeth out the thorns and
briars of their pharisaical glosses, wherewith they had stopped up the narrow
way and strait gate, that few could find them."
Before this, we have had occasion to observe that Tyndale
was almost immediately in possession of whatever was trans
acted in England ; more especially by the King, and his ob
sequious or subdued Parliament : and, of course, he must have
been fully aware of their doings in the spring of last year.
His opinion of the change for which Henry and Crumwell had
been so eager, may be inferred from various passages now put
forth. Already he had shown himself a most loyal subject,
and an ardent admirer of good government ; in desiring, above
all things, that his King and country should be rescued from
spiritual thraldom : but in desiring this, he was no less ardent
in drawing the line of distinction between the world and the
Church. As to the latter, he longed for its restoration to its
original spirituality, and simple grandeur ; and as to his much
loved native land, that the throne should be established on a
safe and righteous basis. A few sentences will explain his
views of both subjects.
" When Christ, which is the door, the way, and the ground or foundation of
all the Scripture, is lost, concerning the chiefest fruit of his passion, and no more
seen in his own likeness ; then is the Scripture locked up, and henceforth ex
treme darkness and amaze ; wherein if thou walk, thou wettest neither where
thou art, nor canst find any way out ! It is a confused chaos, and a mingling
of all things together without order ; — every thing contrary to another. It is
an hedge or grove of briars, wherein if thou be caught, it is impossible to get out,
but that if thou lose thyself in one place, thou ai't tangled and caught in
another for it.
" This wise was the Scripture locked up of the Scribes and Pharisees, that
the Jews could not see Christ when he came, nor yet can. And though Christ,
with these three chapters, did open it again ; yet by such glosses, for our un-
thankfulness' sake, that we had no desire to live according, have we lost Christ
again, and the understanding of the most clear text, wherewith Christ expound-
eth and restoreth the law again.
« For the hypocrites have so ruffl,ed and tangled the temporal and spiritual
regiment together, and made thereof such confusion, that no man can know the
one from the other : to the intent that they would seem to have both by the
authority of Christ, which never usurped temporal regiment unto him — Go to,
then,— and read here the words of Christ, with this exposition foUowmg, and
thou shalt see the law, faith and works restored, each to his right use and true

1532.] THE KINGDOM OF CHRIST. 317
meaning. And thereto the clear difference between the spiritual regiment and
the temporal, and shalt have an entrance and open way into the rest of
all the Scripture."
" Ye must understand there be two states or degrees in this
world. The kingdom of heaven, which is the regiment (the
established government) of the Cospel ; and the kingdom of
this world, which is the temporal regiment.
" In the first, or spiritual state, there is neither Father, Mother, Son,
Daughter ; neither master, mistress, maid, man-servant ; 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 — all brethren, and
Christ only, is Lord over all.
" Every man then may be a common Preacher, thou wilt say, and preach
everywhere 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 oi'dinance
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 gover
nance. 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 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 proved, according to the order of charity, and yet none amendment
made ; then ought every man that can to resist him, aud to stand by Christ's
doctrine, and to jeopardy life, and all for it. Look on the old ensamples, and
they shall teach thee.
" The Gospel hath another freedom with her, than the temporal regiment.
Though every man's body and goods be under the King, do he right or wrong,
yet is the authority of God's Word free, and above the King : so that the
lowest in the realm may tell the King, if he do him wrong, that he doth nought,
and otherwise than God hath commanded him, and so warn him to avoid the
wrath of God, which is the patient avenger of all unrighteousness. May I
then, and ought also, to resist father and mother, and all temporal power
with God's Word, when they wrongfully do or command that which hurteth or
killeth the body ? And have I no power to resist the Bishop or Preacher,
that, with false doctrine, killeth the souls for which my Master and Lord, Christ,
hath shed his blood ? Be we otherwise under our Bishops, than Christ and
his Apostles, and all the other Prophets were under the Bishops of the old law !
Nay, verily : and therefore may we, and also ought to do as they did, and to
answer as the Apostles did. Acts v., We must rather obey God than men."
" Whosoever studieth to destroy one of the commandments following, and
teach other men even so, in word or ensample, whether openly or under a
colour, and through false glosses of hypocrisy ; that same doctor shall all they
of the kingdom of heaven abhor and despise, and cast him out of their company,
as a seething pot doth cast up her foam and scum and purge herself. So fast

318 SPIRITUAL DISTINGUISHED [bOOK I.
shall they of the kingdom of heaven cleave unto the pure law of God, without
all men's glosses. But whosoever shall first fulfil them himself, and then teach
others, and set all his study to the furtherance and maintaining of them, that
doctor shall all they of the kingdom of heaven have in px'ice — and follow him
and seek him out, as doth an eagle her prey, and cleave to him as burs. For
these commandments are but the very law of Moses, interpreted according
to the pure Word of God, and as the open text compelleth to understand them,
if ye look diligently thereon.
" The ' kingdom of heaven,' take for the congregation or Church of Christ.
And to be of the kingdom of heaven, is to know God for our Father, and Christ
for our Lord, and Saviour from all sin. And to enter into this kingdom it is
impossible, except the heart of men be to keep the commandments of God
purely, as it is written — ' If any man will obey his will, that is to say, the will
of the Father that sent me, (saith Christ) he shall know of the doctrine ; whether
it be of God, or whether I speak of mine own head.' For if thine heart be to
do the will of God ; he will give thee a pure eye, both to discern the true doc
trine from the false, and the true doctor from the howling hypocrite. And
therefore he saith — ' For 1 say unto you, except your righteousness exceed the
righteousness of the Scribes and Pharisees, ye cannot enter into the kingdom of
heaven.' For the righteousness of the Scribes and Pharisees cannot enter into
the kingdom. The kingdom of heaven is the true knowledge of God and
Christ : ergo, the righteousness of the Scribes and Pharisees neither knoweth
God nor Christ. He that is willing to obey the will of God, understandeth the
doctrine. But to obey the will of God, is to seek the glory of God. For the
glory of a master is the meek obedience of his servants ; The glory of a Prince
is the humble obedience of his subjects ; the glory of a husband is the chaste
obedience of his wife ; the glory of a father is the loving obedience of his
children ; but the Scribes and Pharisees have no desire to obey the will of God :
ergo, they seek not the glory of God."
" In the TEMPORAL regiment, (government,) is Husband, Wife ; Father,
Mother ; Son, Daughter ; Master, Mistress ; Maid, Man- servant ; Lord and
subject. " 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 and
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 another. Thou
art an husband, father, mother, master, mistress, lord, ruler — or wife, son,
daughter, servant, subject.' — And there thou must do according to thine office.
Now, to our purpose, whether a man may resist violence, and defend or avenge
himself. I say nay, in the first state, where thou art a person for thyself
alone, and Christ's disciple. There thou must love, and of love, do, study, and
enforce ; yea, and suffer all things (as Christ did) to make peace, that the bless
ing of God may come upon thee, which saith — " Blessed be the peace makers,
for they shall be the children of God.' If thou suffer and keepest peace in thy
self alone, thy blessing is the possession of this world ; but if thou so love the
peace of thy brethren, that thou leave nothing undone or unsuffered, to further
it, thy blessing is, thou shalt be God's son, aud consequently possess heaven.
" But in the worldly state, where thou art no private man, but a person in

1532.] FROM CIVIL GOVERNMENT. 319
respect of others, thou not only mayest, but also must, and art bound, under
pain of condemnation, to execute thine office. Of thy servants, thou must exact
obedience and fear, and mayest not suffer thyself to be despised.
" And where thou art a Ruler thereto appointed, thou must take, prison, and
slay too ; not of malice and hate to avenge thyself, but to defend thy subjects,
and to maintain thine office. Concerning thyself, oppress not thy subjects with
rent, fines, or custom at all ; neither pill them with taxes, and such like, to
maintain thine own lusts ; but be loving and kind to them, as Christ was to
thee, for they be his, and the price of his blood. But those that are evil doers
among them, and vex their brethren, and will not know thee for their judge,
and fear not thy law, them smite, and upon them draw thy sword, and put it
not up till thou hast done thine office."
At this very early period, the distinction between spiritual
and civil government was understood by scarcely any man,
and probably no one then alive could have drawn the line so
clearly ; nor is it at all to be wondered at, if, in the end,
Tyndale himself should so far entangle the two regiments with
each other. This he does, however, in a way then peculiar
to himself — and in a way, also, which, it will be now observed,
could never harmonise with the supremacy so lately acceded
to, seeing it was merely forced from a spirituality, falsely so
called, and one wliich this writer still laboured to level with
the dust —
" Moreover, when I say there be two regiments, the spiritual and temporal ;
even so I say that every person baptized to keep the law of God, and to be
lieve 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, aud how to rule, as is the poorest person in his
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 his vices rebuked, to amend them ; so dam
nable is it for the spiritual officer to withdraw himself from the King's correc
tion, if he teach false, or sin against any temporal law."
But the truth was, that the King was yet to be born
whom Tyndale wished to see. When he comes to expound
the last clause of the Lord's prayer, he says —
" Finally, no King, Lord, Master, or whatever ruler he be, hath absolute
power in this world, nor is the very thing which he is called, for then they cease
to be brethren, neither could they sin whatsoever they commanded. But now
their authority is but a limited power."
Such were some of Tyndale's views on a subject, which, at
this period, agitated all England. If they have been partly

320 TYNDALE'S SENTIMENTS [bOOK I.
the occasion of his memory being permitted to sleep in ob
livion ; if he had measured out " meat too strong " for the
age in which he lived ; we leave his sentiments, without com
ment, to the consideration of his countrymen now living,
after more than three hundred years have passed over the
land. And we leave them to enquire what might be his own
feelings, as a persecuted man, and still to be pursued. Here
they are in the same publication —
" Blessed are ye, when they revile you and persecute you, and say all man
ner of evil sayings against you for my sake, and yet lie. Rejoice and be glad, for
your reward is great in heaven. Ecen so, verily, they persecuted tlie prophets that
were before you. Here seest thou the uttermost that a Christian must look for.
It is not enough to suff'er for righteousness ; but that no bitterness or passion
be left out of thy cup, thou shalt be reviled and railed upon ; and even when
thou are condemned to death, then be excommunicate and delivered to Satan,
deprived of the fellowship of holy Church, the company of the angels, and of
thy part in Christ's blood ; and shalt be cursed down to hell, defied, detested,
and execrate with all the blasphemous railings that the poisonful heart of hypo
crites can think or imagine ; and shalt see before thy face, when thou goest to
thy death, that all the world is persuaded and brought in belief, that thou hast
said and done that thou never thoughtest, and that thou diest for that (which)
thou art as guiltless of as the child that is unborn.
" Well, though iniquity so highly prevail, and the truth for which thou diest,
be so low kept under, and be not once known before the world, insomuch, that
it seemeth rather to be hindered by thy death than furthered, (which is of all
griefs the greatest,) yet let not thine heart fail thee ; neither despair, as though
God had forsaken thee, or loved thee not. But comfort thyself with old en
samples, how God hath suff'ered all his old friends to be so entreated ; and also
his only and dear son, Jesus, whose ensample, above all other, set before thine
eyes, because thou art sure he was beloved above all other, that thou doubt not
but thou art beloved also ; and so much the more beloved, the more thou art
like to the image of his ensample in suff'ering.
" Did not the hypocrites watch Him in all his sermons, to trap Him in his
own words 1 Was He not subtilly apposed, whether it were lawful to pay
tribute to Csesar 3 Were not all His words wrong reported 3 Were not His
miracles ascribed to Beelzebub 1 Said they not. He was a Samaritan, and had
a devil in him 3 Was He not called a breaker of the Sabbath — a wine-drinker
— a friend of publicans and sinners 3 Did He aught, wherewith no fault was
found, and that was not interpreted to be done for an evil purpose 3 Was not
the pretence of His death, the destroying of the temple, to bring him into the
hate of all men 3 Was He not thereto accused of treason, that He forbade to
pay tribute to Csesar, and that He moved the people to insurrection ? Railed
they not on Him, in the bitterest of all His passion, as he hanged on the cross,
saying, ' Save thyself, thou that savest others, come down from the cross, and
we will believe in thee.' Yet He was beloved of God, and so art thou. His
cause came to light also, and so shall thine at the last ; yea, and thy reward is
great in heaven with him, for thy deep suff'ering.
" And, on the other side, as they be cursed which have righteousness desti
tute, and will not suff'er therewith ; so are they most accursed which know the

1532.] UNDER PERSECUTION. 321
truth, and yet not only flee therefrom, because they will not suffer ; but also
for lucre become the most cruel enemies, and most subtle persecutors, and
most falsely lie thereon also."
The power of Tyndale's writing lay in his drawing from
the life, and his discerning, with superior judgment, the
precise moment when certain truths required to be pressed
upon the notice of his country. His views, whether of civil
government, or the Church of God, were far above his age,
and few there must have been who could then understand him;
but apart from these subjects, many passages, besides that last
quoted, were peculiarly well timed. The preceding page,
and several others, were evidently intended to nerve the minds
of the martyrs and confessors in England ; to raise them
above all the fury of the Chancellor, or Stokesly, or any other
Bishop. Hitherto it seems as if all who had been apprehended
and examined, from Barnes down to the present hour, had ab
jured.^ And though the fire had been now prepared for the
bodies of men, as well as the books they read, still the methods
of Tunstal and More, for perplexing the mind or tormenting
the conscience, were preferred in the first instance. The stake
was the last resort, merely on this account, that abjuration
aud recanting not only saved appearances, but served, in some
degree, to bolster up the reigning superstition.
If, then, England herself could furnish the enemy with no
man of eminence, who had courage sufficient to act fully up to
his principles on the first call ; — a man, in whom there should
be no wavering, no subterfuge, no compromise or concession,
not one faltering word ; — one who should first triumph in
argument before the Bishops assembled, and abide firm by
every syllable of his noble confession ; — then such a man must
come to London from abroad. The time is drawing near for
his arrival in the kingdom, though little did Tyndale imagine,
when thus addressing the faithful in England, that the ex
ample which he now enforced, was to be first given by his
own bosom friend — Fryth !
But it is with Tyndale himself we have to do at present. It
was now six years since his translation of the New Testament
had been denounced and committed to the flames ; and not
1 Thomas Hitton, to whom Tyndale has once alluded, might possibly be a solitary exception.
He was put to death by Warham, but we know not all the particulai-s.
VOL. 1. X

322 THE KING NOT APPEASED. QbOOK I.
less than four, since his person had been in danger. By the
authorities in England, from the year 1528, he had been a
man sought for, but never yet seized. His pursuers too, seem
to rise in point of rank, as we proceed. The first was Friar
West, who, but for his commission from Wolsey, had remained
in oblivion. Hackett, most gladly, would have sent Tyndale
to England, even by the foulest means, and, according to his
own logic, as a traitor ; but he could never find him. Vaughan
was incapable of so base an action, though Tyndale favoured
him with, at least, two interviews ; and from what we have
read, it may safely be inferred, that he would never more en
gage in hunting after heretics, — having, according to his own
confession, been " so beaten with his own labours." He well
deserves, however, to be remembered as the only man of the
age, who lifted up his voice against the extreme folly of per
secution for opinion. Henry had no man near him so enlight
ened at the moment, or if he had, not one who dared to speak
out, not even Crumwell himself; for though so pointedly
charged by Vaughan, it may be presumed that he never had
shown that envoy's letter, or reported its contents, to the King.
But be this as it may, Henry was not appeased. Tyndale
had gone on to publish, it is true, and besides his Answer to
Sir Thomas More, his translation of Jonah was now in Eng
land; but his Majesty was no admirer of the King of Nineveh,
nor were his ministers like the nobles of that great city. The
person now put in commission, and by the King himself, to
pursue the best of his subjects, was no other than the well
known Sir Thomas Elyot, a literary man, author of " The
Grovernor," and other publications. Vaughan had been
patronised by Crumwell, yet thought for himself; but Elyot
was the very intimate, if not bosom friend of Sir Thomas More,
as well as a favourite of the King's, so that no zeal can be
lacking now, even if Tyndale should not be apprehended.
In all the histories yet published, Elyot is first mentioned as
sent by Henry the VIII. to Eome, about his divorce in 15S2;
but he was on the Continent last year. He was with the
Emperor in November at Tournay, and had then been abroad
sometime. Vaughan had met him there ; and on the 9th or
19th of December 1531, he writes to Crumwell : —
" Maister EUyot, the King's Ambassador, this day sent me a letter from

1532.] RENEWS PURSUIT OF TYNDALE. 823
Tournay, with another enclosed to you, wherein I think he desireth you to be
a solicitor to the King's Majesty and to his honourable council for him, that
he may from time to time have answer of his letters, and be made thereby
more able to do the King honour in these parts. It is not well done that he
should be so long without letters.2
The Emperor, leaving the Low Countries in the beginning
of January this year, directed his journey towards Ratisbon,
in order to hold a diet there. Taking Mentz on his way, he
had not arrived till February or the beginning of March, but
to this city Elyot followed him. Whether his correspondence
had been still neglected, as both Henry and Crumwell were
absorpt in Parliamentary affairs at home, does not appear,
but the ambassador had been anxious to revisit England.
This desire, however, could not be gratified, and on the 14th
of March, we have the following letter, dated from (Eegens-
burgh) Ratisbon, addressed to the Duke of Norfolk, the suc
cessor of Wolsey, as Prime Minister of England, and as
determined an enemy as the Cardinal ever was.
" My duty remembered, with most humble thanks unto your Grace, that it
pleased you so benevolently to remember me unto the King's Highness, con
cerning my return into England. Albeit the King willeth me, by his Grace's
letters, to remain at Brussels, some space of time, for the apprehension of Tyn
dale, which somewhat minisheth my hope of soon return ; considering that
Uke as he is in wit moveable, semblably so is his person uncertain to come by.
And, as far as I can perceive, hearing of the King's diligence in the apprehen
sion of him, he withdraweth him into such places where he thinketh to be
farthest out of danger. In me there shall lack none endeavour. Finally, as
I am all the King's, except my soul, so shall I endure all that shall be his
pleasure, employing my poor life gladly, in that which may be to his honour, or
wealth of his realm.
" Pleaseth it your Grace, according as I have written to the King's Highness,
the Emperor being yet sore grieved with a fall from his horse, keepeth himself
so close, that Mr. Cranmer and I can have none access to his Majesty, which
almost grieveth me as much as the Emperor's fall grievetli him."3
Every one who has paid any attention to these times, can
not fail to be excited by the mention of Elyot's companion
and associate, and more especially as this is the earliest dis
tinct notice of Cranmer when abroad, which appears on the
face of these manuscripts. He had been at Rome for some
time in 15S0, but returned to England in 16S1, where we
find him at Hampton Court in June, and in close attendance

3 Cotton MS., Galba, B. x., fol. 24-5. 3 Cotton MS., Vitell., B. xxi., fol. .14.

321. THROUGH A THIRD AMBASSADOR. [BOOK I.
upon his Majesty there. As busy as ever in Henry's one
affair, from thence, on the 13th of that month, he dates a long
letter to Lady Anne's father, the Earl of Wiltshire, criticis
ing the book of Cardinal Pole, on this business ; * and as he
remained at home till January, he eould not fail to be in
timately acquainted with all the sad occurrences of last year.
In that very period the fatal fires had been kindled, and were
blazing in England. Then the martyrdoms of Bilney, of
Bayfield, and of Tewksbury, had taken place ; there were the
grievous cross examinations and cruelties of More and of
Stokesly ; and the public denunciation, by the latter, of Tyn
dale's writings, in December; and yet here is Cranmer, asso
ciated as ambassador and fellow traveller with the man who has
been charged, by their King, to seize the Author ! But still it
were nothing short of an injury done to posterity, to represent
any man, whoever he may have been, as interested in a cause
before he really was, even so far as to evince sympathy for the
cruelty and death endured in it ; and the truth of history
does not furnish us with even a vestige of such interest or
feeling in Cranmer, for some timS to come. One eminent
service in relation to the Scriptures, he will perform for his
country, which will come before us, in its proper place, five
years hence ; but at this momentous period, let the men who
bore the brunt of this never-to-be-forgotten contest ; the men
who died with their face to the foe —
" Who neither fear'd the darkest hour.
Nor trembled at the tempter's power ;"
let them enjoy the place to which they alone are entitled ;
an eminence unapproached by others, whether from shame or
fear, from worldly policy or criminal ignorance. No unbiassed
writer can now wittingly confound Tyndale and Fryth with
any other men, who in the days of peril, persecution, and
universal obloquy, either dared not, or could not, speak one
word ; nor will he allow their characters to be obscured by
any, who never came forth till after the battle of eleven years'

i Sir W. H. MS., printed in Strjpe's Cranmer, App., No. I. But Strype has mistaken the year
for 1530, when Cranmer was at Home. Mr. Todd in his Life gives the correct date, vol. i. p. 38.
What was called a book by Cranmer might be nothing more than a long argument in manuscript,
which Pole had presented to the King, his cousin. Book and letter weiB then occasionaUj
used as synonymous terms. This book or argument, however. Is not to be confounded with
Pole's subsequent publication—" Pro Ecclesiasticse Unitotis," which he sent to Henry in 153S.
See note 21, page 221.

1532.] ' CRANMER WITH HIM. ' 325
duration was fought and won. Since the year 1526, Divine
truth, like concealed leaven, had been in vigorous operation,
enlightening, saving, and sanctifying the souls of men ; but
the Translator, after his long unaided warfare, had washed
his robes and made them yhite in the blood of the Lamb,
before that Cranmer had ever once expressed his approbation
of the translation. It will not be till in a moment of sur
prise, and after finding himself in a dilemma, that he will
speak out. But even this will not occur till five years more
have passed away.
It was on {he 24th of Janudlry this year that Cranmer had
received his credentials as ambassador to the Court of the
Emperor, when he immediately left England, and must have
overtaken Elyot somewhere on the Rhine.^ The letter, from
which we have already quoted, narrates their progress towards
Ratisbon, and as it contains some curious information respect
ing the places where they stopped and made enquiries, another
extract, illustrative of the times, must not be omitted.
" I have promised to the King," says Elyot, " to write to your Grace, the or
der of things in the town of Nurenburg, specially concerning the faith. But
first, I will rehearse some other towns, as they lay in our way. The City of
Worms for the more part, and almost the whole is possessed with Lutherans
and Jews; the residue is indifferent, to be shortly the one, or the other.
Truth it is,athat the Bishop keepeth well his name of Episcopus, which is in
English an overseer, and is in the case that overseers of testaments be in Eng
land ; for he shall have leave to look, so that he meddle not.^ Yet sometime
men calleth him overseen, that is drunk, — when he neither knoweth what he
doeth, nor what he ought to do. The City of Spire keepeth yet their faith well,
except some say there be tnany do err in taking so largely this article sanctorum
communionem, which hath induced more charity than may stand with honesty.
All towns ensuing, be rather worse than better, but I pass them over at this
time. Touching Nurenburg it is the most proper town, and best ordei-ed public-
weal that ever I beheld. There is in it so much people, that I marvelled how
the town might contain them, besides them that followed the Emperor : and not
withstanding there was of all victual more abundance than I could see in ally
place, although the country adjoining is very barren. I appointed to lodge in
an Inn, but Sir Laurence Staber, the King's servant," (an ecclesiastic in Henry's
pay,) " came to me desirijig me to take his house, whereunto I brought with
me the French Ambassador, where we were well entertained.
" Although I had a chaplain, yet could not I be suffered to have him to sing
mass, but was constrained to hear theirs, which is but one in a church, and that

* Strype has said 1531, and others have followed him. It is true the commission in which
Cranmer is styled " Consili.irus Regius et Cxsarem Orator," bears date 24th January 1531, but
as their year ran on to the 25th of March, this is 1532. This was Cranmer's second journey to
the Continent, and in a higher character than before. i See pages 220, 229.

326 SIR THOMAS ELYOT [bOOK I.
is celebrated in form following. The Priest, in vestments after our manner,
singeth every thing in Latin as we use, omitting suffrage ; the epistle he readeth
in Latin. In the meantime the sub-deacon goeth into the pulpit and readeth
to the people the epistle in tlieir vulgar. After, they peruse (perform ?) other
things as our Priests do. Then the Priest readeth -so/eZy the gospel in Latin.
In the inean space the Deacon goeth into the pulpit and readeth aloud the gos
pel in the Almayne (German) tongue. Mr. Cranmer saith it was shewed to
him that in the epistles and gospels they kept not the order that we do ; but do
peruse every day one chapter of tlie New Testament ; afterwards the Priest and
the choir do sing the Credo, as we do. The day after our coming, the Senate
sent gentlemen to show us their provision of harness, ordinance aud corn, &c.
— Written at Kegensburgji the xiiii day of March."?
For about six months Cranmer continued to reside chiefly
at Nuremberg, and Elyot at Ratisbon. In prospect of the
Turkish invasion, Charles was now in treaty with the German
Protestant Princes to secure their co-operation against the
common enemy of Europe, who proudly insisted that no man
should be called Emperor except himself. These' negociations
commencing in April terminated on the 23d of July at Ratis
bon, on which day Elyot wrote again to the Duke of Norfolk.*
This letter, however, conveyed no very welcome news to
Henry at least ; though the Princes (seven in number, and
twenty- four Cities,) regarded it as the first religious peace in
Germany. None were now to be molested on account of
opinions till the meeting of a General Council ; all judicial
processes relating to religion were to be suspended, and all law
suits for the restoration of Church property were null and void ;
concessions which were published throughout Germany, by
imperial proclamation. These were measures, too, in perfect
accordance with those which Vaughan had urged upon Henry
the Eighth, through Crumwell ; yet so bent was our English
Monarch upon his favourite project, and the gratification of Sis
own will, that even the prospect of such relief to thousands of
the best minds in Europe, had no charms for him ; and Cran
mer had been engaged to employ all his skill in preventing such
enjoyment ! He had been " instructed to make a secret visit
to the court of Saxony, to deliver letters both to the Elector

7 Cotton MS., Vitell., B. xxi., fol. 64, &c., endorsed, "from Sir T. Elyot to my Lord of North-
folko's Brace." This and another long epistle, dated llth Aug. 1531, are misquoted in the cata
logue, as addressed to Wolsey, aud the former, as if dated in 1530. But he was in disgrace all
that year, and died before it ended. Both letters were written in 1532 ; the first is proving that
they were prepared for the Turkish invasion ; but the other parts, here quoted, are very curi
ous, as addressed to Norfolk, who was now the head of the old learning party.
» Harbcrt's Hen. VIII. The pacificatioii was ratified in August at Nuremberg.

1532.] AND CRANMER. 327
and the other Princes who had joined the Protestant league,
and to assure them, by conversation also, of his Sovereign's
friendship. Henry was disposed, like the French King, to
foment between these confederates and the Emperor any ill
humour. It was his project of revenge for the Imperial oppo
sition to the divorce ; but it had no important result. The
pacification of Nuremberg indeed was effected within a few
days after this effort to impede it, and Cranmer had to relate
to his Sovereign, instead of dissension, the principal terms of
that memorable treaty."^
How long before the 14th of March, Elyot had been
charged with his commission from the King to seize Tyndale,
does not appear ; but as he chose to say, that he was " all the
King's except his soul,'''' from the first moment he must have
been on the look out ; and as he had been moving from place
to place for about two months before he arrived at Ratisbon,
he could then speak from some experience of Tyndale " with
drawing" himself, "as far as he could perceive. Now, however,
he was far distant from Brussels, aud there he must remain.
Providentially, for Tyndale at least, he was detained month
after month ; and if Cranmer failed in his " secret visit," so
did Elyot as to his " commission," from the King. A storm
was gathering in the East which occasioned eyeiy monarch in
Europe to pause and think ; it was the invasion of Solyman,
the grand Turk, with an army of three hundred thousand men.
Elyot's letters, therefore, were now full of little or nothing
else, if we may judge by his very long epistle to Norfolk on the
llth'" of August. And thus was he diverted from a pursuit
which must have for ever disgraced his memory, if it had
ended in the apprehension of England's greatest benefactor.
Tyndale has yet four years to live.
Upon returning to England, in the year 1532, two parties engage our
notice. The King and Crumwell on the one hand, and in connexion
with Italy ; More and Stokesly on the other, in relation to affairs at
home. The former, still busy with Parliamentary affairs and those of
the Clergy ; the latter more than ever opposed to freedom of opinion
and the progress of Divine Truth.
In the beginning of January, certain parties having resolved to
present Henry with new year's gifts, the total sum, according to the
9 Todd's Life of Cranmer, I., 41. 42. lo Cutton MS., Vitell., B. xxi., fol, 64.

328 STATE OF ENGLAND. I^BOOK I.
Burghley Manuscript, was £17\, 10s. lOd., or above .£11,000 of our
money. This is worthy of remark, merely as a proof of the Clergy's
earnest desire to please their new Head. He had exacted from them
no small amount per annum, for five years to come, and yet thus early
they come forward ¦with a new year's gift ! If they imagined that such
a trifle would slake his supremacy's thirst for gold, or retard his onward
progress, they were soon to learn their mistake. Of this sum, however,
they had subscribed nearly i£600, the nobility and others only £174.
Strype supposes that this was done to sweeten the Sovereign, or prevent
farther provocation.
But then Parliament had been summoned to meet on the 15th of
January, and the first business of the Commons' House was to present
their " Supplication" — a regular digest of their grievous oppressions by
the Clergy. It was laid before the King by their Speaker, Sir Thomas
Audley. The reader may now call to mind the strong and complicated
connexion which had subsisted for ages between Britain and Rome.
It is even worth repeating. There was the Annate or first-fruits, payable
by the Archbishop downwards to the lowest, upon election to oflice ; the
Appeal ; the Dispensation ; the Indulgence ; the Legantine levy ; the
Mortuary ; the Pardon ; the Ethelwolf s pension ; the Peter's pence for
every chimney that smoked in England ; the Pilgrimage ; the Tenth ;
besides the sale of trinkets or holy wares from Rome, or twelve distinct
sources of revenue ! Had it been resolved that all these baneful and
unceasing drains on the country should cease, or be abandoned, the
round dozen might have been soon disposed of : but this was not now
the question. That was merely, which should be abandoned, and which
transferred into other hands, or from Italy to England, that is, from the
Pontiff to Henry. The Mortuary and the Appeal had been dealt with
already ; the Annate or first-fruits now came before Parliament. A bill
was, accordingly, introduced into the House of Lords, then sent through
the Commons, and received the Royal assent, with this proviso, that the
King should either annul or confirm it within two years. That is,
Henry was first to use it in threatening the Pontiff, and, in case of
failure, by transferring the payment, he will so far enrich himself.
The bill was confirmed in July next year. Prom this source alone, there
had passed out of the kingdom to Rome, during the last forty-five years,
or since the second of Henry VII., a sum equal to £160,000, or nearly two
millions and a half sterling of the present day.
This Parliament, which had been prorogued, met again in April, when
the principal grievance complained of by the Commons had to be con
sidered. The Bishops made canons by their sole authority, which was
represented as at once an invasion of the royal prerogative, and a source
of vexation to the King's subjects. The Clergy resolutely evaded or
resisted as long as they could, but they were no match for Henry's de-

1532.] _ HENRY AND THE BISHOPS. 329
termination. He was displeased with the whole Bench, and especially
with Stephen Gardiner, whom he had but very recently made Bishop
of Winchester. His Majesty referred again to the oaths they had taken,
and insisted that they were but half what he desired, or half his sub
jects. Rising in his demands, he then pressed upon them that they
must neither attempt to enforce the old, nor enact any new canons.
The King, however, finally contented himself with the last restriction,
though this concession was only to serve till a more convenient season.
The truth is, that throughout the whole of this contention about secu
lar affairs, and which was to continue for some time to come, any im
partial witness can behold nothing else on the part of the King and these
Bishops, except a course of proceedings distinguished only for chicanery
and deceit. The latter, straining every nerve on behalf of their order
and emoluments, — the former resolved to look after his own pecuniary in
terest, his personal gratification, and his power. Individually and col
lectively, the whole Bench did what they could to retain all they had ;
but the day of their decline had arrived, and their ancient power and
privileges were fast waning. One expiring effort indeed may be seen on
the part of their Archbishop, Warham, only six months before his own
death. He had, last year, agreed to Henry being " Head of their
Church," with, no doubt, mental reservations lingering in his mind, ac
cording to the deceitful fashion of the times. He saw now the gather
ing or impending storm, though he could not avert it. While, therefore,
Henry was proceeding, by degrees, in his own aggrandisement, Warham
on the 9th of February, was recording in his official Register, the follow
ing powerless protestation, — "that whatsoever statutes had passed, or
were to pass in this present Parliament, to the prejudice of the Pope or
the Apostolic See, or that derogated from, or lessened, the ecclesiastical
authority, or liberties of his See of Canterbury, he did not consent to them,
but disowned and dissented from them !" This, though done quietly
perhaps, was no secret, as Burnet has imagined. The three notaries
and four witnesses present at Lambeth, were allsufficient to have ren
dered the thing actionable another day, if circumstances had turned out
otherwise.'! j^^^ ^\g^ jg Warham ! The man who seemed so forward
in the House of Lords last year, nay took the lead ! But the protest was
of no moment, the Archbishop died in August, and Cranmer will, by
and bye, be ready to fulfil all Henry's pleasure, and seat the Monarch
more firmly in his chair.
Symptoms of the plague now appearing in London, Parliament was pro
rogued on the 14th of May. Two days after, Sir Thomas More, alive to
the onward progress of events, thought it was time for him to take some
step ; and therefore, suddenly, without acquainting any one of his in-

Seo the Register itself, or Wilkins' Concil. HI., 74S.

330 HENRY'S VEXATIOUS QUESTION. [boOK I.
tention, on the 16th of May having tendered his resignation of the great
seal, it was committed on the 20th to Sir Thomas Audley, with the title
of Lord-Keeper ; and in September following, when a new seal was given
to him, it was still with no higher title. The fact has generally been over
looked, that Sir Thomas More continued to act as a Law officer throughout
the rest of the year, and the title of Lord Chancellor was not transferred
from him to Audley, till January next. But the preceding transactions at
home, will acquire additional interest when viewed in connexion with Italy.
During the whole of the present year, as well as the following, it is
evident that both Henry and the Pontiff were straining every nerve to
excite each other's fears. England, for that blind and slavish obedience,
which, compared with other nations, she performed to the See of Rome,
having been, by Italians and other foreigners, not unfitly termed — the
Pope's Ass ; Clement was very reluctant to his being dismounted ; but,
watched and ruled by the Emperor, he had often felt it difficult to retain
his seat, and the time was now fast approaching when he must so ride
no more. On the other hand, Henry had to take care of his ascendancy,
and even the security of his throne ; many of his subjects being by no
means in favour of the course on which he was bent, whether relating to
the divorce of his Queen, or the place he had recently arrogated to him
self, in reference to the clergy. On his part, therefore, a degree of wari
ness or caution, very unlike his natural temper, is observable throughout.
His Parliamentary measures were carried in such a style as to excite alarm
at Rome, and in the meanwhile, lead on his subjects, if they should pass
into positive statutes. On his part, they wore somewhat of the appear
ance of reluctance, while, at the same moment, they chimed in with the
complaints of his Commons.
With regard to Clement, on the other hand. Queen Catherine having
informed him of her banishment from court, as well as the royal presence,
for some time past, and claimed his protection ; the Pontiff, in January,
had transmitted a letter to the King, trying to awaken in him a sense of
shame and fear, as to his conduct. In the very same month, Henry had
despatched Dr. Bennet, as ambassador, to enforce at Rome the sentences
received from the Universities and Lawyers in favour of his separation ;
and in February, Sir Edward Karnes followed as excu,sator, to say that,
as King, he could not and would not appear before Clement. In March,
the King of Prance, as his ally and professed friend at the moment, sent
an urgent if not a warning letter to Rome, by the hands of Cardinal de
Gramont, Bishop of Tarbe ; and the very next intelligence which arrived
there, related to these Bills in Parliament. To this it was added, that
a man who had been convicted of heresy before Warham, had been re
leased, in consequence of his appeal to the King, as " Head of the Church
of England." Besides all this, Henry, now finding that the Emperor
and Clement were in such firm alliance, resolved to meet this by a

1532.] PERSECUTION GOES ON. 331
stricter amity with Francis. He proposed, therefore, to visit France
himself ; and taking Anne Boleyn in his company, who had lately been
created Marchioness of Pembroke, the two Sovereigns met at Boulogne,
in October. A treaty, akin to that of Wolsey's in 1527, was the result,
and Henry returned by Calais to England in November. In the same
month also, Cranmer arrived from the Emperor's court, having been re
called to fill the place of Warham as Archbishop of Canterbury.
By way of return for this course of proceeding, Clement had prepared
a Bull, positively prohibiting the King from all intimacy with the new
made Marchioness. It was ready by the 16th of this month of November,
as it was originally framed on that day, but by an additional note, it is
dated the 23d of December ; or, in other words, it was drawn up at Rome,
and now finished at Bologna, where Clement had arrived to meet his
master, the Emperor. It is worthy of noting, merely as illustrative of
the duplicity of the man who then professed to send out his thunder ;
for on the very next day, Bennet, the English ambassador, not yet aware
of the step taken, lamenting to the Pontiff himself that no means could
be found to satisfy his royal master, — Clement replied "that he would,
it had cost him a joint of his hand, that such a way might be excogi
tated." " And here speaking of the justness of your cause, he called to
remembrance the thing which he told me two years past, that the
opinions of the lawyers were more certain, favourable, and helping to
your cause, than the opinions of divines," — adding, that he would "im
print the same in the Emperor's head I"'^ The people said of Wolsey,
that " he could not leave his lying ; " and Clement also pursued the
same course to his dying day.
But enough of these tortuous movements, whether secular or political.
They are here of no other value than to show the course of the world at
the moment.
Sir Thomas More and Stokesly still went on as the most
eminent and busy persecutors of the Truth. In December last,
a gentleman of his own profession, had fallen into the hands of
the Chancellor ;¦ — Mr. James Bainham, the son of Sir Alex
ander Bainham, a knight of Gloucestershire, who had married
the widow of Mr. Fyshe, already noticed. He had been seized
by the Sergeant-at-arms, and carried out of the Middle Temple
down to More's own house at Chelsea. This was another
victim to console him for the recent escape of George Con
stantyne. Imagining that there must have been others of the
profession who had imbibed the same opinions, the Chancellor
12 Bonnet, to tlic iCing. MS. State Paper Office.

332 PERSECUTION UNTO. DEATH. [^BOOK I.
particularly degraded himself by his cruelty to this excellent
man ; for after being shamefully handled under his own roof,
if not also in his own garden, he was afterwards conveyed to
the Tower, and there, in his presence, tortured by the rack till
he was lamed. He would, however, neither accuse any gentle
men of his acquaintance in the Temple, nor disclose where his
books lay concealed. His worthy partner in life also, no
more able to see the face of Henry, and who might have been
repulsed though she had, now fell into trouble. Denying the
books to be at her husband's house, she was thrown into Fleet
Prison, and their goods confiscated. After all this torment,
Bainham was handed over to Stokesly ; and some parts of his
examination before him, at Chelsea, on the 1 5th of December
last, are well worthy of being recorded. They will be found
at once honourable to the confessor, illustrative of the times,
and of the positive enmity now reigning against the truths of
Divine revelation.
Being aslced — ^"Whether he believed tliere were any purgatory of souls hence
departed 1" He simply answered — " If we walk in light, even as He is in light,
we have society together with Him, and the blood of Jesus Christ His Son, hath
cleansed us from all sin. If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and
the truth ia not in us. If we confess our sins. He is faithful and just, and will
forgive us our sins, and will purge us from all our iniquities."
. Being then asked — " Whether the saints hence departed are to be honoured
and prayed unto, to pray for us ? " Again he answered — " My little children, I
write this unto you, that ye sin not. If any man do sin, we have an advocate
with the Father, Jesus Christ the just, and he is the propitiation for our sins,
and not only for our sins, but also for the sins of the whole world."
It was enquired what he had meant by affirming " that the truth of holy
Scripture hath been hid, and appeared not these eight hundred years, neither
was known before now ? " To this he said " That he meant no otherwise, but
that the truth of holy Scripture was never, these eight hundred years, so plainly
and expressly declared unto the people, as it hath been within these s'tx years."
[Bainham here reckons from January 1,526, the very season when Tyndale's
Testaments first arrived.]
He was demanded further—" For what cause holy Scripture hath been better
declared within these six years, than it hath been these eight hundred years
before ? " He answered—" To say plainly, he knew no man to have preached
the Word of God sincerely and purely, and after the vein of Scripture, except
Master Crome, and Master Latimer — And he said, that the New Testament now
translated into English doth preach and teach the Word of God, and that before
that time men did preach only that folks should believe as the Church believe •
and then, if the Church should err, men should err too. Howbeit the Church of
Christ cannot err, and that there were two Churches, that is the Church of
Christ militant, and the Church of Antichrist ; and that this Church of Antichrist
may and doth err, but the Church of Christ doth not."
Lastly, for his books of Scripture, and his judgment of Tyndale, because he

1532.] PERSECUTION UNTO DEATH. 333'
was urged to confess the truth, he said—" That he had had ' the New Testament
translated into the English tongue by Tyndale,' (till) within this month, and
thought he offended not God, in using and keeping the same, notwithstanding that
he knew the King's proclamation to the contrary, and that it was prohibited in
name of the Church, at Paul's cross ; but for all that, he thought the Word of
God had not forbid it. Confessing, moreover, that he had in his keeping,
(till) within this month, these books — The Wicked Mammon,^the obedience
of a Christian Man, — the Practice of Prelates, — the Answer of Tyndale to
Thomas More's Dialogue, — the Book of Fryth against Purgatory, — the Epistle
of George Gee, alias Clerke.13.— Addmg, that in all these books he never saw
any errors ; and if there were any such iu them, then, if they were coi-rected,
it were good that the people had the said books. — And as concerning the New
Testament in English, he thought it utterly good, and that the people should have
it, as it is."
Notwithstanding all this, it is to be lamented that Bainham
began to waver in a state of doubtful perplexity, between life
and death ; so that, after two months' confinement, he read
his abjuration, was fined twenty pounds (equal to .£.300 now)
to the King, and being released on the 17tli of February, was
dismissed home. He was, however, scarcely a month at large
before he lamented his conduct most bitterly ; aud the terms
in which his penitence are recorded, deserve special notice.
" He was," says Foxe, " never quiet in mind and conscience, until the time
he had uttered his fall to all his acquaintance, and asked God and all the world
forgiveness, before the Congregation in those days, in a warehouse in Bow
Lane. The next Sunday after, he came to St. Austin's, with ' the New
Testament in English ' in his hand, and ' the Obedience of a Christian Man ' in
his bosom, and stood up there before the people in his pew, there declaring
openly, with tears, that he had denied God ; and prayed all the people to forgive
him, to beware of his weakness, and not to do as he had done, — ' for,' said he,
' if I should not return again to the truth (having the New Testament in his
hand,) this Word of God would damn me, both body and soul, at the day of
Judgment. And then he prayed every one rather to die, by and bye, than to
do as he had done ; for he would not feel such a hell again as he did feel, for
all the world's goods.' He wrote a letter also to the Bishop of London, so that
shortly after, he was apprehended, and again committed to the Tower. On the
1 9th of April he was examined, and again on the 20th, in the Church of All-
Saints, Barking, Tower Street, after which he was condemned. On being
brought to the stake on the 1st of May, he addressed all present, in the
following words : —
" I come hither, good people ! accused and condemned for an heretic ; Sir
Thomas More being my accuser and my judge. And these be the articles that
I die for, which be a very truth, and grounded on God's Word, and no heresy.
They be these : First, I say it is lawful for every man and woman, to have God's
hook in their mother tongue. The second article is, — that the Bishop of Rome is
Antichrist, and that 1 know no other keys of heaven-gates but only the preaching
13 These were two names assumed by George Joye, of whom afterwards.

334 THE CONGREGATION IN BOW LANE. [bOOK I.
of the Law and the Gospel; and that there is no other purgatory, but the purga
tory of Christ's blood; and the purgatory of the cross of Christ, which is all per
secutions and afflictions ; and no such jiurgatory as they feign of their own im
agination : for our souls immediately go to heaven, and rest with Jesus Christ
for ever, &c."
The City clerk. Pave, having spoken cruelly to him. — " Thou heretic," said
he, " set fire to him and burn him." " God forgive thee," cried Bainham, " and
shew thee more mercy than thou shewest to me ;J4 the Lord forgive Sir Thomas
More ! and pray for me all good people." He died, and according to his own
statement, even when half consumed in the flames, without any pain.
In this account, painful so far as the enemies of Bainham
were concerned, there is, however, one expression, which should
not escape notice ; — " The Congregation, in those days, meeting
in Bow Lane!'' What was this ? That it was the assembly to
which Bainham first resorted to bewail his conduct, and ask
forgiveness, is evident ; but why did he there resort first, ex
cept it was that against that Congregation he thought he had
more especially offended ? It may never have been observed,
or if so, accounted worthy of notice before ; and yet, if the
proper definition of a Church is allowed to be — " a Congrega
tion of faithful men," — in such a connexion as the present,
there seems to be no slight evidence, that upon this spot, there
assembled " in those days," perhaps the earliest resemblance
of a Christian Church, upon English ground, in the sixteenth
century. That there was such a congregated body of people,
in London, by this time, will be rendered more interesting, if,
before the close of this year, we find its character for Chris
tianity described, by the man, who, of all then in England, was
best qualified to judge.
In the early part of this year, however, there was another
instance of cruelty, too notable to pass unnoticed, although it
did not terminate fatally. This referred to no other than
Hugh Latimer, and Stokesly was the prime mover. He had
summoned Latimer to appear before him, but he contemned
the message, referring to the Bishop of Salisbury as his or
dinary. Stokesly then applied to Warham, and Latimer was
summoned to appear before him on the 29th of January.
According to Latimer's own statement, the case was remitted
to five or six Bishops, and he appeared before them thrice
every week. Firm and resolute for some time, he refused to

n Pave died the week following, by his own hands.

1532.] EVEN LATIMER FAILING. 335
subscribe the articles they presented. For this he was de
clared contumacious, and afterwards excommunicated. In
order, however, to bring him to some submission, it was re
solved, to take off the sentence, if he would sign two of the
articles, namely, one respecting the observation of Lent, and
another concerning the crucifix and the lawfulness and pro
fit of images in Churches, for the worship of Jesus Christ and
his Saints ! Foxe is in doubt whether Latimer submitted ;
and Gilpin in his Memoir roundly asserts that he did not re
cant ; but the fact is put beyond all question, by the minutes
of the Convocation in March and April 1582. His words
were — " My Lords, I do confess, that I have misordered my
self very far, in that I have so presumptuously and boldly
preached, reproving certain things, by which the people that
were infirm have taken occasion of ill. Wherefore I ask for
giveness of my misbehaviour. I will be glad to make amends.
And I have spoken indiscreetly in vehemence of speaking,
and have erred in some things, and in manner have been in
a wrong way, lacking discretion in many things."
After this confession, which it may be said, did not amount
to a retractation of opinions, he desired absolution. This,
however, was deferred to the 10th of April, when he subscrib
ed the two articles already mentioned, and a further hearing-
was appointed. Unwilling to let him go, when the day arri
ved a new complaint was produced, respecting a letter he had
written to one Greenwood of Cambridge, upon which Latimer
appealed to the King as head of the Church of England, and
was ultimately restored to his functions.^*
Alas ! that Latimer should have so far identified himself
with the train of those who had gone before him, from Barnes
to the present hour — for there was none like him in all
England I It was at the last Convocation that Warham at
tended, before his death in August ; and Latimer, it is true,
will not forget all this ; but another day, in St. Paul's itself,
Stokesly will have to sit still, and listen to certain awful
truths, by way of reminiscence, to which his ears had never
been accustomed. John Foxe, in his narrative, tries to palli
ate this whole affair by saying — " whether he subscribed, no

'5 See the Convocation Jonrnal and the Bishop's Register. Or Foxe, compared with the Life
of Latimer, by Watkins, prefixed to " The Sermons of Latimer." 1824.

336 MORE STILL WRITING ([boOK I.
great matter or marvel, considering the iniquity of the times :"
but this is far from the manner of sacred writ, in the biogra
phy of its highest characters. No, however painful, besides
too many others, we have seen Barnes, and Bilney, and now
even Latimer at the first onset, blench and falter through
fear of death ; so that at this special period, to the impartial
writer, there seems to be nothing left for him, but to look out
for John Fryth. He will revive the spirit of any reader, and
give a new tone to the cause of God and his truth. He was
just about arriving in England, but, as a controversialist, Sir
Thomas More first stands in our way.
If the laborious Lord Chancellor had been busy in persecut
ing his fellow subjects at home, he had been no less so with his
pen, in opposition to Tyndale abroad. His friend, Sir Thomas
Elyot, might be " doing his best endeavour" to seize the man,
but More was determined to overwhelm and expose him as a
writer and translator. His huge publication being now, in
part, ready, must be put forth. The first three books of it,
with a long preface, printed by the son of his brother-in-law,
Eastell, appeared with this title, " the confutation of Tyndale's
answer, made by Sir Thomas More, knight. Lord Chancellor
of England, — cum privilegio." He had six books more to
come, although the present _/oZeo extended to 363 pages, thirty-
seven of which filled his preface ! This, it will be observed,
was printed before he had resigned the seals, in May ; so that
between cross examinations of worthy men, on the one hand,
and proof sheets against Tyndale on the other, he must have
been engrossed indeed. In his preface he took care to shield
himself under the authority of his royal Master.
" Now seeing the King's gracious purpose in this point, I reckon that being
his unworthy Chancellor, it appei'taineth unto my part and duty, to follow the
ensample of his noble Grace, and after my poor wit and learning, with opening
to his people, the malice and poison of those pernicious books, to help as much
as in me is. Toward the help whereof, am I, by mine office in virtue of mine
oath, and every officer of justice through the realm for his rate, right specially
bounden, not in reason only, and good congruence, but also by plain ordinance
and statute."l6
In the outset, evidently vain of his powers, he very un
advisedly, boasted great things. He was only putting on his

18 Alluding to the proceedings of 1630, no doubt of his own framing.

1532.] AGAINST TYNDALE. 337
harness, and so afterwards had to publish his apology when
putting it off. At present, however, he is full of triumph.
" And for because the matter is long, and my leisure short, I cannot, as I fain
would, send out all at once, — I send out now, therefore, of this present work,
these three books. And now, shall I, God willing, at my next leisure go far
ther in his (Tyndale's) book, and come to the very breast of all this battle, that
is to wit, the question, — which is the Church, — for that is the point that all
these heretics labour to make so dark, that, by their wiles, no man shall wit what
they mean. But I trust to draw the serpent out of his dark den ; and as the poets
feign that Hercules drew up Cerberus, the mastiff of hell, into the light, where
his eyes dased ; so shall /, with the grace of that light which illumineth every
man that cometh into this world, make you that matter so lightsome and so
clear to every man, that 1 shall leave Tyndale never a dark corner to creep into,
able to hide his head in."
Even in this first part, however. Sir Thomas thought it
was time to admit the talents of his opponent ; and, therefore,
though jesting, as usual, he affirms, that he had " an eagle's
eye," that he was " cunning enough, and can, I assure you,
make as much poetry upon any part of Scripture, as any
poet can in England, upon any part of Virgil."'^ But
then Tyndale's views and wishes were the subject of his
professed apprehension.
" As evil as I like the man, in such things as he .saith nought, that is almost
in all, yet would I find no fault with him in that he said well. But now he
saith not that some things be misordered somewhere, but that there is none other.
For Tyndale can be pleased with no fashion ; neither Cathedral church, nor
Parish church, nor Chapel, nor Monks, nor Friars, nor Nuns, neither Greenwich,
Zion, nor Charter-House. So that I see well no fashion can please Tyndale bnt
his own : as he neither crieth out, nor halloweth, nor baiteth, nor buzzeth in
any service — saying ; for as they say, that know him, he saith none at all,
neither matins, even-song, nor mass."
The rest of this Confutation, falsely so called, as well as
More's apology, will come before us next year, so that we
refrain from farther remark till he has done. In the mean
while, another opponent had started up, and fretted him not a
little. Fryth's publication had arrived, and was now greedily
read in England, and the Chancellor must tell us, beforehand
also, how he meant to dispose of bim. Like Goliath of old,
he looked round, and disdained him, for he was but a young
man, of fine person, and of a fair countenance ; but certainly

17 Tyndale appears to have either known or suspected that Sir Thomas was rather vain of
his poetry, and hence he had twitted him with it repeatedly. This is More's retort.
VOL. T. Y

338 FRYTH ARRIVES [bOOK I.
it was rather mortifying if, in meeting three such seniors,
(as Fisher, More, and Eastell,) Fryth was to overthrow them
all, and convert one of them, and that one, the brother-in-
law of the Lord Chancellor. He speaks of him, however,
with an air of affected pity, and would fain have weaned him
from his spiritual father ; only they were bound together by a
tie of which the unhappy Chancellor had no conception. In
the preface, already quoted, referring to the " breast of all
this battle," the Church, he says —
" Then after that I have so clearly confuted Tyndale concerning that point,
before I go farther, I purpose to answer good young father Fryth, which now
cometh forth so sagely, that three old men, my brother Eastell, the Bishop of
Rochester, and I, matched with father Fryth alone, be now but very babes,
and, as he calleth us, insipientes. But thus goeth the world forth, between Fryth
and us. He increaseth, I see well, as fast as we decay.iS For once, I ween, the
youngest of us three, three days ere father Fryth was born, had learned within
a little as much as father Fryth hath now. Howbeit I shall leave young father
Fryth in his pride and glory for the while. But when Tyndale is once, in the
article touching the Church, confuted ; then hath Fryth already, concerning pur
gatory, clearly lost the field, and all his well beloved book is not worth a button,
though it were all as true as it is false. For then is the faith of the Church in
that point infallible, or at the least, unculfable, were there Scripture there for, or
j»ci(.l9 — And yet shall I, for all that, go farther with young father Fryth, and
touch, if God will, every part of his fresh painted book ; and so shall I pluck off, I
trust, the most glorious feathers of his peacock's tail, that I shall leave him, if
he have wit and grace, a little less delight and liking in himself, than he seemeth
now to have, which thing hath hitherto made him to stand not a little in his own
light.^ I pray God heartily send that young man the grace to bestow his wit
and learning, such as it is,about some better business than Tyndale mis-bestoweth
it now. For now is Fryth's wit and learning nothing but Tyndale's instrument,
whereby he bloweth out his heresy. Finally, after that I shall have answered
Fryth, I purpose to return again unto Tyndale's book, and answer him in every
chapter — I think that no man doubteth, but that this work both hath been, and
will be, some pain and labour to me, and, of truth, so I find it."
We have thus, for once, fairly allowed the old gentleman to
expectorate all his vanity, of which it seems to be too evident,
his breast was full. Covetousness and vanity are sins, which,
in some men, are eminently conspicuous in old age. Of the
former, every one will cheerfully exonerate the Chancellor ;
as for the latter, and more especially when contrasted with

1 8 A truth in itself, as it regarded the respective causes of the two parties, though now uttered
in contempt, and one too, which we shall find Sir Thomas more than half admit, before he died.
19 " For we have compelled More, with shame, tojlit from the Scripture." So says Tyndale^
including Fryth, as we shall find next year.
30 We have seen how the enemy attempted to separate Fryth from Tyndale, as possibly not so
fixed in his principles. Whether hypocritical pacific proposals had again boon held out, we
have not ascertained, but something of this kind seems to be insinuated.

1532.] IN ENGLAND. 33.9
the close of the combat, we need say nothing more at present,
and yet this is but a specimen. In early life, the stream of
human depravity has several channels, but in its later stages,
those channels are in a manner dried up, by the decay of the
natural powers, when the whole current flows in one direction ;
and then, as ambition is often associated with blood, so is
vanity with venom. The bitterness and contempt which dis
tinguished Sir Thomas on these subjects, can only be imagined
by those who have the patience to wade through his folio pages,
while he goes on consigning every one to perdition, for opinions
which have long distinguished the British population. Utopia
was the blossom of his youth, but there had been little congenial
moisture within him, and so it dropped off. His tedious con
troversial writings were the fruit of his mature age, and they
remain, to any who look upon them, the saddest memorial
of his falling into the yellow leaf.
In the meanwhile, it may here be remarked, that it would
have been prudent in Sir Thomas, to have let Fryth alone,
as the interference only exposed him, in the end, to a double
defeat. Even Tyndale was younger than himself, and he was
more than his match ; but John Fryth was only twenty-eight
years of age, when his book was published, last year. Besides,
the Chancellor had crowed by far too soon, as he had then no
idea that in a few months after, Fryth himself would come
over, and not only confront him upon English ground, though
writing from a dungeon ; but overcome in argument the
Bishops assembled, with Cranmer at their head.
It is not possible to ascertain in what month of this year
Fryth had arrived in England, but from what we are about
to relate, it may have been as early as July or August.
Having been absent from his native country for six years,^^
he was first heard of at Reading in Berkshire, a place into
which the Divine Word had found an entrance, at least four
or five years before this. In 1528, we have read of Rodolph
Bradford carrying New Testaments there from London, and
by the next year even the Prior of that abbey was a suspected
man, and had been placed in confinement.
" The King's Highness willed me," says Stephen Gardiner, then his seci'etary.

2' Foxe, indeed, says in one place only two years, and in another three ; but the period is as
stated above, viz. from August or September 1536, to about the game time this year.

340 FRYTH IN PERIL. I^BOOK I.'
to Wolsey on the 7th of September 1 529, " to write unto your Grace, that suit
being made unto him, in favour of the Prior of Reading, who, for Luther's
opinion, (the phrase of the day,) is now in prison, and hath been a good
season, at your Grace's commandment ; that unless the matter be much not
able and very heinous, he desireth your Grace, at his request, to cause the
said Prior to be restored to liberty, and discharged of that imprisonment."22
We have noticed this man, as one purpose for which it is
said Fryth came over, was to obtain some pecuniary aid from
him, or rather induce the Prior to accompany him, on his
return to the Continent ; a movement to which he might be
more disposed, after such usage. In one place, indeed, Foxe
states that Fryth came over at the Prior's request ; but be
this as it may, his account is as follows : —
" Being at Reading, it happened that he was there taken for a vagabond, and
brought to examination, where the simple man, loath to utter himself what he
was, and unacquainted with their manner of examination, and they greatly of
fended with him, committed him to the stocks, where, when he had sitten a
long time, and was almost pined with hunger, aud would not for all that declare
what he was ; at last, he desired that the schoolmaster of the town might be
brought unto him, which, at that time, was one Leonard Coxe, a man very well
learned. As soon as he came to him, Fryth by and bye, in the Latin tongue,
began to bewail his captivity. The schoolmaster, being overcome with his
eloquence, did not only take pity and compassion upon him, but also began to
love and embrace such an excellent wit and disposition uulooked for, especially
in such state of misery. Afterward they, conferring more together upon
many things, as touching the universities, schools, and tongues, fell from the
Latin tongue to the Greek; wherein Fryth did so inflame the love of the school
master towards him, that he brought him into a marvellous admiration, especially
when he heard him, by heart, rehearse Homer's verses, out of his first book of
lUad. Whereupon the schoolmaster went, with all speed, unto the Magistrates,
grievously complaining of the injury which they did shew to so excellent
and innocent a young man. And so, through the help of the said schoolmaster,
the said Fryth was freely set at liberty without punishment."
The " stocks" in England had certainly never before been
so honoured, whatever they were afterwards ; nor should
the worthy and learned schoolmaster be forgotten.^^ Thus
enlarged, we hear nothing of the Prior, and he might have
removed after this outrage ; but Fryth proceeded to London
22 Wolsey's Correspondence in the Chapter-house, vol. v., no. 102.
23 Leonard Coxe, a native of Caerleon, Monmouth, who had studied at Cambridge, was an
early popular philological writer, under Henry VIII., from whom he had a house in Reading, and
an annual pension of ten pounds. He became a great traveller, and was well known on the Con
tinent. He defended the doctrine of justification by faith in Christ. The intimate of Erasmus,
he translated his paraphrase of the Epistle of Titus into English, and was living in the reign of
Edward VI. His " Art or Ciafte of Bhetoricke," printed so early as 1524, is dedicated to Hugh
Farringdon, a patron of critical studies, and the last Abbot of Beading, who was ere long to fall,
under Crumwell's hands, to satisfy the craving of his Royal Master.

1.532.] FRYTH IN PERIL. 341
itself, and there saw those friends of truth, to whom Bainham
had first made his confession, a few months before. The
danger, however, was extreme — but there was to be no more
any thing bordering upon abjuration — no more halting be
tween two opinions, or between life and death — in Fryth's
case. He had come to read a lesson to the Martyrs of England,
and he read it nobly, by his tongue, nay by his pen, and
finally by the flames. It was altogether a sight which had
never been seen in England since the days in which he him
self had been reading the first imported Testament, or was
immured in the dungeon at Oxford. Yet though of so
decided a character, that he afterwards astonished both
friends and foes, Fryth still accounted it his imperative
duty to avoid apprehension if he could ; and, according to the
Divine commandment, first fied from place to place, rather
than his enemies should be involved in the guilt of blood.
He changed his raiment and place of abode again and again,
but could not remain long anywhere, even among friends.
Sir Thomas More had now heard of his being in England,
and " beset," says Foxe, " all the ways and havens, yea, and
promised great rewards, if any man could bring any tidings
of him."2* While, however, he was yet at large, there was a Christian
brother, of whom Fryth says, " for his commendable conver
sation, and sober behaviour, he might better be a bishop, than
many that wear mitres, if the rule of St. Paul were regarded
in their election." He had applied to Fryth for his opinions
respecting the Lord's Supper, and after complying with his
earnest request, " he desired nie," he adds, " to entitle the
sum of my words, and write them for him, because they
seemed over long to be well retained in memory. This was
done with no intention of its being read, except by select or
choice friends, who had already received the truth; " for they
knew the spiritual and necessary eating and drinking of his
body and blood, which is received but with the ears and faith,
and only needed instruction in the outward eating; which
thing," adds Fryth, " I only declared." By this time, More
especially, if not Stokesly, had various spies on the look-out
2'i One evidence that he was still acting officially as Lord Chancellor, though no longer Keeper
of the Great Seal.

342 FRYTH IMPRISONED [bOOK I.
in London ; base men, who insinuated themselves among the
best of the city. Two of these are named — one Withers, and
William Holt, the foreman of Mr. Malte, tailor to the King.
The latter was the guilty man, who betrayed confidence.
Having seen the manuscript of Fryth, he begged a perusal of
it, and once obtained, he carried it forthwith to the Chancellor.
But two other copies were conveyed to him by similar men,
which gave Fryth occasion to warn his friends, from the
Tower, afterwards, —
" Saint Paul protesteth that he was in peril among false brethren, and surely
I suppose that we are in no less jeopardy. For if it be so, that his Mastership
had received one copy, and had a couple of copies more offered in the
meanwhile, (as More had printed,) then may ye be sure that there are many false
brethren, which pretend to have knowledge, aud indeed are but pick-thanks,
providing for their belly. Prepare ye, therefore, cloaks, for the weather waxeth
cloudy, and rain is like to follow. I mean not false excuses and forswearing of
yourselves, but that ye look substantially upon God's Word,, that you may be
able to answer their subtle objections ; and rather choose manfully to die for
Christ and His Word, than cowardly to deny Him, for this vain aud transitory
life ; considering that they have no farther power but over this corruptible
body, which, if they put it not to death, must yet, at the length, perish of itself.
But I trust the Lord shall not suffer you to be tempted above that you may
bear ; but according to the Spirit that he shall pour upon you, shall he also
send you the scourge, and make him that hath received more of the Spirit, to
suffer more, and him that recei veth less thereof, to suffer according to his talent."
Sir Thomas More, however, as if conscious of his incompe
tence to answer " the young man," for so he generally called
him, had now become more cautious, though it was only a
few months since his vaunting preface was ahroad. This must
have been the more mortifying, when Fryth let out the secret ;
for referring to his manuscript, he tells us, —
" Mr. More, which of late hath busied himself to meddle in all such matters,
(of what zeal I will not define,) hath sore laboured to confute it ; but some
men think that he is ashamed of his part, and for that cause doth so diligently
suppress the work which he printed ; for I myself saw the work in print, in my
Lord of Winchester's house, upon St. Stephen's day last past, (26th Dec. 1S32.)
But neither 1, neither all the friends I could make, might attain any copy,
but only one written copy, which, as it seemed, was drawn out in great haste.
Notwithstanding, I cannot well judge what the cause should be that his book is
kept so secret ; but this I am right sure of, that he never touched the founda
tion that my treatise was builded upon. And, therefore, smce my foundation
standeth so sure and invincible — I will thereupon build a little more."25

-'' rrefacc to his Answer to More.

1532.] SIR THOMAS MORE'S ADMISSION. 3 IS
From this passage it is evident that Fryth was not only
in safe keeping, and under examination by this month of
December, but that More had replied to his manuscript, and
in print, and therefore he must have been in England for
some months. He had been apprehended, says Foxe, at a
place called Milton Shore, in Essex, where he had gone with
a view to embark for the Continent, and after that had been
committed to the Tower. The last six months of his valuable
life will come before us in due time.
But with regard to that great cause, for which Fryth was
now in prison, and Tyndale had been pursued for years, there
was no possibility of stopping its onward progress. The im
portation of the Scriptures, as well as other books, went on.
A tide had set in, which no vigilance, no power upon earth,
could either stop or turn aside. Though it be in vulgar, and
even profane language, by far the finest eulogium, on this
department of exertion, was pronounced by Sir Thomas More
himself, and in this very year. He would not, it is true,
open his eyes to the fact, that there was a thirst for the Word
of Truth, and that a market or demand had been created in
England, in spite of all opposition ; and, therefore, he is in
correct as to the way in which money was raised, or rather
capital embarked, but, in other respects, his denunciation in
volves the very highest praise which could have been elicited.
" There be fled out of this realm for heresy, a few ungracious folk ; what
manner folk, their writing and their living sheweth." And so, after pointing at
Tyndale by name, he goes on — " These fellows that nought had here, and,
therefore, nought carried hence, nor nothing finding there to live upon, be
yet sustained and maintained with money sent them by some evil-disposed per
sons out of this realm thither, and that for none other intent but to make them
sit and seek out heresies, and speedily send them hither.
" Which books, albeit that they neither can be there printed without great
cost, nor here sold without great adventure and peril : yet cease they not with
money sent from hence, to print them there, and send them hither, by the whole
vatts-full at once. And, in some places, looking for no lucre, cast them abroad
by night; so great a pestilent pleasure have some devilish people caught, with
the labour, travel, cost, charge, peril, harm, and hurt of themselves, to seek the
destruction of other. As the devil hath a deadly delight to beguile good
people, aud bring their souls into everlasting torment, without any manner
winning, and not without final increase of his own eternal pain : So 1 So do
these heretics, the devil's disciples, bysett their whole pleasure and study, to
their own final damnation, in the training of simple souls to hell, by their
devilish heresies ! "26

SR Preface to .More's '• Ciuifutalion."

344 FRYTH STILL WRITING [^BOOK I.
Such was the language of Sir Thomas More, and the same
spirit reigns throughout his pages. It was the testimony of
an enemy, addressed to enemies, which is the strongest of all,
and therefore includes the higher commendation of tin wearied
zeal in the cause of God and his truth. And certainly it was
a marvellous thing, that one of those " fellows," with his
junior companion, " who nought had here, and therefore nought
carried hence," should be able to kindle such a fire in England.
They were but " earthen vessels," it is true ; persecuted, but
not forsaken ; as unknown, and yet well known ; as poor, yet
making many rich ; for their friends, by this time described as
" evil-disposed persons within this realm," had already become
more than two bands. But now, since our only controversialist
thought so badly of them, we must hear the opinion of a better
judge. We have alluded to a Congregation of these people, meeting
in London, but there were groups, in secret, throughout difier
ent counties. John Fryth had seen those in London, and
then proceeded from place to place, before he was to address
them all from his prison. He had worshipped God along with
them, and expounded the Sacred Volume they held so dear ;
and what was his deliberate opinion of those people, whom the
Chancellor and the Bishops so defamed ? Here it is in a
Letter addressed to them, " whilst he was prisoner in the
Tower of London, for the Word of God— anno 1532."27
" It cannot be expressed, dearly beloved in the Lord, what joy and comfort
it is to my heart, to perceive how the Word of God hath wrought, and con
tinually worketh among you ; so that I find no small number walking in the
ways of the Lord, according as he gave us commandment, willing that we should
love one another, as he loved us. Now have I experience of the faith which is
in you, and can testify that it is without simulation ; that ye love, not in word
and tongue only, but in work and verity.
" What can be more trial of a faithful heart, than to adventure, not only to
aid and succour by the means of others, which without danger may not be ad
mitted unto us, but also personally to visit the poor oppressed, and see that
nothing be lacking unto them, but that they have both ghostly comfort and
bodily sustenance, notwithstanding the strait inhibition and terrible menacing of
these worldly rulers ; even ready to abide the extreme jeopardies that tyrants
can imagine ?
"This is an evidence that you have prepared yourselves to the cross of
Christ : This is an evidence that ye have cast your accounts, aud have where-

27 Fryth's Works. As their year ran on to the 25th of March, this letter was written in the
beginning of 153.3,— or .it all events, before that day.

1532.] THOUGH IN THE TOWER. 345
with to finish the tower which ye have begun to build. And I doubt not but
that He, which hath begun to work in you, shall, for his glory, accomplish the
same, even unto the coming of the Lord, which shall give unto every man ac
cording to his deeds. And albeit God, of His secret judgments, for a time keep
the rod from some of them that ensue his steps ; yet let them surely reckon upon
it, for there is no doubt but all which will devoutly live in Christ, must suffer
persecution ; for 'whom the Lord loveth he correcteth, and scourgeth every child
that he receiveth ;' for what child is that, whom the Father chastiseth not ? —
" Of these things, God had given me the speculation before ; and now it hath
pleased Him to put them in use and practice upon me. / ever thought, and yet
do think, that to walk after God's Word would cost me my life, at one time or
another. And albeit that the King's Grace should take me into his favour, and
not to suffer the bloody Edomites to have their pleasures upon me ; yet will I
not think that I am escaped : but that God hath only deferred it for a season,
to the intent that I should work somewhat that he hath appointed me to do and
so to use me unto his glory .38
" And I beseech all the followers of Christ to arm themselves with the same
supposition, marking themselves with the sign of the cross ; not from the
cross, as the superstitious multitude do, but rather to the cross, in token that
they be ever ready, willingly to receive the cross, when it shall please God to
lay it upon them. The day that it cometh not, count it clear won, giving thanks
to the Lord which hath kept it from you ; and then when it cometh, it shall
nothing dismay you, for it is no new thing, but even that which ye have con
tinually looked for.
" And doubt not but that God, which is faithful, shall not suffer you to be
tempted above that which ye are able to bear, but shall ever send some occa
sion, by the which ye shall stand stedfast ; for either He shall blind the eyes
of your enemies, and diminish their tyrannous power, or else, when he hath
suffered them to do their best, and that the dragon hath cast a whole flood of
waters after you. He shall cause even the very earth to open her mouth and
swallow them up. So faithful is He, and careful to ease us, what time the
vexation should be too heavy for us.
" He shall send a Joseph before you against ye shall come into Egypt ; yea.
He shall so provide for you, that ye shall have an hundred fathers for one ; an
hundred mothers for one ; an hundred houses for one ; and that in this life, as
I HAVE PKOVED BY EXPEKiENCE ; and after this life, everlasting joy with Christ
our Saviour."
Such were the fruits of the Sacred Word, printed in the
vulgar tongue ! In the outset, it was but like an handful of
corn, sown in a most unpromising soil, on the top of a moun
tain ; yet now that one of the sowers has come, " it cannot be
expressed, what joy and comfort it was to his heart, to per
ceive" far more than the green blade above the ground. The
commendation is worthy of being written in letters of gold,
and especially that closing sentence.

-8 For the feeble hope of escape here expressed, there was some ground, which, when the
time comes, will be explained; but this is a proof that the letter was written between the month
of Janu.iiy and the 25th of March.

34G FRYTH STILL WRITING [bOOK I.
That a Christian should receive an hundred-fold of temporal
good, with persecutions, has often seemed to be a mystery, and
the passage has so perplexed the expositors of more peaceful
times, that they have felt obliged to escape to the supposition
of celestial gratifications. How a man should leave one house
and find an hundred, in the days when mere professors are
loth to leave any thing for Christ, has appeared to be im
possible; although the Saviour expressly confines the hundred
fold to this life. But the exuberant love and hospitality of
the primitive Christians untie the knot, and explain the pro-
mise.2^ On the part of our Redeemer, it was indeed a most
extraordinary intimation ; informing the earliest age, not only
that Christianity should gain ground, but prevail in such
power over its believers and all that they possessed ; and it
remained for John Fryth especially to come over, and draw
out the proof that primitive Christianity had efi'ectually taken
root in England. All the believers' houses had been open to
entertain him, and there was he treated with all a father's, or
a mother's, a brother's or a sister's kindness. Now that he
was in bonds, he was overcome with joy, by finding that such
was their concern for him, and that they felt his private or
personal suffering as a general calamity, or a public wrong.
Of this fine epistle, so well worthy of the man, we have only
given this extract, and yet we must not omit to notice how
anxious Fryth was, even still, to be of service to those who
had shown him such kindness for his Master's sake, and the
books of sacred writ, translated by his dearest friend.
" The Father of glory," he concludes, " give us the spirit of wisdom, under
standing and knowledge, and lighten the eyes of our mind, that we may now
his ways, praising the Lord eternally. If it please any of our brethren to write
unto us, of any such doubts as peradventure may be found in our books,
(Tyndale's or his own,) it should be very acceptable unto us, aud, as I trust, not
unfruitful for them. For I will endeavour myself, to satisfy them in all points.
by God's grace, — to whom I commit to be governed and defended for ever.
Amen. John Fryth, the prisoner of Jesus Christ, at all times abiding
His pleasure."
And now that the year is ended what can be said, as to the

2» "It is beyond imagination, to what cxtois tho Christians carry their profusion on these oc
casions," namely of persecution. "They esteem each other indiscriminately as brethren, aud
all goods are in common with them ;"-a remarkable testimony in even the profane Ltielan's
Philopatris. He died anno 214, aged DO,

1532.] THOUGH IN THE TOWER. 347
Old man and the Young ? the Chancellor and his prisoner 2
What else than that " wisdom excelleth folly, and as far as
light excelleth darkness ;" or that " the wise man's eyes are
in his head, and that it is the infatuated only, who walk on
in darkness ?"
By the mercy of God, however. Sir Thomas More must
now withdraw. He had resigned the Great Seal in May, but
still had acted ofiicially till towards the close of the year ; in
a few weeks hence he will be entirely dismissed, and left free,
and at leisure to go on with his voluminous controversy,
though this should only be to his final overthrow.
We have not been able to ascertain the precise object of
Fryth's journey into England, at a period so fraught with
danger. It must have been something of importance in his
own apprehension, as well as in that of Tyndale.^" The latter
had no other man like-minded, no other companion, properly
so called, upon earth. For years together, he himself had
been pursued on the Continent, but Fryth was now in Eng
land itself. One can, therefore, easily conceive what trem
bling anxiety must have been felt by our Translator, in his
absence ; and we have one fine letter of judicious counsel,
before he knew the worst — that Fryth was apprehended, and
in the Tower of London. By way of precaution, he addresses
his friend under the name of Jacob, though he does not con
ceal his own : —
" The grace of our Saviour Jesus, his patience, meekness, humbleness, cir
cumspection, and wisdom, be with your heart, amen ! Dearly beloved brother,
mine heart's desire in our Saviour Jesus is, that you arm yourself with
patience, and be cool, sober, wise, and circumspect ; and that you keep you
alow 31 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. Then shall your preaching be
with power, and not as the doctrine of the hypocrites, and the Spirit of God

30 In one brief account of Fryth, it is said — *' At the last, he, being driven to necessity and
lack of money, was forced secretly to return over into this realm, to be relieved of his friends,
namely, of the Prior of Reading ; and it was thought he purposed to have had the Prior over
with him." The last might be his wish ; but the entire strain of Tyndale's letters forbids tho
idea of his having come merely for personal assistance. Foxe states, that "he came over at
the request of the Prior of Reading," not the Abbot, as has been vaguely stated. Testaments
had been distributed at Reading seven years ago, (sec page llfi,) but we have no account of who
this Prior was.
31 The contrast to our term olofl, ^till retained.

348 TYNDALE'S SYMPATHY [bOOK I.
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 these two, to shadow and
hide them, I mean, the law of God and mercy of Christ, that resist, with all yom
power. Sacraments without signification, refuse. If they put significations to
them, receive them, if yon 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. Barnes will be hot against yo«.32
The Saxons be sore in the affirmative, whether constant or obstinate, I omit it
to God. Philip Melancthon is said to be with the French King. There be in
Antwerp that say, they saw hira come into Paris with 150 horses, and that
they spake with him. If the Frenchmen receive the Word of God, he will
plant the affirmative in them. 33 George Joye would have put forth a treatise
of that matter, but I have stopt him as yet : what he will do, if he get money,
I wot not. I believe he would make many reasons, little serving to the pur-
pose.34 My mind is, that nothing be put forth till we hear how you 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, shew the phrases of the Scripture, and let them talk what
they will. For as to believe that God is everywhere, hurteth no man that
worshippeth him nowhere but within, in the heart, in 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 shew 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
Spirituality, to catch themselves in their own subtilty ; and I trust it is come
to pass. And now, methinketh, I smell a Council 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 the har
lot's flesh, and to suck the mai-row of her bones. 35 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 world, as far as
you perceive the glory of God may come thereof, refuse it not ; and ever
among thrust in, that the Scripture may be in the Mother tongue, and learning
set up in the Universities. But and if ought be required contrary to the glory
of God and his Christ, then stand fast, and commit yourself to God, and be not
overcome of men's persuasions, which haply shall say, we see no other way to
bring in the truth.
" Brother Jacob, beloved of my heart, there Uveth not, in whom I have so
good hope and trust, and in whom mine heart rejoiceth, and my soul comforteth

32 Barnes, we shall find, was now in England, and he a Lutheran, as to the Lord's Supper.
Neither Tyndale or Fryth ever were, and their works, in strict propriety, ought never to have
been printed iu the same volume, as Foxe did. It may be but small consolation to the pub
lishers of the beautiful modern edition of Tyndale's and Fryth's works, by the Rev. T. Russel,
that they were inteiTupted in their progress, intending, as they did, to print the works of some
other men ¦, but there was great propriety in stopping where they did, as Tyndale and Fryth,
among the earliest writers, truly stand alone, or in a place and position peculiar to themselves.
33 This was a mistaken rumour. Melancthon never went to Paris. By the affirmative, Tyn-
dale refers to Consubstantiation, the dogma of Luther, and it is hinted at here, evidently, in
the way of regret.
Si So uniformly had Tyndale deprecated the subject of Christianity being hastily absorpt in
.in intemperate war of opinion respecting one of its positive institutions.
36 He foresaw, or anticipated the dissolution of the monasteries, long before the subject was
mooted in Parliament by Crumwell.

1532.] WITH FRYTH. 349
herself, as in you ; not the thousandth part so much for your learning, and
what other gifts else you have, as that you will creep alow by the ground,
and walk in those things that the conscience may feel, and not in the
imaginations of the brain ; in fear, and not in boldness ; in open necessary
things, and not to pronounce or define of hid secrets, or things that neither
help nor hinder, whether they be so or no ; in unity, and not in seditious
opinions : insomuch, that if you be sure you know ; yet in things that may
abide leisure, you will defer, or say, methinks the text requireth this sense or
understanding ; yea, and if you be sure that your part be good, and another
hold the contrary, yet if it be a thing that maketh no matter, you will laugh
and let it pass, and refer the thing to other men, and stick you stiffly and
stubbornly, in earnest and 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 reckoning of our
doings, that I never altered one syllable of God's Word against my conscience,
(as Sir Thomas More had insinuated,) nor would this day, if all that is in 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 (liberty 2) 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 which lacketh
in me — remembering, that as lowliness of heart shall make you high with God,
even so meekness of words shall make you sink into the hearts of men. Nature
giveth age authority, but meekness is the glory of youth, and giveth them
honour. Abundance of love maketh me exceed in babbling." —
No one can for a moment mistake this lowliness on the
part of Tyndale, for lack of ability ; though it discovers the
very high opinion which he entertained of Fryth and his
talents, both as a Christian and a scholar.
— " If you perceive wherein we may help, either in being still, or doing some
thing, 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 a black-reddish head,
and was once my scholar : he was seen in Antwerp, but came not among the
Englishmen. Whether he is gone an ambassador 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 to all things. He is our God, if we despair in ourselves and
trust in Him ; and his is the glory, Amen. WiUiam Tyndale. I hope our re
demption is nigh."
But whatever Tyndale might intend by his last expression
to Fryth, it was not long before he heard of his being in the
hands of Sir Thomas, and also in the Tower ; for, however
impossible it had ever been to find Tyndale's abode, it is re
markable that no circumstances could ever impede his imme
diate communication with England. Though Fryth had

350 ONE DISTINGUISHING FEATURE [BOOK I.
found it difiicult to procure a copy of More's reply to him
self, either that, or some other copy, was soon in Tyndale's
possession, when he immediately discovered all that deep in
terest which he had already expressed so warmly in his letter.
Before this, too, he had also received the Chancellor's vaunted
Confutation, so that, according to More's own concession, he
could now " pry upon" them both, " narrowly, and with such
eagle's eyen as he hath." By a single passage, at the outset,
which will be noticed presently, he efl'ectually damaged the
fame of the knight's " Confutation ;" but the perilous situa
tion of Fryth demanded haste, and Tyndale immediately did
his "uttermost" for him, as he had promised. Whether he
left Antwerp to superintend the press, is not certain, but it is
more than probable, for it is curious enough that his pointed
production was printed at Nuremberg by Nicolas Townson,
and was finished by the beginning of April. It is entitled —
" The Supper of the Lord'''' — after the meaning of John, vi.
and 1st Corinthians, xi. — " wherein, incidentally. Master
More's letter against John Fryth is confuted." ^^
For fresh events we must now, therefore, look forward to
the next year.

SECTION X.
ONE BISTINaUISHING PEATUEB OF TTNDALe's OOUBSE AND CHAEACTER AS
COMPARED WITH HIS CONTEMPORARIES  HIS ANSWER TO SIR T. MORE —
UIS LETTER TO PRYTH IN PRISON  STATE OP ENGLAND  PRYTH's VOICE
PROM THE TOWER — STRANGE CONDITION OP ENGL.VND  THE KING MAR
RIED — cranmer's PROCEDURE — GARDINER ROUSED — PRYTH's EXAMINA
TION BBPORE THE BISHOPS ASSEMBLED  HIS TRIUMPH IN ARGUMENT 
MARTYRDOM  ENGLAND AND THE CONTINENT  ONE BPPEOT OP PRYTh's
DEATH  SIR T. MORE WRITING STILL  ONE POWERFUL OPPONENT AT HOME
 MORE AS A CONTROVERSIALIST — HIS PRODIGIOUS EXERTIONS — OTHER
QUALITIES — FINALLY OVERCOME  THE PROSPECT BRIGHTENING.
Before recurring to Tyndale's last publication, we are con-

M " Imprinted at Nornburg, by Nicolas Twonson, 6 April, An. 1633." It was reprinted,
with a preface, by Crawley, in 1551. Herbert, in reporting this, had said, that the original edi
tion had no printer's name, but when he came to his third vol. he had found his mistake, and
gives it as shOfn.—Herben-ts Ames, iii., p. 1541. In the Harleian Catalogue, vol. i.. No. 2896,
the editor had loosely said, " set forth by Myles Coverdale ;" and Watts, in his Bibl. Brit., mis
taking this for authorship, inserted the piece under Coverdale's name. In consequence of this,
it has recently been placed in a list at the head of Coverdale's frorks I He would not have so
attacked Mm'e, nor edited it, at such a time, no, not for any consideration in the uwld.

1533.] IN TYNDALE'S COURSE AND CHARACTER. 351
strained to pause for a few moments, and observe more distinctly
one marked or distinguishing feature in his character. His one
object in life, was to gain over his native land to the faith of
the Mediator. The foundation of all his hope of success,
rested on the Word of God itself. With its translation into
English he began, and laboured in it to his dying day. And
having once conveyed the New Testament to England, as con
taining truth without any mixture of error ; he might, indeed,
because banished from the soil, assail the love of the world or
covetousness, in those who had arrogated to themselves the
title of " the Spirituality," in his parable of " the Wicked
Mammon ,•" he might lay down the law of " Christian
Obedience" but built on that faith which he had already ex
plained ; might expose the hypocritical " Practice of Prelates"
who had sunk his country into immorality, licentiousness and
debt ; or warn the whole nation by Jonah and his prologue.
These were great subjects, and worthy of his pen ; but when
once he found a Preacher upon English ground, in whom, and
in wliose doctrine, he reposed unlimited confidence, and came
to explain the course which he thought that Preacher should
pursue, his ideas are worthy of observation in any, or rather
in every age. He himself had been " about a great work and
would not come down," and so he would have Fryth to act.
His weapons were to be only two, — the Law and the Gospel ;
subjects to which the conscience would respond ; and hence
his fervent anxiety that he would commend himself to every
man's conscience, as in the sight of God ; or only " walk in
those things that the conscience might feel." He thought that
matters of essential ie^i'e/" should first be received in England,
and first settled in all cases, before those of obedience should
be enforced ; that the souls of men should first have in pos
session that rest which Christ gives, before his gentle yofe could
be assumed ; that men should first be disciples, and then taught
all things whatsoever Christ has commanded. During his
entire residence on the Continent, from this fixed judgment
he had never swerved, though amidst many temptations so to
do, and this it is which should procure for him, in the eye of
posterity, one distinguishing eminence among all his contem
poraries. There is actually not a second man to be placed by
his side, except the prisoner respecting whom he is now so
concerned. In consequence of pursuing a course all his own.

352 ONE DISTINGUISHING FEATURE [bOOK I.
at no Conference, Diet, or Assembly can we ever hear of him,
nor do we find any references to these, in his writings. There
was in 1524, the Diet at Nuremberg, the Assembly at Ratis
bon in July, and another afterwards at Spire. In 1526 the
Conference at Baden against Zuingle in May, and the Diet at
Spire in June. In 1527 the Conference of Bern, not to say
the provincial Councils at Bruges and Paris. In 1529 the
Diet in March held at Spire, then the Protestation, and then
the Conference in October, at Marburg, between the Lutherans
and Zuinglians. In 1530 there was the Diet of Augsburg;
to deliberate on the Ausburg Confession, or the articles of Tor-
gau, including what they called " Sacraments," and " religious
ceremonies" and then the league at Smalkald. In 1531
the Assembly again at Smalkald, and afterwards at Frank
fort. But at not one of these do we hear of Tyndale being
present ; an absence or retirement so uniform, that it could
only have sprung from some fixed determination, more espe
cially as his talents would have secured a chair for him, on any
such occasions.
And as he frequented no public conferences or disputations,
so he courted the patronage of no German circle, of no Duke
or Elector, no Landgrave or Counsellor, but, to use his own
expression, " kept alow by the ground." His rejection, at
first, by the Lord Bishop of London, actually seems to have
made an impression which never left him, and six years
afterwards he refers to it, as though it had governed him ever
since, — " God saw," says he " that I was beguiled, and that
that Counsel was not the next way unto my purpose ; and
therefore he gat me no favour in my Lord's sight.' After
that period he seems to have felt, as Johnson did in modern
times, that a Patron would only have "encumbered him with
help ;" or he was not willing that posterity should consider
him as owing that to any earthly protector, which Providence
enabled him to accompHsh, without one smile of court-favour
from his country. In short, Tyndale's lack of protection from
princes, and assistance from learned men, taken in connexion
with the course which he had so steadily pursued, form a forci
ble contrast to the path and circumstances of all his contem-

1 He refers to Sir Henry Guilford, who had counselled him as to the best mode of approaching
Tunstal ; or with a translation from the Greelt.

1533.] IN TYNDALE'S COURSE AND CHARACTER. 353
poraries. If these statements be observed, they may so far
account for the fact, that during the last nine years, with a
sound and discriminating judgment, Tyndale had stedfastly de
precated the Bellum Bacramentarium, and never more so than
at this period, as he himself has already explained. It had
commenced about the very time of his arrival at Hamburgh,
in 1 524, and, upon fixed principles, he had kept out of it, from
year to year. This of itself alone, was quite sufiicient to have
preserved him from personally combining with Luther; a confe
deracy, which he himself denied after six years' residence on the
Continent;^ and one, which, owing to the violence of the Saxons,
could not possibly have taken place since. But, now that
Tyndale's dearest friend upon earth, his "own son" in the
faith, is incarcerated, and in danger of his life, — now that he
has fallen into the hands of these English Philistines, — now
that both Providence and Christian friendship call him to speak
out, having no choice, he will not be slow, or rather was not,
so to do.
And never was triumph more complete, than that of Tyn
dale and Fryth over Sir Thomas More on the subject of the
Lord's Supper, though on their part it was entirely unprovoked.
Fryth, it must be observed, was precisely of Tyndale's opinion ;
that Repentance and Faith, or matters of essential belief, should
be first propounded and settled, previously to discussing any
Christian ordinances ; that the former were to be testified to
the world at large ; the latter, settled within the Church it
self : that the messenger of God to guilty men, was to preach
and might print on the former, but as to the latter, beware of
the printing-press. The latter were to be " reasoned in peace
and at leisure," among believers alone, or within the Church.
Oh, had the counsel of the " first two" been taken, what a
different aspect had the Church of God exhibited by this time !
And why may not some invaluable instruction, even now, be
drawn from this, the very spring-head of religious controversy?
It must be remembered, therefore, that, believing, as he
did, in the plainness, and all-sufiiciency of the Sacred Oracles,
Fryth had been exceedingly averse from putting pen to paper,
and that when he did so, it was only in compliance with the
urgency of a beloved Christian brother. But this was only a
2 A confederacy which he might have denied all along.
VOL I. Z

354 TYNDALE IN ANSWER TO MORE. [^BOOK I.
manuscript, and one sacredly intended only for the eye
of believers, in whose faith Fryth had already found such
reason to rejoice. In these circumstances, the Chancellor
stepped out of his way, to his own discomfiture ; and so in
fatuated was he, that he must print in reply, though he after
wards laboured to suppress it. Copies, however, having gone
out, Fryth must not shrink from confuting him, and Tyndale
having received it also, neither does he. Throughout this
piece. Sir Thomas having contemptuously styled Fryth " the
young man," this it was which led Tyndale frequently to
place the Lord Chancellor in contrast as " the old man ;"
and he will now require to put on his spectacles once more.
In the outset of his attack on Fryth, the Chancellor had
insisted that in the sixth chapter of John the Saviour had re
ferred literally to the Lord's Supper.
" After this text," says Tyndale, " thus wisely proved to be understood in
the literal sense, with carnal Jews, and not in the allegoric or spiritual sense,
with Christ and his Apostles : the whole sum of More's confutation of " the
young man" standeth upon this argument. A posse ad esse. That is, to
wit, God may do it, ergo, it is done ! Christ may make his body iu many,
or in all places, at once, ergo, it is in many, or in all places, at once. Which
manner of argumentation, how false and naught it is, every sophister, and
every man that hath wit, pereeiveth. A like argument. God may shew More
the truth, and call him to repentance, as he did Paul, for persecuting his
Church : ergo. More is converted to God ! — or God may let him run, of an ob
durate heart with Pharaoh, and at last take an open and sudden vengeance
upon him, for persecuting His Word, aud burning His poor members : ergo, it
is done already ! — But let us return to our purpose. To dispute of God's al
mighty absolute power, what God »«ay do with his body, it is great folly, and no
less presumption to More. But, Christian reader, be thou content to know that
God's will, his word, and his power, be all one, and repugn not. The glory
of his Godhead is to be present, and to fill all places at once, essentially with his
almighty power ; which glory is denied to any other creature, himself say
ing by his prophet, ' I will not give my glory to any other,' — but to attribute
to his manhood that property which only is appropriated to his Godhead, is to
confound both the natures of Christ.
« But M. More saith at last, ' if God would tell me, that He would make
each of their bodies two, (meaning the young man's body and his,) to be in
fifteen places at once, I would believe him, that he were able to make his
words true in the bodies of both twain, and never would I so much as ask him,
whether he would glorify them both fii-st, or not : but I am sure, glorified or
unglorified, if he said it, he is able to do it.' Lo ! here may ye see what a
fervent faith this ' old man' hath, and what an eai-nest mind to believe Christ's
words, ifhe had told him. But I pray you, Mr. More, what and if Christ never
told it you, nor said it, nor never would, would you not be as hasty not to
believe it!"
But Tyndale was shocked with such light and profane

1533.] RESPECTING THE LORD'S SUPPER. 355
language, on a subject so sacred ; he, therefore, pauses, to add
with solemnity—" Sir, ye be too busy with God's almighty
power, and have taken too great a burthen upon your weak
shoulders ; ye have overladen yourself with your own harness
and weapons ; and young David is likely to prevail against you,
with his sling and stone. God hath infatuated your high
subtle wisdom. Your crafty conveyance is spied. God hath
sent your Church a meet cover for such a cup, even such a
defender as ye take upon yourself to be, that shall let all their
whole cause fall flat in the mire, unto both your shames and
utter confusion. God, therefore, be praised ever. Amen."
It was within the compass of last year that Sir Thomas
had printed against both Tyndale and Fryth, and yet he
palpably contradicted himself. When he attacked Fryth, he
forgot what he had printed against Tyndale. This did not
escape the latter, whom he fondly dreamt he had already
confuted. " At last note. Christian reader, that M. More, in the third book of his con
futation of Tyndale, to prove St. John's Gospel imperfect and insufficient,
(for leaving out so necessary a point of our faith, as he calleth the Supper of
Christ his Maunday,) saith, that John spake nothing at all of this sacrament.
And now, see again, iu these his letters against Fryth, how himself bringeth
in John, the sixth chapter, to impugn Fryth's writing, and to make all for
the sacrament, even thus : ' My flesh is verily meat, and my blood drink.'
Belike the man had there over-shot himself foul : the young man here causing
him to put on his spectacles, and pore better and more wisely with his old
eyes, upon St. John's Gospel, to find that thing there written, which before
he would have made one of his unwritten verities. Thus may ye see how his
words fight against himself into his own confusion.''
It is unnecessary to notice every corner out of which he
dragged his opponent, or the chain of argument by which he
bound him ; but, at the close, Tyndale did not finish without
giving intimation that he was quite prepared to meet, not
merely the Chancellor, but all who either believed or dis
sembled with him.
" If our scholastical sophisters will object and make answer to this Supper
of the Lord, bringing in for them their unwritten words, deeds, and dreams,
(for we have compelled More with shame tofiitfrom tlie Scripture,) strewed with
their vain, strange terms, which Paul damneth, and giveth Timothy warning
of ; I shall, by God's grace, so set the almighty Word of God against them,
that all Christians shall see falsehood and deceit in this (their) sacrament ;
and so disclose their deviUsh doctrine and sleighty juggling, that all that can
read English, shall see the truth of God's Word openly bear down their un-

356 THE LORD'S SUPPER. [bOOK I.
written lies. For it is verily the thing that I desire, even to be written against
in this matter. I have the solution of all their objections ready, and know right
well, that the more they stir in this sacrament, the broader their lies be spread,
the more shall their falsehood appear, and the more gloriously shall the truth
triumph ; as it is to see this day, how More, his lies, utter (spread) the truth
every day, more and more."
In conclusion, Tyndale longs for the day, when this ordin
ance of Christ shall be " restored unto the pure use," as the
Apostles used it in their time ; giving a particular account
of the manner in which he wished it to be observed. The
preacher was to appoint certain days after his discretion and
godly zeal, on each of which, his flock was to " come together
to celebrate the Lord's Supper." On which occasions after
propounding 1 Cor. xi.—
" The bread and the 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
signification of those sensible signs ; what the action and deed moveth, teacheth,
and exhorteth them unto." — " 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." — " This done, let him come down, and accompanied
honestly with other ministers, come forth reverently, 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." — After reading out of the sixth of
John, and 1 Cor. xi., — Exhortation, — Prayer, "which done, let him take the
bread, and eft the wine, in the sight of the people, hearing hira with a loud voice,
with godly gravity, and after a Christian rehgious reverence, rehearsing dis
tinctly the words of the Lord's Supper in their mother tongue ; and then dis
tribute 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 mystical 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 liis Supper, beginning at the washing of their feet ; so reading
till the bread and wine be eaten and drunken, and all tlie 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.— This done, let every man commend and
give themselves whole to God, and depart."
Such, it may be presumed, was the form which Tyndale
would hold forth to the " Congregation meeting in Bow Lane,
Cheapside," or elsewhere.
But now, whether Tyndale had been to Nuremberg, where

1533.] TYNDALE'S LAST LETTER TO FRYTH. 357
this was printed, or not, he had heard in May of Fryth's
dangerous condition in the Tower, and was in Antwerp again
at that time. Certainly he had not sojourned in this city
since January, where he must have heard much sooner, or if
there was an earlier communication from him to England it
is irrecoverable. His whole soul, however, was now moved
with intense feeling, and he poured it forth in the follow
ing final epistle : —
" The grace and peace of God our Father and of Jesus Christ our Lord be
with you, Amen. Dearly beloved brother John ! I have heard say, how the
hypocrites, now that they have overcome that great business which letted them,
or at the least way, have brought it to a stay, they return to their own nature
again.3 The will of God be fulfilled, and that which He hath ordained to be,
ere the world was made : that come, and his glory reign over all !
" Dearly beloved, however the matter be, commit yourself wholly and only
unto your most loving Father, and most kind Lord, and fear not men that threat,
nor trust men that speak fair ; but trust Him that is true of promise, and able
to make His word good. Your cause is Christ's gospel, a light that must be fed
with the blood of faith. The lamp must be dressed daily, and that oil poured
in every evening and morning, that the light go not out. Though we be sinners,
yet is the cause right. If, when we be buff'etted for well-doing, we suffer
patiently and endure, that is acceptable to God ; for to that end we are called.
For Christ also suffered for us, leaving us an example that we should follow his
steps, who did no sin. Hereby have we perceived love, that He laid down his
life for us ; therefore we ought also to lay down our lives for the brethren.
Rejoice and be glad, for great is your reward in heaven. For we suffer with
Him, that we may also be glorified with Him ; who shall change our vile body,
that it may bo fashioned like unto his glorious body, according to the working,
whereby He is able even to subject all things unto him.
" Dearly beloved, be of good courage, and comfort your soul with the hope
of this high reward, and bear the image of Christ in your mortal body, that it
may, at his coming, be made like to his immortal ; aud follow the example of
all your other dear brethren, which chose to suffer in hope of a better resur
rection. Keep your conscience pure and undefiled, and say against that, no
thing. Stick at necessary things, and remember the blasphemies of the enemies
of Christ, saying, they find none but that will abjure, rather than suffer the ex
tremity. Moreover, the death of them that come again, after they have once
denied, though it be accepted with God, and all that believe, yet it is not glorious,
for the hypocrites say, ' he must needs die ;' denying (then) helpeth not. But
might it have holpen, they would have denied, five hundred times, but seeing
it would not help them, therefore of pure pride and malice together, they speak
with their mouths, that their conscience knoweth false.
" If you give yourself, cast yourself, yield yourself, commit yourself, wholly
and only, to your loving Father ; then shall his power be in you, and make
you strong, and that so strong, that you shall feel no pain, which should be
to another present death j and his Spirit shall speak in you, and teach you
what to answer, according to his promise. He shall set out His truth by you.

3 Alluding to the divorce of Queen Katherino.

358 TYNDALE'S AFFECTION AND ANXIETY [BOOK I.
wonderfully, and work for you, above all that your vheart can imagine : yea,
and you are not yet dead, though the hypocrites all, with all that they can
make, have sworn your death.
"' Una salus victis, nullam sperare salutem.' [The only safety for the van
quished, is not to hope for safety.] To look for no man's help, bringeth the
help of God, to them that seem to be overcome in the eyes of the hypocrites :
Yea, it shall make God to carry you through thick and thin, for his truth's sake,
in spite of all the enemies of his truth. There falleth not a hair, till his hour
be come ; and when his hour is come, necessity carrieth us hence, though we
be not willing. But if we be willing, then have we a reward and thanks.
" Fear not the threatening, therefore, neither be overcome of sweet words :
with which twain, the hypocrites shall assail you. Neither let the persuasions
of worldly wisdom bear rvde in your heart : No, though they be your friends
that counsel you. Let Bilney be a warning to you. Let not their visor beguile
your eyes. Let not your body faint. He that endureth to the end shall be
saved. If the pain be above your strength, remember — ' whatsoever ye shall ask
in my Name, I will give it you,' — and pray to your Father, in that Name, and
he shall ease your pain or shorten it. The Lord of peace, of hope, and of faith,
be with you. Amen. William Tyndale."
He then adds the following postscript. " Two have suffered in Antwerp,
unto the great glory of the Gospel ; (which must have been during his absence,)
four at Rysels (Brussels ?) in Flanders, and at Lucca (or Luke^ — Laken?) hath
there orie at least, and all the same day. At Roane (Rouen) in France they
persecute, and at Paris are five doctors taken for the Gospel. See, you are not
alone ; be cheerful, and remember, that among the hard-hearted 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 soever it be, forget it not,
that we may know how it goeth with you, for our heart's ease. The Lord be
yet again with you, with all his plenteousness, and fill you that may flow over.
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.4
" 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,
(Anne Boleyn,) with a letter to N. (Norris ?) for to deliver them ; and to pur
chase Ucense, that he might so go through all the Bible. Out of this sprung
the noise of the new Bible :5 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. Will'iam Tyndale."
In both these letters the reader has beheld the ardent
affection of Tyndale for his friend ; but see, in the last, how
strong his supreme regard for the truth of God ! The young
man was dear to him as his own soul, yet had he prepared

i One " John Byrt, alias Adrian, alias Bookbinder," is mentioned by More. Adrian was
friendly, and perhaps a binder of their books in England.
6 And hence, perhaps, also the mistake of some historians, that a Bible was printed in 1632 •
as well as the equally groundless conjecture, that these two leaves had any connexion with the
Bible afterwards issued by Miles Coverdale. It was a proposal which came to nothing. Before
long, Joye will have to retire from Antwerp, as well as Barrow,

1533.] FOR FRYTH IN PRISON. 359
his mind for the severe trial, and given him up, though now,
evidently, in a state of great agitation ; but it was one of
breathless anxiety for the glory of God, and the subordinate
glory of his friend's character, rather than his life. Tyndale
was in that frame of mind, which no man, without a martyr's
heart, such as he truly possessed, can fully appreciate ; nor is
the wife of the prisoner, to whom he had been but recently
united, less to be admired. This letter, which was " delivered
to Fryth in the Tower," must have proved most welcome ;
although, ere long, we shall find that, strengthened by the
power and grace of his Redeemer, he had needed no human
counsel to die with all the heroism of Stephen, the first
martyr to Christianity.
Here, then, we must leave Tyndale for a season, and return
to the field of battle in England.
Before the insidious and cruel proceedings against Fryth can be
understood and felt, as they ought to be, the preceding events of this
year require to be noticed.
Notwithstanding Henry's ardent thirst for dominion in all things,
and his having been acknowledged Head of the Church of England, he
still found that he was not ahle to make an Archbishop ; at least such a
one as the Prelates, and even the people, would at once acknowledge ;
and therefore he applies to Rome once more. This he must have done
pretty early in January, since the Bulls for Cranmer to succeed War
ham are dated from the 21st of February to the 2d of March.^ These
were not fewer than eleven, and all connected with this one appoint
ment ; the wonted charge for which had been 15,000 florins, or £3375;
but, on this occasion, it is said, no more was demanded than 900 ducats !
or £180 ! After all he had done in forwarding his Royal master's de
sign as to his divorce, no man could be more objectionable to the Pon
tiff than Cranmer ; so that this compliance, and at so low a rate, must
have been with some view to retain Henry ; though assuredly Clement was
now outwitted, or dreaming in forgetfulness of the thunder he had
issued on the 23d of December, forbidding intercourse with Lady Anne
Boleyn. In January, however, lo ! that Bull arrived, when his Majesty,
highly incensed, determined at once to put an end to the long debated
question. This he did on the morning of St. Paul's day, or the 25th of
January, by being married to Lady Anne Boleyn, Marchioness of Pem
broke, and daughter to the Earl of Wiltshire. The ceremony was per-

c Burnet, indeed, says it was in the end of January that the King applied to Clement. If so,
it was immediately after his marriage ; but the 22d of Feb., in return, seems to be inconsistent
with so late a date.

360 STATE OF ENGLAND. [^BOOK I.
formed in private, by Rowland Lee, one of the Royal Chaplains, after
wards Bishop of Chester. Ko distinct motive has been assigned for this
privacy ; but it is very easy to see one now, in the request sent to Rome,
before the Pontiff's indignation was known. In the game now playing,
few things eould be more important, at this moment, to Henry, than
Cranmer's elevation ; but had Clement only divined what his Majesty
was about, certainly no such Bulls had ever reached England. How
ever, they did arrive safely — they exactly answered Henry's purpose
and intentions — and were the last for which he ever applied. Cranmer
was not present at this marriage, nor, by his own account, was he aware
of it for about a fortnight.^
Of Lady Anne, we have hitherto taken no notice, nor do we even now
refer to the very discordant statements respecting her. The fairest way
will be to wait till we come to the close of her brief career, when we
shall be better able to estimate a character which has been so differently
represented. We cannot affirm that there was any positive connexion
between the marriage of Henry to Lady Anne Boleyn and
the resignation of the Chancellorship by More ; but still it is
very observable, that the next day, or January 26th, Sir
Thomas Audley, Lord Keeper of the Great Seal, delivered it
to the King ; when his Majesty, retaining it only a quarter
of an hour, re-delivered it to him, with the title of Lord
Chancellor.^ Thus, though Sir Thomas More had resigned
the Seals in May, he had been acting as an officer of the
Crown till about this period.^ We have seen him, long after
May, active in the pursuit and persecution of Fryth ; but
the mace being gone, he must now wield only the pen. It
was the solitary instrument left him to carry on his warfare ;
and with this he continued more busy than ever, throughout
the whole of this year.
This new appointment is worthy of notice, chiefly on one
7 It would be vain to look for principle in any part of Henry's progress; but it is curious
enough, nor should it pass unnoticed, that in thus marrying Queen Anne, he was so far simply
following the opinion and advice which had been given him by the Pontiff himself, in Janu
ary 1528, or precisely five years ago. " If the King," he had said, " found the matter clear in
his own conscience, (in which no doctor in the whole world could resolve the matter better
than the King himself,) he should, without more noise, make judgment be given, and marry
another wife, and then, send for a legate to confirm the matter. And it would be easier to ratify
all, when it was once done, than to go on in a process from Rome."— Cotton MS., Vitellius, B.
X., fol. 35.— From Sir G. Casalis' Rome, \3lh Jan. 1628.
fl Rymer's Fred., xiv., p. 446.
0 The powers of a Lord-Keeper were not defined till the reign of Elizabeth, in the person of
Sir N. Bacon. Lord-Keepers, at present, had no authority annexed— did not hear causes, nor
preside in the House of Lords— so that Sir Thomas More had merely retired, last May, from
putting the seals to such writs or patents as went in coui-se.

1533.] STATE OF ENGLAND. 361
account. An immediate relaxation took place as to Fryth,
in his imprisonment. In the earlier stage of his confinement
here was his situation — " I am, in a manner, as a man bound
to a post, and cannot so well bestow me in my play, as if I
were at liberty ; for I may not have such books as are neces
sary for me ; neither yet pen, ink, nor paper, but only
secretly, so that I am in continual fear both of the Lieu
tenant and of my keeper, lest they should espy any such
thing by me. And, therefore, it is little marvel though the
work be imperfect ; for whensoever I hear the keys ring at the
doors, straight all must be conveyed out of the way — and then,
if any notable thing had been in my mind, it was clean lost."'"
But now, though Sir Thomas Audley was as much dis
posed to please Henry as any of the time-servers round his
person, he felt and acted very differently from his predeces
sor, as to the " new learning ;" and Crumwell, who perhaps
had profited by the sound advice of Vaughan, is stated to
have been disposed to show favour to the prisoner." In
short, had there been no deep and too successful intrigue
afterwards employed, Fryth might have been permitted to
depart from England. But still, in the meanwhile, there
was a pause — a suspension of that violence and severity, which
had run on during the reign of the last Chancellor. The very
keeper of Fryth in the Tower greatly relaxed ; and, " upon
condition of his own word and promise, let him go at liberty
during the night, to consult with good men." One happy re
sult of all this was, that Fryth was enabled to write his full
refutation of the Lord Chancellor, from the very Tower to
which he had committed him, besides several other things,
afterwards printed in his works.
Under these circumstances, Fryth was not idle, nor did
Sir Thomas escape with impunity. " For though More
wrote with as much wit and eloquence as any man in that
age did, and Fryth wrote plainly without any art ; yet there
is so great a diff'erence between their books, that whoever
compares them, will clearly perceive the one to be the in
genious defender of an ill cause, and the other a simple as-
sertor of truth."' The palm for " wit and eloquence" has

10 In his answer to Rastell. ^^ See Vaughan's letters, anno 1.131.
IS! Burnet ; though he did not observe the intermission of rigour which we have pointed out.
This continued from February to April inclusive, and the books quoted by Fryth, prove the fact.

362 FRYTH'S NOBLE TESTIMONY [bOOK I.
been at once assigned to Sir Thomas, upon all occasions ;
but if any one desires to see the " eloquent orator " and the
" simple assertor of truth " in contrast, he has only to con
sult Fryth, who certainly does him justice, by quoting the
eloquence, verbatim, such as it was, before he confutes it —
" Fryth, the young man, ' teacheth in a few leaves shortly, all the poison
that Wickliffe, CEcolampadius, Huskyn, Tyndale, and Zuinglius have taught in
all their books before, concerning the blessed sacrament of the altar ; not only
affirming it to be very bread still, as Luther doth, hut also, as tltese other
beasts do, saith it is nothing else.' — These dregs hath he drunken of Wickliffe,
CEcolampadius, Tyndale, aud Zuinglius, and so hath all that he argueth here
before ; which four, what manner folk they be, is meetly well perceived and
known, and God hath in part, with his open vengeance, declared."
To this Fryth immediately gives the following memorable
answer —
" I do neither affirm nor deny any thing, because Luther so saith, but because
the Scripture of God doth so conclude and determine. I take not Luther for
such an author that I think he cannot err ; but I think verily that he both may
err, and doth err, in certain points, although not in such as concern salvation
and damnation ; for in these, blessed be God ! all these, whom ye call heretics,
do agi'ee right well. And likewise, I do not allow this thing, because Wickliffe,
CEcolampadius, Tyndale, and Zuinglius, so say, but because I see them in that
place more purely expound the Scripture, and that the process of the text doth
more favour their sentence. — And where ye say that it is ' meetly well known
what manner [of] folk they be,' — After vindicating the other three individually,
he adds, as to his dearest friend upon earth : —
" And Tyndale, I trust, liveth, well content with such a poor Apostle's life, as
God gave his Son Christ, and his faithful ministers in this world, which is not
sure of so many mites as ye be yearly of pounds ; although I am sure that, for
his learning and judgment in Scripture, he were more worthy to be promoted
than all the Bishops in England. I received a letter from him, which was
written since Christmas, wherein, among other matters, he writeth thus — ' I call
God to record, &c.''3 Judge, Christian reader, whether these words be not
spoken of a faithful, clear, innocent heart. And as for his behaviour, it is such,
that I am sure no man can reprove him of any sin ; howbeit, no man is innocent
before God, which beholdeth the heart."
Thus, the one in exile, and the other in prison, testify to
the blameless integrity of each other ; though no two men
were so despised and respected, so hated and beloved, in the
age in which they lived. We quote only one other specimen
of the Chancellor's style, since it is in immediate connexion
with the Sacred Scriptures.

13 See the letter itself, page 349.

1533.] FROM THE TOWER. 363
"And would God for his mercy," saith M. More, "that since there can
nothing refrain their study from devising and compassing of evil and ungracious
writing ; that they would and could keep it so secretly that never man should see
it, but such as are so far corrupted as never would be cured of their canker !"
To which Fryth rejoins : —
" It is not possible for him that hath his eyes, and seeth his brother which lack
eth sight, in jeopardy of perishing at a perilous pit, but that he must come to him,
and guide him, till he is past that jeopardy ; and at the least wise, if he cannot
come to him, yet will he call and cry to him, to cause him choose the better
way, except his heart be cankered with the contagion of such hatred, that he can
rejoice in his brother's destruction. And even so, is it not possible for us, which
have received the knowledge of God's Word, but that we must cry and call to
others, that they leave the perilous paths of their own foohsh fantasies ; and do
that only to the Lord, that He commandeth them, — neither adding anything, or
diminishing. And therefore, until we see some means found, by the which a
reasonable reformation may be had on the one part, and sufficient instruction fur
the poor commoners, I assure you, 1 neither will nor can cease to speak ; for the
Word of God boileth in my body like a fervent fire, and will needs have issue,
and breaketh out when occasion is given.
" But this hath been offered you, is offered, and shall be offered. Grant that the
Word of God, I mean the text of Scripture, may go abroad in our English tongue,
as other nations have it in their tongues, and my brother William Tyndale and 1
have done, and will promise you to write no more : If you will not grant this
condition, then will we be doing, while we have breath, and show in few words
that the Scripture doth in many ; and so, at the least, save some."
In his progress, Fryth not only defended his opinions by
express quotations of Scripture, with a clear interpretation of
their meaning ; but he went on by quoting Tertullian and
Augustine, Origen and Ambrose, Jerome and Chrysostom,
Fulgentius and Eusebius, &c. These he gives in Latin, with
a translation in English ; bringing forward " all these old
doctors, that his opponents might be ashamed " from hence
forth to call it " new learning." All the Prelates, therefore,
with " Mr. More, which taketh upon him to be their proctor,"
were called upon now to speak out and answer, if it was a
question to be settled by fair reasoning ; and they were
specially bound to have done so by the manner in which
Fryth summed up his arguments at the close. Besides, the
pointed strictures of Tyndale had also arrived in England :
but there could be no answer, properly so called, though More
will not refrain from some reply."
But we have still to trace the events that immediately pre
ceded the cruel but glorious martyrdom of this fine young

14 The foolish remarks printed by one John Gwinncth, upon Fryth's learning, after his death,
are totally unworthy of notice.

364 STRANGE STATE OF ENGLAND. [bOOK I.
man : one of which, or the furious opposition to Henry's late
marriage, by the base and perfidious use made of it, through
Stephen Gardiner, became the remote occasion of his death.
About the day on which Cranmer was informed of the King's marriage.
Parliament was opened, or on the 4th of February ; so that he must have
perfectly understood the purport and design of a bill then introduced,
and passed into an Act, " against all appeals to Rome." The preamble
bears, that the crown of England was imperial, and that the nation was
a complete body within itself, with full power to give justice in all cases
spiritual and temporal, — that all causes, whether relating to the King,
or any of his subjects were to be determined within the kingdom, not
withstanding any appeals to Rome, or " inhibitions or Bulls from it."
There was here no disguise ; both Houses of ParKament had thus declared
for Henry and shielded him, as well as prevented Queen Katherine, so
cruelly used, from moving one step. Whatever she had done, or could
now do, was thus rendered altogether in vain.
This act too, it should be observed, was discussing and passed during
that very season, when the King was in waiting for Bulls from Clement,
without which Cranmer's appointment might have been disputed or with
stood ; or without which, at all .events, he could not so triumphantly
have taken his seat. But the documents waited for, arrived in March,
and they were then employed to answer their intended purpose, in a way
sufficiently contemptuous to the beguiled Pontiff, and with what credit
to the parties concerned, let the reader judge.
That a perfect understanding already existed between the King and
Cranmer as to the entire procedure, will be very evident. Henry could
not, as has been supposed by some, be now in any hesitation, as to his
own singular supremacy, for in this he boasted, and expressed it roundly
with his own hand ;'' and Cranmer, more than a month before this, was
resolved to be Archbishop of Canterbury.'^ But here the first difficulty
presented itself, which must be surmounted. The Bulls were sent, of
course, to Cianmer, but he cannot receive them from the Pontiff, and
therefore hands them to his Majesty. These Bulls involved a customary
oath, nay two, to the Pontiff ; the very sarm about which Henry had
been so furious with all the Bishops, from Warham downwards ; since that,
having taken them, "they were," it had been said, "but half his subjects
and he half their King !" Cranmer had set out in his career by denying
the authority of Rome, merely in a case which he imagined the law of
God had decided ; but now he denied the authority of the Pontiff alto
gether, and more particularly in the appointment to any office in the
15 Harl. MS., No. 28.3, fol. 97.
16 Cotton MS., Vespas. F. xiii,, fol. 75. This original letter to Crumwell is dated as early as
8th February and suljscribed,— r/ioma* Elect of Canterbury.

1533.] CRANMER MADE ARCHBISHOP. 365
Church. Nothing of course could be more palatable to his Majesty than
such a sentiment ; but how was this oath or these oaths to be disposed of,
if the Bulls cannot, or must not be laid aside ? Henry then consulted the
Canonists, particularly one Dr. Oliver, " how he might bestow the Arch
bishopric, salving Cranmer's conscience !" They suggested that Cranmer
should take a protestation against the oath, before he took it, by which ex
pedient, he might save his liberty, nay renounce every clause of it, and
by this salvo, he might afterwards do his duty to God, his King and
country ! Strange to say, with this Cranmer was satisfied, and proceeded !
But it is more than strange, that he should have found apologists, to the
present day, for such a step. As no sophistry can justify it, so it is al
lowing partiality for any man to proceed much too far to palliate the
proceeding.'? If upon application to Rome, no such protestation could then
be sent, the protestation at home being private or public, was a matter of
moonshine, except it had been immediately sent to Clement, who imposed
the oaths, and time allowed to know whether all the documents were to
stand good. But no such course would have carried the day, or met the
urgency and haste of the impetuous Monarch ; so that the entire pro
ceeding was worthy of the days of Wolsey.
As for Cranmer himself, " if any man may vary the meaning of an oath
which he takes, to something different from its verbal terms, of what use
is an oath 1 " " Besides, the step was ominous, and led to others, as we
shall see too soon. " This first deviation from integrity, as is almost
always the case, drew after it many others ; and began that discreditable
course of temporising, and undue compliance, to which this prelate was
reduced for the rest of Henry's reign."'^
Cranmer became Archbishop of Canterbury on the 30th of March, and
three days after entered the Convocation then sitting. The points on
which the divorce of the King were made to hinge, had been discussed,
or rather fixed, two years ago, so that it was only for the sake of some
new form, that on the 26th of March, they had tabled the subject once
more ; though considering what Henry had actually done, two months be-

17 '* If," says Burnet, "Cranmerdidnot wholly save his integrity, yet he intended to zct fairly
and above board." But replies Collyer, — " To act above board is not always defensible ; it is some
times an aggravation of a fault. Besides, how a man can act fairly and yet not save his integrity,
is farther than I can discover. And therefore, it must be said there was something of human in
firmity in this management." But of the amount of human infirmity, let the reader judge for
himself. In his protestation, he declared that he intended not to bind himself to do any thing con
trary to the King's prerogative,— the commonwealth and statutes ; nor from speaking freely as to
the reformation and thegovenimentofthe Church of England. And then he took the oaths, — pro
mising, "from this hour forward I shall be faithful and obedient to St. Peter and the Church of
Rome. The papacy of Rome and regalities of St. Peter I shall help, retain, and defend against all
)nfin,— the rights, honours, privileges and authorities of the Pope and his Successors, I shall cause
to be conserved, augmented, and promoted. I shall not be in counsel against him— heretics, schis
matics, and rebels to our holy Father, I shall resist and persecute. I shall not sell my possessions
without the Pope's Council. So God me help and the holy evangelists !" Compare all this, too,
with the Acts already passed in Parliament. And yet has it actually been averred, that '* the
oath and the protest are quite consistent with each other!" And that in a modern publication,
widely circulated. 1 8 Turner. i« Hallam.

366 CRANMER'S PROCEDURE. [BOOK I.
fore, nothing could be so preposterous. After Cranmer had taken Ms seat,
on the 2d of April, the discussion went on, and the subject again settled,
a public instrument was drawn up for the King's satisfaction. To carry
on this strange drama, on the llth of April, Cranmer frrites a letter to
his Majesty.
" That whereas your Grace's great cause of matrimony is, as it is thought,
through all Christianity (Christendom) divulgated,' and in the mouths 'of the
rude and ignorant common people of this your Grace's realm so talked of, that
few of them do fear to report and say, that thereof is likelihood hereafter to en
sue great inconvenience, danger, and peril, to this your Grace's realm, and
much uncertainty of succession ; by which things the said ignorant people be
not a little offended."20 He then implores the King that he, as Archbishop,
may proceed, officially, to such measures as may put an end to all this murmuring.
The answer to this was immediate, a long and formal letter, in which his Ma
jesty highly applauds Cranmer's "good mind and fervent zeal to do yMsfice, accord
ing to his office."2l " The answer of the King," says Todd, " was in perfect ac
cordance with the primate's suggestion ; in which he forgot not to maintain the
supremacy, — saying that being your King and Sovereign we do recognise no su
perior on earth, but only God, not being subject to the laws of any earthly crea
ture ; yet because you be under us, by God's calling and our's, the most princi
pal minister of our spiritual jurisdiction within this our realm, we will not there
fore refuse your humble request."
The outrageous absurdity of these proceedings must, however, it seems,
be preserved in perfect keeping ; and, therefore, on the self-same day on
which Henry received this letter from Cranmer, he allows not the day to
close, ¦without taking another step in advance. " Queen Anne that even
ing went in state to her closet openly as Queen," says Halle ; " on
Easter Eve (12th of April) she was declared Queen of England," says
Burnet ; and the coronation was fixed for the 1st of June : so that
Cranmer must now proceed to sit in judgment, whether the first mar
riage was null and void, after the second had been thus openly acknow
ledged ! Meanwhile application had been made to Queen Katherine,
to lay aside her title as Queen, since there could not be two Queens in
one realm, but Sir T. Vaux informed the Duke of Norfolk on the 18th
of April, that to this she would on no account accede.^^ On the 23d,
Henry was keeping the day of St. George at Greenwich, " fully attended
by lords and knights, with all solace and pleasure," and Cranmer had
gone down to repose a few days at his " manor of Mortlocke," before

10 Harleian MS., 6148, fol. 2.
21 Idem, 283, fol. 97- These letters are printed in the Government State Papers, vol. i., p. 390,
392. Henry's reply is to Cranmer's second letter, for it is curious enough that Cranmer, ali-com-
pliant, had to write two letters on the same day. The first had not pleased his Majesty. There
must be no reference to the laws of holy Church, as in the first letter, but only to Henry's own
supremacy, as in the second. This last, only, is that which is inserted by Cranmer's Secretai7 in
his book of copies ; but both the manuscripts bear the marks of having been folded, and
sealed, and received, by the King. In short, no previous concert between two parties was ever
more glaring. ^' MS. Otho, c. x., fol. 177. •

1533.] THE FRIARS AT GREENWICH. 367
proceeding to hold his court at Dunstable, to which Katherine was to be
summoned. But lo ! on Sunday the 1st of May, a storm of great vio
lence burst out, in his Majesty's presence, and from the pulpit, at
Greenwich. The Observant Friars of Greenwich, Richmond, and Canterbury, were
generally in favour of Queen Katherine, but the contending opinions
had been discussed, with as much bitterness on both sides, within the
monastery at Greenwich, as any where else, although the inmates dwelt
immediately under Henry's own eye. Thus, Robinson, the father of the
monastery, of whom we have heard,^^ was eager to have preached
openly at Paul's Cross, in favour of Queen Katherine ; but the preacher
on the 1st of May was her own confessor. Friar Peto. Though in the
King's Chapel, the preacher, pretending a divine commission, denounced
heavy judgments upon Henry to his face — told him that his second mar
riage was unlawful, adding, that many lying prophets had deceived him,
and that it was the greatest misery of princes to be daily so abused by
flatterers. The King it is said, betrayed no signs of commotion, but
took care that another man should officiate next Sunday, to justify his
proceedings. This was Dr. Curwin, then one of the Royal Chaplains.^
He defended the King, and condemned Peto as a rebel, a slanderer, and
a traitor — called out for Peto by name, and challenged him to defend his
intemperate discourse. There was no reply ; when Curwin denounced
him for cowardice. But here, again, another Friar, Elstow, stood up in
the gallery, and proceeded to justify all that his brother had said. The
fact was, that whether from fear, or designing to follow up his denoun-
ciations, Peto had gone to attend a provincial council (of their order) at
Canterbury, for there was a confederacy among the Friars to preach in
the same strain through the kingdom. Blstow then spoke with such
vehemence, that no one could silence him, till the King rose, and com
manded him to hold his peace. The next day, both these men were
summoned before the Privy Council, and severely reprimanded. The
Monastery of Greenwich did not long survive, and these Franciscan Ob
servant Friars, with all the rest of their order, were shortly after banished
the kingdom.^^
It was, however, about this period, if not on the very same 8th day
of May, that Stephen Gardiner, Bishop of Winchester, succeeded with
his cruel and malicious counsel. An excellent scholar, though a bad

23 Sec the letter of West, p. 207.
24 He was afterwards made Dean of Hereford ; then Archbighop of Dublin by Queen Mary.
and, ultimately, at his own request. Bishop tiT Oxford, under Elizabeth.
25 Peto, though obliged to fiy, afterwards returned, and was Confessor to Katherine's daughter.
Queen Mary. He was ultimately made a Cardinal, but never allowed, in that character, to
enter England ; as one Cardinal was thought quite sufBcient for England, viz. Mary's own
cousin, Beginald Pole. There seems to have been an inhibition of " seditious preaching con
cerning tho King's marriage" after this, which was repeated next year. Strype alludes to the
former iu his life of Cranmer, and the latter may be seen in the Harl. MS., 6148, fol. 20.

368 STEPHEN GARDINER ROUSED. [[BOOK I.
man, he had actually been one of the tutors of Fryth, when at Cam
bridge, and now he most craftily plotted his death. No man was better
acquainted with Henry's temper than Gardiner. He knew as well how
to excite his wrath, aa to calm the storm of his fury.^^ Fryth had been
examined in Winchester's house as early as December last, and yet since
January treated with greater lenity. So at a fit season for infusing
violent counsel, Gardiner and others " devised," says Foxe, " to seek the
destruction of Fryth, by putting the King in remembrance that the said
Fryth was in the Tower there stayed." Curwin, therefore, thus insti
gated, " very sore inveighing against the Sacramentaries," (as they
them termed,) he brake out thus far and said, — " It is no marvel though
this abominable heresy do much prevail amongst us ; for there is one
now in the Tower of London, so bold as to write in the defence of that
heresy, and yet no man goeth about his reformation" — meaning John
Fryth. This was all-sufiicient. Fryth was long and well known to the
King, who, so far from yet approving of his sentiments, was, adds Foxe,
" a perverse stout adversary." After this, Henry ordered Cranmer and
Crumwell " forthwith to call Fryth into examination, so that he might
either be compelled to recant, or else by the law to suffer condign
punishment." ^1
But there was one cause for delay, paramount to all other orders.
The afiFairs personal to his Majesty must, of course, be first hastened ;
though it was certainly a singular circumstance, that the sentiments and
present painful condition of this eminent young man, should have
crossed even the royal path, and at such a moment as this.
On the very same day that Curwin was preaching at Greenwich,
Cranmer came to Dunstable, with his assistants, where they remained
fifteen days.^^ In the Priory there, within four miles of Queen Katherine,
they held their court. It opened on the lOth, and closed on the 23d of
May. The Queen was summoned, and the proceedings were reported,
from time to time, both to Henry and Crumwell. The King was anxious,
26 Gardiner's character has been graphically summed up by an old writer in the Harleian MS.
His eminences were three, 1. Reservedness ; 2. Boldness ; 3. Eloquence. Reservedmss. Where
by he never did what he aimed at— never aimed at what he intended — never intended what he said
— and never said what he intended ; whereby be carried it so, that others should do his business,
when they opposed it ; and he should undermine theirs, when they seemed to promote it. A
man that was to be traced like the fox, and read like Hebrew. If you would know what he did,
you must observe what he did not.
27 Siowe's Annals, anno 163.3. Foxe, App. at the end of his Acts. Foxe represents Curwin's
sermon as being in Lent. But Cranmer was not Archbishop till the fifth Sunday in Lent, and
so late as the llth of April he was applying to Henry, for the Jirst time, to act officially ; and
therefore he could not have been so commanded by the King till after this. Besides, Burnet
speaks of Fryth being apprehended in May, which, though not correct, evidently points to the
very time of this sermon : and, as Stowe expressly says—" the next Sunday, being tbe 8th of
May, Dr. Curwin preached in the same place ;" we presume that Friars and Sacramentaries
were involved in the same tirade. It was a fine opportunity for Gardiner's purpose : and so we
shall find Fryth's examination commence, as soon as Cranmer could find a spare day ; when,
however, notwithstanding what Foxe here states, Crumwell was not present.
2« Harl. MS. 6148, fol. 23. The assistants were Longland, Gardiner, six Doctors, including
Oliver, with Bedell and others, as Counsellors for the King.

1533.] CRANMER'S PROCEDURE. 36.9
so was Crumwell, and as for the court, it evidently sat in a state of ap
prehension from day to day ; since the coronation of Queen Anne was
fixed for the first of June. Seldom has the Judge trembled lest the
party stunmoned should appear, but whether Cranmer did so, his own
words to Crumwell, on the 17th of May, will best explain.
" For divers considerations I do think it right expedient, that the matter and
the process of the same be Icept secret for a time ; therefore, I pray you to malce
no relation thereof, as I linow well you will not. For if the noble lady Catherine
should, by the bruit of this matter in the mouths of the inhabitants of the
country, or by her friends or counsel hearing of this bruit, be counselled or
persuaded to appear afore me in the time, or afore the time of sentence, I should
be thereby greatly stayed and let in the process, and the King's Grace's counsel
here present shall be much uncertain what shall be then farther done thei'ein.
For a great bruit and voice of the people in this behalf, might perchance move
her to do that thing herein, which peradventure she would not do, if she
shall hear little of it. And, therefore, / pray you to speak as little of this
matter as ye may, and to move tlie King's highness likewise so to do, for the con
siderations above recited." 29
But the Archbishop might have been perfectly calm and collected,
bad he only known ; for Catherine was determined never to yield, and
more especially never to acknowledge his authority as an Archbishop.
On the 23d, Cranmer pronounced, not a sentence of divorce, properly
so called, but a judicial sentence, that the marriage of Henry to Catherine
had been void from the beginning, being, as they said, contrary io the
Divine law. On the 28th, at Lambeth, he judicially confirmed the
King's recent marriage, and from the 29th, to Sunday the first of
June, London and Westminster were filled with all the pageantry of
the coronation.
An official conference was held with Catherine after this, on the third of
July,^ and another in the following year, but they were alike in vain.^'
Ten days had not elapsed after Queen Anne's coronation,
before Cranmer, in servile obedience to his royal Master,
must proceed -with a widely different scene. The martyrdom
of Fryth has never been sufSciently marked in English history,
as there are several points of distinction between it and any
preceding act of cruelty, in Henry's reign. In 1530, it is
true, he had fully authorised a liery persecution, but to this
measure he had been strongly advised by the last Lord Ohau-

20 Cotton MS. Otho, c. x. 166. so Harl. MS., No. 283, fol. 112, b.
31 At thislast, on the 20th May 1534, Tunstal and Lee being sent to her again, officially, Catherine
intimated with great warmth, that she still accounted herself his Majesty's lawful wife; " in
which opinion she would persist till death," that "she would never leave the name of Queen" —
and, as they reported to Henry—" My Lord of Canterbury she called a shadow." Collyer hiu
dated this letter, by mistake, 16.33. See Government State Papers, vol. i., p. 419.
VOL. 1. 2 A

370 THE KING ORDERS [BOOK I.
cellor ; and the cruelties ensuing had never commenced with
him, nor had he yet personally sanctioned the last sentence of
the law. Bilney and Bayfield, Tewksbury and Bennet, had
been first seized and examined by the Bishops, and then put
to death without any writ from his Majesty. The statute of
Henry IV., and the warrant of Sir Thomas More, had been
regarded as sufiicient, and Henry only did not interpose. But
Sir Thomas had now retired, and Chancellor Audley was
not a persecutor. The examination of Fryth was Henry's
own deed, and though the blood of the innocent was already
upon him, so far as explained, he now first degraded himself
personally to the rank of a Murderer.
The importance attached to this reckless proceeding may
be seen, in the eminence of the parties expressly appointed by
the King to examine Fryth. These were Cranmer, Gardiner,
and Stokesly, the Lord Chancellor, the Duke of Sufi"olk, or
Henry's own brother-in-law, and the Earl of Wiltshire. The
story altogether, is one of the most affecting, and graphic, in
the history of the times.
" Fryth's long confinement in the Tower, without examination, was so
heinously taken of the King, that now my Lord of Canterbury with other Bishops
and other learned men, were at once appointed to examine him. And for that
there should be no concourse of citieens at the said examination : my Lord of
Canterbury removed to Croydon, unto whom resorted the rest of the Commis
sioners. Now, before the day of examination appointed, my Lord of Canterbury
sent one of his gentlemen and one of his porters, whose name was Perlebean,
a Welshman born, to fetch John Fryth from the Tower to Croydon. This
gentleman had both my Lord's letters, and the King's ring, unto my Lord
Fitzwilliams, (first Earl of Southampton) constable of the Tower, (then living
in Cannon Row, at Westminster, in extreme anguish and pain from a disorder,)
for the delivery of the prisoner. Fitzwilliams, more passionate than patient,
understanding for what purpose my Lord's gentleman was come, damned and
cursed Fryth and other heretics, saying — ' Take this my ring unto the Lieu
tenant of the Tower, and receive your man, your heretic, with you, and I am
glad that I am rid of him.'
" When Fryth was delivered to my Lord of Canterbury's gentleman, they twain
with Perlebean, sitting in a wherry, and rowing towards Lambeth : the said
gentleman, much lamenting in his mind, the infelicity of the said Fryth, began
in this wise to exhort him — ' To consider in what estate he was, a man alto
gether cast away in this world, if he did not look wisely to himself. And yet
though his cause was never so dangerous, he might somewhat, in relenting to
authority, and so giving place for a time, both help himself out of trouble, and
when opportunity and occasion should serve, prefer his cause, which he then
went about to defend : declaring farther, that he had many wellwillers and
friends, which would stand on his side, so far forth as possible they then were
able, and durst do : Adding hereunto, that it were great pity, that he, being

1533.] PRYTH'S EXAMINATION. 371
of such singular knowledge both in the Latin and Greek ; both ready and ripe
in all kind of learning, as well in the Scriptures, as in the ancient doctors ;
should now suddenly suffer all those singular gifts to perish with him, with
little commodity or profit to the world, and less comfort to his wife and children,
and others, his kinsfolk aud friends.' — ' This I am sure of,' quoth the gentleman,
' that my Lord Crumwell, and my Lord of Canterbury, much favouring you,
and knowing you to be an eloquent learned young man, and now towards the
felicity of your life, young in years, old in knowledge, and of great forwardness
and likelihood to be a most profitable member of this realm, will never permit
you to sustain any open shame, if you will somewhat be advised by their coun
sel. On the other side, if you stand stiff to your opinion, it is not possible
to save your life. For like as you have good friends, so have you mortal foes
and enemies.' "
Such was the commencement of those " sweet words," to
which Tyndale had alluded, and of which he had given such
solemn warning ; but there was no occasion. Fryth felt the
solemnity and importance of his position, to a degree such as
no man in England had ever yet reached.
" ' I most heartUy thank you,' quoth Master Fryth, ' both for your good will,
and for your counsel, by the which I well perceive that you mean well unto me.
Howbeit, my cause and conscience is such, that in no wise I may not, nor cannot
for any worldly respect, without danger of damnation, start aside, and fly from
the true knowledge and doctrine which I have conceived of the Supper of the
Lord, or the communion, otherwise called the sacrament of the altar : for if it
be my chance to be demanded what I think in that behalf, I must needs say
my knowledge and my conscience, as partly I have written therein already,
though I should presently lose twenty lives, if I had so many. And this you
shall well understand, that I am not so unfurnished, either of Scripture or
ancient doctors, schoolmen or others, for my defence ; so that if I may be in
differently (impartially) heard, I am sure that mine adversaries cannot justly
condemn me, or mine assertion, but that they shall condemn with me, St.
Augustine and the most part of the old writers ; yea, the very Bishops of Rome
of the oldest sort shall also say for me, and defend my cause.'
" ' Yea, marry,' quoth the gentleman, ' you say well, if you might be indiffer
ently heard. But I much doubt thereof, for that our Master, Christ, was not
indifferently heard ; nor should be, as I think, if He were now present again in the
world, specially in this your opinion ; the same being so odious in the world, and
we so far off from the true knowledge thereof.'
" ' Well, well,' quoth Fryth then unto the gentleman, — ' I know very well
that this doctrine of the sacrament of the altar, which I hold and have opened
contrary to the opinion of this realm, is very hard meat to be digested, both of
the clergy and laity thereof. But this I will say to you, (taking the gentleman
by the hand,) that if you live but twenty years more, whatsoever become of me,
you shall see this whole realm of mine opinion : namely, the whole estate of the
same, though some sort of men particularly shall not be fully persuaded therein :
and if it come not so to pass, then account me the vainest man that ever you
heard speak with tongue.
" ' Besides this, you say that my death would be sorrowful and uncomfortable
unto my friends. I grant, that for a small time it would be so ; but if I should so

372 FRYTH'S JOURNEY [^BOOK I.
mollify, qualify, and temper my cause, in such sort as to deserve only to be kept
in prison, that would not only be a much longer grief unto me, but also to my
friends would breed no small unquietness, both of body and mind. And, there
fore, all things well and rightly pondered, my death in this cause shall be better
unto me and all mine, than life in continual bondage and penuries. And
Almighty God knoweth what He hath to do with his poor servant, whose cause
I now defend, and not my own ; from the which I assuredly do intend, God
willing, never to start, or otherwise to give place, so long as God will give me life.'
" This communication, or like in effect, my Lord of Canterbury's gentleman
and Fryth had, coming in the wherry on the Thames, from the Tower
to Lambeth.
" Now when they were landed, after some repast by them taken at Lambeth,
the gentleman, the porter, and Fryth went forward towards Croydon, (nearly
ten miles) on foot. This gentleman still lamenting with himself, the hard and
cruel destiny of Fryth, if he once came among the Bishops ; and now also per
ceiving the exceeding constancy of Fryth, devised with himself some way or
means to convey him clean out of their hands ; and therefore, considering that
there were no more persons there, to convey the prisoner, but the porter and
himself, he took in hand to win the porter to his purpose.
"Said the gentleman to Perlebean, (walking by themselves without the
hearing of Fryth,) — ' You have heard this man I am sure, and noted his talk
since he came from the Tower ?' — ' Yea, that I have, right well,' quoth the porter,
' and I never heard so constant a man, nor so eloquent a person.' — ' You have
heard nothing,' quoth the gentleman, 'in respect of both his knowledge and elo
quence ; if he might liberally (freely) either in university or pulpit declare his
learning. You would then much more marvel at his knowledge. I take him
to be such a one of his age in all kind of learning, and knowledge of tongues,
as this realm never yet, in mine opinion, brought forth. And yet those singular
gifts in him, are no more considered of our Bishops, than if he were a very dolt
or an idiot ; yea, they abhor him as a devil therefore, and covet utterly to ex
tinguish hira as a member of the Devil, without any consideration of God's
special gifts.'
" ' Marry,' quoth the porter, ' if there were nothing else in him but the con
sideration of his personage, both comely and amiable, and of natural dispositions,
gentle, meek, and humble, it were pity he should be cast away.' 32
" ' Cast away,' quoth the gentleman, ' he shall be sm-e cast away, if we once
bring him to Croydon ; and surely,' said he, 'before God I speak it, if thou,
Perlebean, were of my mind we would never bring him thither.' — ' Say you so ?'
quoth the porter : ' I know that you be of a great deal more credit than I am,
in this matter ; and therefore, if you can devise honestly, or find some reason
able excuse, whereby we may let him go, and provide for himself, I will, with
all my heart, condescend to your device.' — ' As for that,' quoth the gentleman,
' it is already invented how, and which ways, he shall convey himself, without
any great danger or displeasure taken towards us, as the matter shall be handled.
You see, quoth the gentleman, yonder hill before us, named Bristow (Brixton)
Causeway, (three miles from London,) there are great woods on both sides :
when we come there, we will permit Fryth to go into the woods on the left hand
of the way, whereby he may convey himself into Kent among his friends, for he

32 The porter only agrees with general report,— that Fryth was a fine looking young man, of
good manners, and amiable dispositions ; while foes and friends agreed as to his superior attain
ments in learning.

1533.] TO CROYDON. 373
is a Kentish man ; and when he is gone, we will linger an hour or two about the
highway, until that it draw towards the night. Then, in great haste, we will
approach to Streatham, which is a mile and a half farther on, and make an out
cry in the town, that our prisoner is broken from us into the woods on the right
hand, towards Wandsworth, so that we shall draw as many as we may, to search
the country that way for our prisoner, declaring that we followed above a mile
or more, and at length lost him in the woods, because we had no more company :
And so we will, rather than fail, lie out one night in searching for him, and
send word from Streatham, to my Lord of Canterbury at Croydon, in the evening,
of the prisoner's escape, and to what coast he has fled. So that by the morning,
if he have any good luck at all, he will so provide for himself that the Bishops
shall fail of their purpose.' — ' I assure you,' quoth Perlebean, ' I like very well
the device herein ; and therefore, go ye to Fryth, and declare that we have de
vised for his delivery, for now we are almost at the place.'
" When my Lord of Canterbury's gentleman came nigh to the hill, he joined
himself in company with Fryth, and calling him by his name said — ' Now, Master
Fryth, let us twain commune together another while. You must consider
that the journey which I have now taken iu hand thus in bringing you unto
Croydon, as a sheep to the slaughter, so grieveth me, and, as it were, over-
whelmeth me in cares and sorrows, that I little mind what danger I fall in,
so that I could find the means to deliver you out of the lion's mouth. And
yet, yonder good fellow and I have devised a means, whereby you may both
easily escape from this great and imminent danger at hand, and we also be rid
from any vehement suspicion.' "
One cannot conceive of any gentleman going so far as this,
without some understanding with those above him, or good
security that the escape would be winked at. Crumwell and
Cranmer might wish that Fryth were out of the way, but the
man first apprehended by More, was, as a Christian, of a
superior grade to any who had yet suffered. He could be
no party to falsehood, of which high and low made so little
account ; to say nothing of his now regarding himself as set
for the defence of the truth.
" When Fryth had diligently heard all the matter concerning his delivery,
he said to the gentleman, with a smiling countenance^ — ' Is this the effect of
your secret consultation, thus long, between you twain ? Surely, surely, you
have lost a great deal more labour in times past, and so are you like to do this.
For if you should both leave me here, and go to Croydon, declaring to the
Bishops, that you had lost Fryth ; I would surely follow as fast after as I might,
and bring them news, that I had found and brought Fryth again. Do you
think,' said he, ' that I am afraid to declare my opinion to the Bishops of Eng
land in a manifest truth ? '
" ' You are a foolish man,' quoth the gentleman, ' thus to talk ; as though
your reasoning with them might do some good. But I do much marvel, that
you were so wilUug to fly the realm, before you were taken, and now so un
willing to save yourself 1'
" • There was, and is, a great diversity of escaping, between the one and the
other,' said Fryth. 'Before, I was indeed desirous to escape, because I was

374. FRYTH BEFORE THE BISHOPS. HbOOK I.
not attached, but at liberty— which liberty I would fain have enjoyed, (for the
maintenance of my study beyond the sea, where I was reader in the Greek
tongue,) according to St. Paul's counsel. Howbeit, now, being taken by the
higher powers, and, as it were, by Almighty God's permission and providence,
delivered into the hands of the Bishops, only for religion and doctrine's sake,
such as in conscience, and under pain of damnation I am bound to maintain
and defend: If X should now start aside, and run away— I should run from
my God, and from the testimony of his holy Word— worthy then of a thousand
hells. And, therefore, I most heartily thank you both, for your good will to
ward me, beseeching you to bring me where I was appomted to be brought,
for else / will go thither all alone.' And so with a cheerful and merry counte
nance he went with them, spending the time with pleasant and godly com
munication, until they came to Croydon, where for that night he was well en
tertained in the Porter's lodge.
" On the morrow he was called before certain Bishops and other learned
men, sitting in commission with the Lord of Canterbury, to be examined, where
he shewed himself passing ready and ripe, in answering to all objections, as
some then reported, incredibly, and contrary to all men's expectations. His
allegations, both out of Augustme, and other ancient fathers of the Church,
were such, that some of them much doubted of Augustine's authority in that
behalf: insomuch that it was reported, by them who were nigh and about the
Archbishop of Canterbury, that when they had finished their examination, the
Archbishop, conferring with Dr. Heath, privately between themselves, said —
' This man hath wonderfully laboured in this matter, and yet, in mine opinion,
he taketh the doctors amiss.' — ' Well, my Lord,' said Dr. Heath, ' there is no
man who can do away his authorities from Augustine.' He then began to
repeat them again, inferring and applying them so strongly, that my Lord
said — ' I see that you, with a little more study, will easily be brought to
Fryth's opinion.'33
" This learned young man being thus thoroughly sifted at Croydon, to under
stand what he could say and do in his cause, there was no man willing to prefer
him to answer in open disputation."
Here, therefore, a pause, of several days, ensued ; which
Cranmer himself helps us to explain. What we have already
narrated had taken place between the 10th and 1 5th of June,
and before thel 7th, Fryth had been sent back to London. After
his examinations were over, and before his return to London,
Cranmer had called for him repeatedly, and tried to turn him,
but in vain, and the Archbishop must now speak for himself.
On the 1 7th he writes a long letter to Archdeacon Hawkins,
his successor, as ambassador, at the Emperor's court ; in
which it must be confessed that he seems far more elated by

33 Nicholas Heath or Hethe, poor man, though once praised by Melancthon, halted between
two opinions all his days. Now a parson in Sussex, he was successively Bishop of Rochester and
Worcester, under Henry VIII. He was deprived under Edward VI. but, under Mary, became
Archbishop of York, and Lord Chancellor, and as such signed the writ for Cranmer's execution !
Cranmer, on the other hand, was more open to conviction, though it was not till fourteen years
after this, or 1547, when ho was signally indebted to the writings of the very man wliom he
is now fain to consign to Stokesly.

1533.] CRANMER'S REPORT. 375
" the gorgeous and sumptuous" display at the Queen's corona
tion, than depressed by the tragedy, in which, immediately
afterwards, he had also played his part. Of the former he gives
a long and minute account ; descending to the guns fired — the
dresses worn — the order of cavalcade. " Now, then, on Sunday,
(1st June,) was the coronation," when he, with six Bishops
and twelve Abbots " all revestred in their pontificalibus, with
their crosses and crosiers, walked in procession into the church
of Westminster," where " I did put the crown upon her head,
and then was sung Te Deum." It is in this very letter,
after finishing his account, that Fryth is introduced, and in
the following terms : —
" Other news have we none notable, but that one Fryth, which was in the
Tower in prison, was appointed by the King's Grace to be examined before me,
my Lord of London, my Lord of Winchester, my Lord of Suffolk, my Lord
Chancellor, and my Lord of Wiltshire — whose opinion was so notably erroneous,
that we could not despatch him, but was fain to leave him to the determination
of his ordinary, which is (Stokesly) the Bishop of London. His said opinion is
of such nature that he thought it not necessary to be believed as an article of
our faith, that there is the very corporal presence of Christ within the host and
sacrament of the altar, and holdeth of this point most after the opinion of
CEcolampadius. And surely I myself sent for him three or four times to per
suade him to leave that his imagination, but for all that we could do therein, he
would not apply to any counsel. Notwithstanding now he is at a final end with
all examinations, for my Lord of London hath given sentence and delivered
him to the secular power, where he looketh every day to go unto the fire. And
there is also condemned with him, one Andrew (Hewet,) a tailor of London, for
the said selfsame opinion." He then turns to other secular affairs, dating his
letter, " from my manor of Croydon the 17th day of June."
Surely Cranmer could scarcely intend to speak contemp
tuously ; but a new made Archbishop, who had just been
crowning a Queen, when writing to an Ambassador and tell
ing the story, might imagine that " one Fryth," was only in
good keeping with such high affairs ; though in the lips of
Cranmer, to say the least, it was an unfortunate slip of the
pen ; as if he had never heard of him before, and his friend as
little ! ''One Fryth,"— the Eton scholar of King's College,
Cambridge ; the Canon selected for Cardinal College, Oxford,
when Cranmer declined; the man known to Wolsey, whom
the King himself and Crumwell, and foreign agents, had been
so eager to decoy into England ; the same man whom the late
Lord Chancellor pursued with such eagerness till he caught
him ; who had jiist overthrown his lordship in argument, and
now silenced the Bishops, including Cranmer himself; in short

376 PRYTH'S MARTYRDOM. [|b00K I.
the bosom friend and associate of Tyndale, who had agitated
the councils of England, before Thomas Cranmer was known ;
but enough. Only it had been well for " one Cranmer," had
he ever exhibited the same undaunted fortitude, and died a
death so glorious and unsullied, as that of " one Fryth."
Notwithstanding what the primate had here said, it was not
till three days after, or Friday the 20th of June, that Fryth came
to his final appearance before the Bishops of London, (Stokes
ly,) Lincoln, (Longland,) and Winchester, (Gardiner,) in St.
Paul's. His constancy, self-possession and Christian fortitude
never forsook him for one moment ; and when the question
was finally put, whether he would subscribe his answers, he
took up the pen, and with his own hand wrote these words —
" Ego Frithus ita sentio, et quemadmodum sentio, ita dixi,
scripsi, asservi et affirmavi," &c. — "/, Fryth, thus do think,
and as I think, so have I said, written, defended and avowed,
and in my books have published"
Sentence being passed, and read against him, by Stokesly,
he was handed over to the Mayor and Sherifis. By them he
was committed to Newgate, and put into a dark dungeon under
the gate. There, laden with irons, as many as he could bear,
and his neck made fast to a post, with a collar of iron, he could
neither stand upright, nor stoop down ! Yet even here, by
candle-light, for no other came into the place, was he continu
ally engaged in writing ; the letter to his friends, concerning
his troubles, which was afterwards printed in his works, being
his first effort.
Such was the power of Fryth's example, that another in
dividual, Andrew Hewet, (also betrayed by Holt, the miscreant
already mentioned,) who had been first examined in April, and
was now brought up again, resolved to follow his steps. The
Bishops used many persuasions to allure him from the truth,
but in vain. His heart was one with Fryth's, and he told
them firmly, that he would do as he had done. He was there
fore condemned.
And now at the last, that Henry might have his full share
of the guilt and shame of such a martyrdom, on the 3d of
July it was noted to him, oificially, by Stokesly, sealed with
his own seal, how the matter stood, — but there was no reply,
and therefore full consent ! Next morning Fryth and his com
panion were led forth to Smithfield.

1533.] ENGLAND AND THE CONTINENT. 377
Being both bound to the stake " there was present," says
Foxe, " one Dr. Cooke, that was parson of the Church called
All-hallows, in Honey-lane, situate in the midst of Cheapside.^
The said Cooke made open exclamation, and admonished the
people, that they should in no wise pray for them, any more
than they would for a dog. At these words, Fryth, smiling,
prayed the Lord to forgive him ! The Doctor's words, how
ever, " did not a little move the people to anger, and not with
out cause. The wind made his death somewhat longer, as it
bore away the flame from him to his fellow ; but Fryth's mind
was established with such patience, that, as though he had felt
no pain, he seemed rather to rejoice for his fellow than to be
careful for himself !" This painful event was felt and lamented
far and near ; and in fact it marks an era, which will be noticed
more particularly, after we have briefly glanced at foreign
affairs for the next six months.
The King of England having, as we have seen, so strangely employed
the Bulls of Clement sent to Cranmer, in such a way as to suit his own
immediate purpose, while he had treated that agauist himself with con
tempt and defiance, the reader may naturally wish to know what was
the result abroad.
So early as the 17th of June, Cranmer, immediately after he had in
formed Hawkins respecting John Fryth, tells him that the Duke of
Norfolk, the Prime Minister ; Lord Rochford, the brother of Queen
Anne ; Sir Francis Bryan, Sir A. Brown, with Drs. Goodrich, Aldrich,
and Thirlby, had been sent as ambassadors to the King of France —
" and, as I suppose, they go from him to the Pope," to Marseilles. In
July, Hawkins obtained one conference with the Emperor, but he re
mained inflexible. " The matter was none of his ;" — but " she," Queen
Catherine, " was his aunt, and an orphan. He must see for her, and
her daughter was his cousin." The envoy, therefore, soon after return
ed to England.
In June, probably before he knew all that had occurred in England,
the Pontiff was eager to keep both Henry and the Emperor satisfied, if
possible, but the latter had the entire control, and became urgent ; so
that, by the llth of July, Clement annulling at once the judgment
given by Cranmer, a provisional excommunication of Henry was issued,
unless he separated from his new Queen before September, or, at the
8'1 The identical spot to which the enemy first ran to search after heretical books and Tyndale's
Testaments ! see anno 152C. And here is tho successor of Forman aud Garret, who once minis
tered there. It is, however, remarkable that this man, Laurence Cooke, resigned in June 1537,
when Garret again succeeded, and as Rector, where he remained till his martyrdom in 1540.
—Reg. Stokesly et Bonner.

378 ENGLAND AND THE CONTINENT. [^BOOK I.
latest, by the end of October. The King then recalled the Duke of
Norfolk and Lord Rochford from France, and, on the SOth of the same
month, signed an appeal from the condemnation of the Pope to a Gene
ral Council. It so happened that the Duke of Orleans, a boy of fifteen,
the second son of Francis, was about to be married at Marseilles, to
Catharine de Medici, the niece of Clement, when the French King and
the PontiflT were to meet at the marriage. The resolute Stephen Gar
diner was instructed to be present, as his Sovereign's representative, to
watch proceedings ; Sir P. Bryan, and Sir J. Wallop were also sent ;
but, as resolute as Gardiner, and more fierce withal, Edmund Bonner
was there also as ambassador. In August, Henry had forwarded to the
latter his appeal to a general Council, which was to be communicated
at the proper time. At the commencement of this meeting, in October,
the Pontiff', not being with Charles, began to oscillate once more. Eng
land he would fain have retained, by any means, foul or fair ; and so he
hinted that he would now annul the first marriage of Henry, if he
would only send a proxy thither. Nay, he deliberately confessed to the
King of France, that he thought Henry's marriage with Catherine, and
the dispensation granted by his predecessor, were both null and void in
law ; but then he was governed by the imperial power, which, of course,
he actually hated.
When November came, however, Boimer thought it was now time for
him to present and read his papers, and this he effected, to the no small
annoyance of Clement.^^ The subject matter was unwelcome, and the
manner of Bonner so peremptory and offensive, that our former Bishop
of Worcester, the Pontiff", once enraged, threatened to throw him into a
cauldron of melted lead, or to burn him alive ! It was time for Edmund
then to make his escape, or withdraw and return to England.
This meeting of Francis and Clement, in its effects, was a most melan
choly one for France. The King, it is true, " there completed the nup
tials between his own son and the Pontiff''s niece ;" but there, also, " he
made that secret compact with him, which, being adopted and pursued
by other princes in his own country, and elsewhere, filled the most en
lightened parts of Europe with terror, blood, flames, commotion, and
misery, for above a century !" Henry was abandoning the connexion,
but, " unhappily for his kingdom, Francis plunged into it more deeply
than ever — an event the more extraordinary, that, before this time, he
had talked of curtailing the Pontiff^'s power in his dominions, and even
of receding from it, and had for some time permitted his beloved sister,
(the Queen of Navarre,) and her religious friends, to enjoy and diffuse
their opinions. This miserable and infatuated change of conduct,

36 Cranmer also had api)ealed from tho authority of Homo, to a General Council, requesting
Bonner to intimate this ; but it seems most probable that the request came too late. -See Cran
mer's Remains by Jenkyns, vol. i., p. 71.

1533.] THE TRUE DIVISION OP THE COMMUNITY. 379
made his country, for several generations, a region of mourning, battle,
and death!" 36
With regard to that war of opinion, now effectually kindled
in England, which we have seen burst forth so decidedly in
February 1526, and continue without intermission, it was more
than ever on the advance ; but it has now become more neces
sary to discriminate, if we are to keep pace with the actual
state of the country. The positive progress of Divine truth,
must on no account be confounded with certain opinions de
bated, and movements settled, whether in Parliament or the
Convocation. In England were two distinct parties, with
views and intentions as distinct as heaven and earth, or as
Divine truth is, from mere political expediency. The former,
was, properly speaking, the cause of God ; the latter party,
though overruled by Him, involved chiefly the passions and
feelings of but one man, or the Monarch, with his obsequious
advisers. The former cause, apparently without one powerful
friend on earth, was certainly, as yet, without a visible leader
in England. Notwithstanding both fire and fury, the rage of
Henry, and the vain imaginations of his prelates, that cause
had been feeling its way, silently but effectually, in a thou
sand directions ; and the parties benefited, were scattered
among the people, as " a dew from Jehovah, which tarrieth
not for man, nor waiteth for the sons of men." With regard
to other men, in all the discussions between the Pontiff and
Henry, on the one hand, and between the latter with his
Parliaments or Convocations, on the other, though religion
was verbally connected with thein, all hated, and all as yet,
had equally persecuted, the Truth. Yet feeble and unprotect
ed as the cause of God might seem, it was essentially the
cause of all that happened. All the other movements were
but the ground swell ; so that while human passions and
worldly interests were in agitation, the Almighty looked down
from heaven, and in the things wherein they dealt proudly
or cruelly, He was above them. In short, if the names of
men are to be mentioned, the cause of Tyndale and Fryth
was that of England's best hope, and the most untoward
events were overruled to advance it.

36 Turner's Queen Elizabeth, chap, xviii.

380

EFFECT OF FRYTH'S DEATH. [jBOOK I.

One illustration must not here be omitted, as it is connect
ed with the martyrdom of Fryth. To the outward eye, this
was nothing more than the death of an interesting young man,
burnt to ashes in Smithfield, but it proved a decisive event.
Burnet has said, indeed, that " this was the last act of the
clergy''s cruelty against men's lives," — but from the account
already given, this has appeared to be not quite correct. No
doubt the Bishops concerned were guilty to a man, and espe
cially Gardiner, who intrigued and hunted for the life of his
finest pupil, and who, with Stokesly and Longland, consigned
him to the flames. But the King was as deeply implicated
as any one man — nay, most of all, as with him lay the power
of mercy, which, with his pen, or his ring, he could have ex
tended in a moment. But he commanded the final examina
tions, and when the victim was on the borders of destruction,
though distinctly informed of this, he made no reply ! No,
the martyrdom of Fryth stands by itself in history, not only
as the first perpetrated directly by the King and the Clergy
in union ; but as distinguished from those of preceding years,
and from all the violent deaths which were inflicted in Eng
land, for five years to come. The preceding martyrdoms had
certainly been for the truth, and were accomplished by the
Bishops and the Lord Chancellor, without any King's writ, or
direct orders from the throne, although Henry winked at them
all : the deaths that ensued, for years to come, were state
murders by Henry himself.*' The preceding cruelties and
death, however, it must be observed, were inflicted on men
who had abjured, and who knew they must die ; but Fryth
had called, at once, both the King and his prelates to the
mark, and they slew him. The former, no doubt, had their
effects, in gradually inspiriting the cause, and advancing its
moral courage ; but Fryth's calm and unflinching intrepidity,
his clear and pointed replies, his refusing either to flee or yield,
astonished even his bitterest enemies. As for the people, they
had never excited to any of these deeds of blood : over them
all, many had deeply lamented, but with the death of Fryth
they were shocked. They had seen him embrace the stake,
and suffer with mildness and patience, full of faith, and hope,
and joy ; and not a few afterwards burned with indignation
37 Until we come to the martyrdom of Lambert in 1538, when the powe? of these Bishops,
contrary even to law, began to revive, to the close of the reign.

1533.] EFFECT OP PRYTH'S DEATH. 381
against his persecutors. This in short, was the climax of
these early martyrdoms on English ground, and it was the
more deeply lamented as involving the death of the dearest
friend and assistant of Tyndale himself. Yet was it fit that
he should occupy such a place in this noble warfare. The ef
fect was felt in Parliament, and at its first sitting, on the
simple petition of a poor prisoner, the subject was taken up ;
not, indeed, by the Lords or Bishops ; not by the King, but
by that instrument of national good, corrupt and servile though
it was — the House of Commons. It was then, as we shall see,
that heretics were taken out of the hands of the Bishops, and
then that no man was to be, as many had been, immured in a
dungeon, on suspicion of heresy. Even now the Scriptures
were let alone, at least not burnt ; nor was any one confined
or burnt, for reading or believing them. It was not a little
remarkable, nor should it now be forgotten, that such a season
succeeded the martyrdom of Fryth.
In conjunction with this event, however, we do not forget
the favourable consequences of the marriage of the King ; for
whatever may be said of that step, the results being matter
of history, of these the reader will be able to judge for himself,
as he proceeds. We only remark here, that the enemies of
the new learning, or of mental freedom, need not have been
so incensed with Henry for the step he had taken, since no
English monarch ever gave such proofs of devoted attachment
to their cause, as the " Defender of the Faith;" nor was he
now weaned from discovering that attachment, nay, nor yet
will be, to his dying hour. As for the new Queen, it should
also be observed, that of the three ladies which had been laid
out for the King, whichever he had married, the same conse
quences would have ensued. The Princess Margaret, the
sister of Francis I., and Princess Eenee, the sister of his
deceased Queen, had been thought of, in succession, and by
Wolsey himself. Either of these would have had his full
concurrence, if it had so pleased the King, and the matter
might then, in all probability, have been much earlier settled ;
but it is remarkable that all the three were of similar senti
ments ! In any one of these three, the Monarch would have
found a check-mate, in the bloody game which he had begun
to play against the new learning.
Although, however, from June 1533 the storm was begio-

382

SIR THOMAS MORE ASSAILED [bOOK I.

ning to subside, opposition to the truth was by no means at
an end. On the contrary, so far as the pen and the press were
concerned, the present year stands most of all conspicuous.
We have noticed the slight inaccuracy of supposing that Sir
Thomas More retired to a life of study and retirement, when
he resigned the Great Seal in May last, as for seven months
afterwards he continued active as a persecutor. Even then,
he had been writing ; but it was during this year especially,
that he put forth all his strength, and must have been busy,
night and day, with little or nothing else than his great contro
versy. Had " abundance of words" been only reckoned a
mark of greatness, Sir Thomas must have seemed a giant in
literature ; but now, the amount of his exertions in this war
fare, can only be placed among its most melancholy curiosities.
We have already noticed the first part of his " Confutation
of Tyndale," so called, consisting of 363 folio pages; and now
came the remainder, or five books, of 573 pages more, or 936
in all ! Of these ponderous volumes, 150 pages were against
Barnes, and 786 in opposition to Tyndale \^
Sir Thomas was partial to bold assumptions, and must have
one, even in his title, as the word " Confutation" was nothing
else ; for now, if any man has the perseverance to wade through
his folio, he will find the old Latin proverb fully apply to
many a page — Gratis anhelans, multa agendo nihil agens. It
may be truly said, that the Lord Chancellor, whether in or
out of oflice, was out of breath to no purpose, and very busy
about nothing of any value whatever. To reply to Tyndale
had certainly cost him prodigious labour; but the Chancellor,
however witty, was not the man to answer him, much less
overcome ; and as for the spirit and tendency of his writ
ings, we must yet have a little patience, for he is far from
being done !
An important diversion from Tyndale personally, now,
however, ensued: his cause was gathering strength. Of these
two huge publications, the last had scarcely come from the

38 Barnes, after having published a book on " the Church," had come over to England last
year with the Lubeckers, as an envoy, under a safe conduct from Henry. More would have
violated this, and argued for it, saying, that the time was expired. This was not true, as no
period was stated ; and Fryth, having seen the document itself, severely reprehended More's
conduct and language, as degrading"to his Sovereign. " Thanks be to God," said he, " which
gave you such grace in the sight of our Sovereign, that he shortly withdrew your power." All
this was now reading in England.

1533.] BY ANOTHER OPPONENT. 383
press, when there sprung up another writer, and upon English
ground, who disturbed the self-complacency of Sir Thomas
not a little. He was of the Chancellor's own profession,
though, in other respects, a very different man. An Oxford
scholar, he had entered the Inner Temple, had long been
eminent as a counsellor; and, as a man, highly esteemed. A
Christian, too, he was a great admirer of the Sacred Volume,
as appeared by his habitual use of it. " Every night, after
his business was past, he read a chapter of the Bible to those
that belonged to his house, and the substance thereof he ex
pounded to them." It was natural for such a man to take a
deep interest in the times. This year, therefore, he published
anonymously " The Pacifier, or the Division between the
Spirituality and the Temporality," printed by Berthelet.*" It
was distinguished for its temperate language, and formed a
perfect contrast to the controversial style of Sir Thomas. He
was, therefore, the more censured for the violence of his
writing, as well as his tedious verbosity. The anonymous
writer was held up to him as a pattern. Excited once more,
he must commence again ; but he ran on to 580 pages duo
decimo, entitled, " The Apology of Sir Thomas More, after
he had given over the oflice of Lord Chancellor of England."
Here he very candidly gives us the popular feeling against
himself, for after all his toil, his Confutation was not read !
So far from the high-sounding term " Confutation," the
author has now come down to an Apology.
" They find first, for a great fault, that my writing is over long, and, there
fore, too tedious to read, — farther, that such places as are looked on by those
that are learned, and can skill, be soon perceived for nought, and my reasons
of little force. And over this, they find a great fault that I handled Tyndale
and Barnes, with no fairer words, nor in no more courteous manner. And over
this I write, they say, in such wise, that I shew myself suspect in the matter,
and partial toward the clergy. And then, they say, that my works were
worthy much more credence, if I had written more indifierently, (impartially,)
and had declared and made open to the people the faults of the clergy. And
in this point they lay for a sample, the goodly and godly, the mild and gentle
fashion used by him, whosoever he was, that now lately wrote the book of ' the
Division between the Temporality and the Spirituality :' which charitable,
mild manner, they say, that if I had used, my works would have been read
both of many more, aud with much better will. And yet, they say, besides all
this, that I do but pike out pieces at my pleasure, such as I may most easily
seem to soil, and leave out what mo list, and such as would plainly prove the
30 There seems to have been a second edition, printed by Redman.

384 SIR THOMAS MORE. [BOOK I.
matter against me. But, finally, they say farther yet, that I have not fulfilled
my promise. For I promised, they say, in my preface of my Confutation, that
I would prove the Church, and that, they say, I have not done."
But even when vanquished. More could argue still ; though
certainly a more candid statement of faults found, has never
been given by any author, from that day to this. It is
valuable, as descriptive of the taste and feeling of many ; it
is honourable to his opponent, but it proves that the Bishops
had better never have employed Sir Thomas More as their
English Demosthenes. After all, our author's self esteem was
not exhausted; he proceeds to boast that some men had read
his book three times, and then goes on with his Apology.
The retired Chancellor's tone, however, was now, for a
short season, more subdued ; though whenever he touched on
the Spirituality, so called, his irritability returns. Referring
to Tyndale and others, he says — " as for wit and learning, I
nowhere say that any of them have none" — but now this new
writer, by his matter and manner combined, greatly puzzled
him. He could not believe so good a man could be an enemy
to the Spirituality, and yet " he says nothing good of them."
Faults, and these alone, are specified, so that he must be sur
rounded by some " wily shrews, who have filled his ear with
such statements." Still, to the manner of this writer, he
must concede the superiority, though he could not imitate it.
" The pacifier can yet use his words in fair manner, and
speak to each man gently. I cannot say but that is very
true. Howbeit, every one hath not like wit, nor like inven
tion in writing; for he findeth many ways of calling evil
matter in good words, which I never thought upon, but am a
simple plain body, much like the Macedonians."
As soon as this Apology came out, which was chiefly
against the Pacifier ; he published an octavo pamphlet of 200
pages, entitled, " Salem and Bizance" — a dialogue between two
Englishmen, in reply. Sir Thomas, still fond of an assum
ing title, then printed his " Debellation of Salem and Bizance,"
extending to above 280 pages 'm folio ! This was followed by
the " Apology against Sir Thomas," who said no more.*"
This anonymous writer was Christopher Saintgerman. More
could scarcely fail to know the name ; but the times were

^0 This last publication is sometimes printed to instead of against.

1533.] AS A CONTROVERSIAL WRITER. 385
rapidly changing — Saintgerman was twenty years older than
himself, and so highly respected, that when Sir Thomas referred
to him, he had thought it prudent to do so under the appella
tion of the Pacifier, or Sir John Some. This gentleman, who
lived to the age of 80, and died in 1540, is better known as
the author of " Two Dialogues on the Laws of England, and
the grounds of those Laws" — or of " The Doctor and Student,
Dialogues between a Doctor of Divinity and a Student of
Law." The first had been published in Latin ten years be
fore this, and both together in English in 1528.^' His ob
servations on Law — on " the law of natural reason — of
heavenly revelation — and of man, that is of a Prince or
any secondary governor that hath power to bind his sub
jects," discover a mind far above his age ; while, as a lawyer,
he was sapping the foundations of the reigning superstition.
We have noticed him the more particularly on one account.
It is by no means improbable that he came forward this year,
not only from principle, but from feelings of friendship, if not
of kindred. His mother's name originally was Arme Tyn
dale ; he being the son of Sir Henry Saintgerman, a knight
of Warwickshire, by Anne, the daughter of Thomas Tyn
dale, Esq. We have not been able to trace the relationship,
but his mother may have been, in some remote degree, related
to our Translator.
Sir Thomas, we have remarked, said no more to Mr. Saint
german. The reason may have been that, not knowing when
he was beat, he felt as if called away to battle, once more,
with his first and able antagonist. By the month of August,
at the latest, Tyndale's defence of Fryth against More, and
Fryth's letter to him, which he had penned in the Tower,
had arrived in print, from abroad. The retired Chancellor
then put forth his reply to Fryth, such as it was ; which,
though in print since December last, he had kept back, he
says, " more than a year ;" and then he fell upon Tyndale,
but for the last time. The brief and unexceptionable treatise
of Tyndale, entitled, " The Supper of the Lord," fee, from

4 ' This book, which has been mentioned with respect by Blackstone, Sir W. Jones, and other
legal authorities, has since passed through above twenty editions, the last being in 1810, which
is more than can be said of any other publication of that day, un any subject whatever save
and except the translation of Tyadale.
*2 Again, William Tyndale, the son of Sir Thomas Tyndale of Hockwold, manied the only
daughter of Sir Ambrose St. Germain.
VOL. I. 2 B

386 MORE'S PRODIGIOUS EXERTIONS [book 1.
which we have already quoted, was an octavo tract of about
60 pages. Sir Thomas, in his usual style, replied, in the
same size, to the tune of 282 pages, besides his preface ! It
was printed, he tells us, " and many of them gone, before
Christmas." «
This was a final effort, and every way worthy of the, close
of such a stormy tempest. It is painful to quote his lan
guage ; but, without noticing it, no just or adequate idea can
be formed of the battle which was fought for the truth of
God, and the emancipation of the human mind ; nor, conse
quently, of the obligations of this country to the man who,
for England's lasting benefit, triumphed, and then went on
with his work.
Through the whole of this interminable controversy, vindic
tive as it was from the beginning, a climax is observable in
the violence of the writer. When only Speaker of the House
of Commons, and having no judicial authority, an expression
would drop from him, very different from those that soon fol
lowed, though still it was given in his own wild, not to say
profane, manner. " By my soul," said he in his " Dialogue,"
" I would all the world were all agreed to take aU violence
and compulsion away, upon all sides, Christian and heathen ;
and that no man were constrained to believe, but as he could
be, by grace, wisdom, and good works, induced ; and then he
that would go to God, go on, in God's name, and he that will
go to the Devil, the Devil go with him ! There be many
more to be won to Christ on that side, than to be lost from
him on this side."^* But once he is a little older, and in pos
session of power, what a change for the worse is visible !
" There should have been," says he, " more burned, by a
great many, than there have been within this seven year last
passed : the lack whereof, I fear me, will make more burned,
within this seven year next coming, than else should have
needed to have been — in seven score !" The next year he is
more outrageous ; going so far as to assure his readers, that
the Saviour will pronounce Tyndale to be accursed, at the
last day, because he had derived all his heresies from the

43 See his letter of explanation and apology to Crumwell, on his being suspected of writing
something obnoxious, o//er this, against "certain articles late put forth by the King's Council."
The printer had dated his book by mistake 1534.— See his English Works, p. 1422.
« A sentence which has been quoted in modern times, as a proof of true toleration in Sir
Thomas More, without observing the general tenor of all that followed.

1.'538.] AS A CONTROVERSIAL WRITER. 387
father of lies ; while this is expressed in terms by far too
coarse for repetition. And now that he is come to the last
tract, which he so defamed, but could not answer, we have
the last dregs of his gall of bitterness.
Tyndale, it is granted, both now and before, had laid bare
the positive vices of living hypocrites, who held offices called
sacred ; and, as Sir Thomas could not fasten sin upon his
opponent in return, he must at last draw upon bedlam, and
the infernal regions.
Tyndale's book, he says, " was blasphemous — it was bedlam-ripe, made by a
mad fool," — nay, " a madman would wax red with shame to write so." All the
men who had forsaken the old system, " had an hot fire of hell in their hearts."
" All should, both by word and countenance, shew themselves plainly to hate,
and detest, and abhor utterly the pestilent contagion of all such smoky com
munication," — " no one should bid them good speed, or good morrow." Even
before this, in the stories he introduced, he had gone so far as to be obscene ;
and now his language is profane to the last degree.
For want of active exertion no man could now blame Sir
Thomas, although all his biographers seem to have been cau
tious of pointing to the amount of his herculean labours this
year. This, however, being descriptive of character, should
not be withheld. Some part he may have composed in the
few preceding months, but at all events, in this year alone,
there issued from the press, of his composition, more than
850 pages in folio, 580 in duodecimo, and 282 in octavo ; or
above 1700 pages in all ! So gigantic were the last year's
exertions of this controversialist. It must seem strange that
all he had said was reprinted in his English works, but then
this was in the days of Queen Mary. Though in a smaller
type, the folio volume amounts to ] 458 pages, of which his
controversy occupies above a thousand ! It was now nearlv
five years since More had begun. He had been writing for
the King and the priesthood entire ; but the crowning vexa
tion must have been, that all this mighty stir had been
occasioned by only one of those unpatronised exiles, who, he
said, " nought had here, and nought carried hence ;" and one,
too, whom neither Wolsey nor the King, neither More nor
Crumwell, or their agents, had been able, as yet, to apprehend.
Such, however, was the great and voluminous advocate for
"the old learning;" though it now becomes due to his memory
to observe, that it was only after he became such, or while so

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

45 If the following lines were written on the occasion, as it has been said, they at least mark
the public admiration — " When More two years had Chancellor been.
No more suits did remain ;
The same shall never more be seen.
Till More be there agiiin."

1.533.] BUT FINALLY OVERCOME. 38.9
Had the unsuccessful controversialist only not suffered his
vanity to be flattered by Tunstal, when he called on him, with
mock solemnity, by his prelatic license, to " play the Demos
thenes in English," as he had done in Latin, and write down
Tyndale and his translation ; — had he only kept to his Bench,
and judged between parties in civil causes, he had retired
with such honour, that there had been not one individual
among the King's servants, who would have stood so high in
the eye of posterity. But it is a dangerous thing for any man
to set himself in opposition to Divine Eevelation, or attempt
to mingle with it, the chaff of human tradition. Sir Thomas,
however, had taken his ground, and the consequence was, that
he wrought himself into such a fury, that even the violent death
of his antagonist would not have allayed it. Too like one of
old, who " thought scorn to lay hands on Mordecai alone, for
they showed hira the people of Mordecai ;" so the Chancellor
must not only write himself into obloquy, but wash his hands
in the blood of those who believed as his opponent did ; that is,
in the blood of any man, who saw farther than himself, or went
not, with him, into the depths of superstition. For him, it
was truly an evil hour, when he delivered himself up to the
blind rage of an infatuated priesthood ; for now, in the end,
what did it all avail ? Independently of his interference proving
an entire failure as to argument, the same want of brevity hav
ing distinguished his writings to the very close, the same con
sequences followed, with those which he has himself detailed,
after his Confutation was finished. He was not read ! Some
curious peculiarities of the times, may, indeed, be picked out
of these writings, here and there, but it may be safely affirmed
that few men have ever read his controversy through. Per
haps not one man ever will.
It is, however, now not unworthy of enquiry, whether Sir
Thomas More was not writing throughout the whole of this
tedious warfare, under the influence of apprehension, as well
as professed hot displeasure ; and that from his penetrating
more deeply than others, into the signs of the times. If we
are to depend upon a remarkable conversation with his own
son-in-law. Roper, there seems to be some good ground for the
supposition. "It fortuned," says Roper, ''before the matter of
the said matrimony was brought in question, when I, in talk
with Sir Thomas More, commended unto him the happy estate

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

1534.] THE PROSPECT BRIGHTENING. 391
Thus, notwithstanding the martyrdom of Fryth in June,
nay, all that the Bishops had yet done to terrify the people at
home, or the King and his ministers, to prevent importation
of books from abroad ; notwithstanding all that Sir Thomas
More had written and published ; and though there was yet
no symptom of any favourable regard, on the part of even one
ofiicial man in all England ; it becomes evident that there was
to be no wisdom, nor counsel, nor might, which should be able
to resist a tide which had now set in with greater power than

SECTION XI.
TYNDALE ALL ALONE Al'TBR FBYTH's DEATH  GENESIS, SECONB EDITION 
FBESH ISSCB OF THE PENTATEUCH  SUEKEPTITIOUS EDITION OF THE
NEW TESTAMENT BY JOYE — THE OOEREOTBD AND IMPKOVED EDITION BY
TYNDALE  JOYE's INTERFERENCE EXPLAINED — STATE OF ENSLAND — ¦
PAllLIAMENT ASSEMBLED  SEPARATION FROM ROME — CONSTRUCTIVE
TREASON — MORE ,iND FISHER IN TROUBLE — THE PONTIFF'S SUPREMACY
AT AN END  THE IMPORT OP THAT EVENT EQUALLY MISUNDERSTOOD IN
ENGLAND, BY SOVEREION AND StTBJECX — DIVINE TRUTH IN PROQEESS 
HARMAN IN LONDON  RESTORED TO FAVOUR BY THE QUEEN  GLANCE AT
THE PAST AND PRESENT — THE NEW TESTAMENT IMPORTING IN SEVERAL
EDITIONS, IN FORCIBLE CONTRAST WITH THE IDLE DllEAMS OF THE CON
VOCATION,
In returning to Tyndale at the commencement of this year,
it is impossible to do so without feelings of sympathy. By a
cruel death, and in the prime of life, on the 4th of July, he
had been bereft of that companion who was dearer to him than
any man living. That stroke must have been deeply felt still,
and long would the feeling of bereavement return upon him,
more especially when he sat down to his beloved employment.
He had, indeed, toiled in this hazardous undertaking before
Fryth came to him from England, but having for years en
joyed his company and aid, as well as so highly prized them
both, it must have demanded no inferior degree of Christian
submission and fortitude, now to plough through the deep all
alone. Tyndale actually had no man like-minded, and the
place of Fryth was never to be supplied. We by no means

392 TYNDALE ALL ALONE AFTER FRYTH'S DEATH. [|b00K I.
forget another valuable agent, John Roger, into whose hands
came all that Tyndale had translated ; and who proved so
admirable a posthumous friend.
But still, in the death of Fryth, there were alleviating
circumstances, as there always have been in the afflictions of
the faithful. Such a glorious exit was well fitted to prepare
Tyndale for his own, and to render it so much the easier, nay,
welcome, when it arrived. We have seen how intensely anxious
he was for the character of his friend, and in this he might now
well exult. That young man had fought a good fight, had
finished his appointed course ; and above all, had preserved his
fidelity. He had come home from beyond sea, and shown to all
England, how a martyr for the truth of God ought to die, if
he must. Nothing remained for him but the Christian's great
metropolis, the heavenly Jerusalem, the palace of the Great
King ; into which he had entered, no doubt, with joy upon
every side. In him there had been no mis-giving, not a single
word of hesitation, no shift or evasion, no halting between two
opinions, no love of life, no fear of death. His crown of
martyrdom was, unquestionably, by far the brightest which
had yet been won upon English ground, ever since this war of
opinion had commenced. As Stephen of old had fallen asleep
amidst the shower of stones at Jerusalem ; so Fryth, also
praying for his enemies, had done the same, in the midst of
the flames at London. But, besides all this, there were the
noted effects, the impression his Christian heroism had pro
duced, and the season that almost immediately ensued. The
sky had begun to clear over England for a little season, and this
was quite sufficient to convey fresh vigour to our Translator.
It was this year, therefore, that there appeared a second im
pression of Genesis, and an improved, because a revised edition
of the New Testament, both of which now deserve notice.
That it was the fixed and unalterable intention of Tyndale
to print an edition of the entire sacred text, there can be no
question. He had already commenced with "the first book
of Moses called Genesis," newly corrected and amended by
W.T. MDXxxiiii. His initials were now, of course, perfectly
sufficient to point out the author ; and thus, in the very teeth
of a tempest of more than eight years' standing, he modestly
intimated his firm determination to proceed as he had begun.
Of the four other books of the Pentateuch, copies being still

1534.] FRESH ISSUE OF THE PENTATEUCH. 393
on hand, these five being frequently bound up together, form
what has frequently been styled the second edition of the
Pentateuch. By other local circumstances in Antwerp itself, however,
Tyndale was now imperatively called away to the revision and
improvement of his New Testament; and these circumstances,
hitherto but very imperfectly understood, deserve as well as
demand some explanation. Although Tyndale himself was
somewhat annoyed by them, an ardent and growing desire in
England for his translation of the Scriptures, formed the sole
cause of all that took place. We have already alluded to the
printers and George Joye communing on this subject. This
they had done very cautiously, unknown to Tyndale, and as
Joye was now in Antwerp, it is necessary to glance at his
previous history.
George Joye, alias Gee, alias Clarke, a native of Bedford
shire, a Scholar and Fellow of Peter-House, Cambridge, had
fled from persecution in 1527, and resided at Strasburg, till
he came to Barrow, early in 1532. By his then printing two
specimen leaves, in folio, he is supposed to have been aiming
after an edition of the Bible for the English market.^ Before
this he had been translating from the Latin, as he was compe
tent for' nothing more, and since 1530 he had put forth three
such translations.^ Tyndale having been necessarily engrossed
elsewhere, with his tract in reply to Sir Thomas More, and on
behalf of Fryth in prison, relating to the Lord's Supper, Joye
came into closer conference with the printers at Antwerp. He
then engaged in correcting, after his own opinion, from the
Vulgate, an edition of Tyndale's New Testament, now passing
through the press. Christopher Endhoven, of whom we
heard so much, seven years ago, being now dead, the business
was carried on by his widow. This, it will be remembered,
was the press at which the first surreptitious edition had been
executed ; and the progress of the present one had been very
' See Tyndale's letter to Fryth, p. 358. A proposal which, of course, came to nothing.
2 These were the Psalter, Isaiah, and Jeremiah. 1. *' The Psalter translated from the Latin
version of Feline, (or Martin Bucer) Argentine [i.e. Strasburg) by Francis Foxe," not Fc^e, as
written by Waterland to Lewis, and repeated by all who have copied Lewis. The Colophon is
" emprinted at Argentine in the yeare of oure Lorde 1530, the 16th day of January (1531 ?) by
me Francis foxe." 2. "The Prophete Isaye," translated into English by George Joye : printed
at "Strazburg, by Balthasser Beakeneth, 1631." 3. "Jeremy the Prophete, with the song of
Moses, translated by G. Joye, 1534, in the monethe of May." No place or printer's name. In
1545 he printed, at Geneva, "an Exposition of Daniel," taken from Melancthon and others, but
translated no more. Returning at last to England, he died in 1653.

394 SURREPTITIOUS AND GENUINE QbOOK I.
carefully kept secret from Tyndale, even after his return to
Antwerp. This volume, in 16mo, with a title in rubrics, which
was finished at press in August 1534, is now exceedingly rare.
Collation. " The New Testament as it was written and caused to be written
by them which herde yt, whom also our Saueoure Christ Jesus commaunded
that they shulde preach it unto al creatures." — Title, at the back of which is
an " almanacke for xviii. yeres." The signatures run a to z. A to H. Then
the Epistles of the Apostle St. Paul, on sign Aai, aud extend to Ccc. At the
end of the Revelation is this Colophon — " Here endeth the Newe Testament,
diligently ouersene and corrected, and printed now agayn at Antwerpe by me
Widowe of Chrystoffel of Endhoue, in the yere of oure Lorde Mccocc. and
xxxiiii in August."
A copy of this book, in fine condition, was once in the
possession of George Paton, Esq., of the Custom House,
Edinburgh.' When his books were sold, the present writer
well remembers seeing it fetch thirty guineas at public sale.
The late bookseller, Mr. Constable, gave for it double the
money, and at last it found its way into the Grenville collec
tion, where it now is. We are unable to mention another copy.
Meanwhile, Tyndale was very busily occupied in revising
and improving the translation of his New Testament, and in
three months only after this, it was ready for circulation.
Out of England itself, too, ere his first sheet had gone to
press, there had come to him a species of encouragement, al
together unprecedented. This arose from his tried friend Mr.
Harman having gone to London, and the consequences will
meet us, as soon as we return home from Antwerp. But
before saying more of the book, or of Joye's interference, we
first present a brief collation.
" The Newe Testament dylygently corrected and compared with the Greek by
Willyam Tindale, and fyneshed in the yere of our Lorde God a md and xxxiiij.
in the moneth of November." This title is within a wood border, at the bottom
of which is a blank shield. " W. T. to the Christen reader," 1 7 pages. " A
prologe into the iiii Evangelystes," 4 pages. " Willyam Tindale, yet once more,
to the Christen reader," 9 pages. Then a second title — " The Newe Testa
ment, imprinted at Antwerp by Marten Emperowr, Anno MDXxxiiij." Matthew
begins on folio ii. ; Revelation on ccelv. ; and afterwards follow " the Epistles
taken out of the Old Testament," running on to folio cccc. A table of the
Epistles and Gospels for Sundays, 16 pages — with " some things added to fill
up the leffe with all," S pages. The signatures run in eights, and a full page
has 33 lines. It has wood-cuts in the Revelations, and some small ones at the
beginning of the Gospels, and several of the Epistles.

' Herbert's Ames, iii., p. 1831.

1534.] EDITIONS OF THE NEW TESTAMENT. 3!J5
The second address of Tyndale to the Christian Reader
forms a caveat with reference to Joye's interference ; and there
can be little doubt that the first title with his name inserted
in full, and as having compared the Sacred Text once more
with the Greek, was owing to the same cause. The occur
rence, which could not fail to be felt at the moment, is to be
valued now thus far, that it gave occasion for Tyndale to
speak out, and discover whether he had not all along
translated from the original, and was laudably jealous over
the precise terms of his translation. When he alludes to
Joye, it is in the language of a scholar, who could not but
regard him as rash and incompetent; and, in point of fact, he
soon discovered himself to be a man of very inferior caliber,
whether in regard to learning or sound judgment. Placed in
such critical circumstances as Tyndale had been for years,
while every word of his translation had been so carefully
scanned, and a controversy was actually in dependence at the
moment with the Lord Chancellor of England, with regard to
certain terms, there was certainly no trivial occasion both for
alarm and offence. The important word " Beswrection"
Joye had very strangely altered to " the life after this;" and,
in reference to the book generally, " I wot not," says Tyn
dale, " what other changes, for I have not yet read it over."
This word, an all-important one, was especially so at that
season, and occasioned Tyndale solemnly to profess his faith
in the resurrection from the dead ; having observed that the
word was not so rendered as Joye had done, " neither by him,
nor by any other translator in any language." But the altera
tions were far from being confined to a single word. In one
place, indeed, Joye speaks as if he had mended only " a few
certain doubtful and dark places," but the truth comes out
when he adds, " I say I have made many changes." This
becomes manifest, from his very simple explanation of what
had been his procedure.
" For as for me, I had nothing to do with the printing thereof, but corrected
their copy only, (and, most probably, one of the spurious editions,) as where I
found a word falsely printed, I mended it ; and when I came to some dark
sentence, that no reason could be gathered of them, whether it was by the ig
norance of the first translator, or of the printer, I had the Latin text by me, and
made it plain !! And gave many words their pure and native signification !" ¦*
4 If he had become competent even for this, with his Latin text only before him, he had

396 JOYE'S INTERFERENCE EXPLAINED. [boOK I.
The better way, however, will be, to let Joye speak for
himself; though the " Apology made by him to satisfye, if
it may be, W. Tyndale," &c., dated the 28th of February,
(1535,) in itself a contemptible production, became peculiarly
offensive, from its being put forth after our Translator had
been actually and at last apprehended, and in prison !^ But
still let us hear him. By his own confession he had " made
many changes," though there was one of which he was not a
little vain, and this will serve sufficiently for illustration.
Tyndale's corrected New Testament was now out, and gone
to England, but says Joye, —
" Ere he (Tyndale) came to one place of the Testament to be last corrected,
I told his scribe, that there was a place in the beginning of the vith chapter of
the Acts, somewhat darkly translated at first, and that / had mended it in my
correction, and bade him shew it Tyndale to mend it also. But yet, because 1
found the fault, and had corrected it before, Tyndale had lever to let it stand,
as he did for all my warning, still darkly in his new correction, whereof the
reader might take a wrong sense, than to have mended it. Which place,
whether it standeth now clearer and truer, in my correction than iu his, let the
learned judge !"
That the learned, therefore, may judge, we must, on no ac
count, withhold this clearer and truer passage. It was this —
" In those dayes, the nombre of the disciples grewe there arose a grudge
amonge the grekes agaynste the ebrues, because theyr pore nedy were neglege
in the dayly almose dealinge !"
To say nothing of one word left out, of course Tyn
dale had not substituted poor needy for " widows," nor alms-
dealing for " ministration ;" but such officious intermeddling
with a living author's work, crowned by such an Apology,
and put forth at such a time, could not fail to be deeply of
fensive to many, as the event proved. The fact was, that
Joye, in his ignorance, was contributing to the corruption of
the Sacred Text ; and, in one sense, to a greater degree than
the Antwerp printers, who, though they had erred occasion
ally, as foreigners to the language, still rose quite above the
made vast improvement within these three years. Speaking of his Isaiah, published in 1531,
Dr. Cotton has said—" The spelling is generally very incorrect, so that the modem reader will
scarcely be disposed to agree with George Joye, that it is, " Isaye, speakinge playne Englysshe."
Thus, no doubt, " the simple reder might ofte tymes be taryed and sticke," as Joye, even now,
had the modesty to say of the widow's husband, or the press where he had just printed, while
labouring to give many words their " pure signification !"
« There appears to have been but one edition of the Apology, though it has been v!(gnely
dated both in 1534 and 1535, by Walt, in his Bibl. Brit. In that from which we copy, the month
is decisive of its not appearing till 1535.

1534.] JOYE'S INTERFERENCE EXPLAINED.

39T

specimens which Joye had before furnished from Strasburg.
Not a little conceited of his powers, he had been dabbling with
the translation, and with the Vulgate only before him, as he
said, to make it plain ! Now, the whole public life of Tyn
dale has been not unfitly described, as " a series of hostilities
against the defenders of the Latin Vulgate." But it became
much worse when Joye was taking liberties with the Vulgate
itself, and was quite nettled because our Translator would not
imitate him in his rash folly. In frowning, therefore, upon
such interference, Tyndale only showed his discernment;
though, after all, poor George Joye may now be cordially
forgiven, for a petulance even tinged with malignity, owing
to a few terms in which he expressed himself. He it is who
contributed his mite, to establish the scholarship of our origi
nal Translator, and to an extent but little known to some of
our moderns. " I am not afraid," said he, in one place, " I
am not afraid to answer Master Tyndale in this matter, /or
all his high learning in Hebrew, Greek, and Latin, &c."
What other tongues he referred to, we cannot say ; but after
this testimony, though uttered in a miserable spirit, we have
no occasion to draw upon the high-flown compliment paid to
Tyndale, but by no mean judge, after he had communed with
him at Worms. We refer to Herman Buschius, the friend
of Spalatinus. He mentions other languages, though not
German, as Herbert Marsh imagined ; but Hebrew, Greek,
and Latin, with which he begins, are quite sufficient.^
In his history of translations, Lewis, not knowing all the
circumstances, has misrepresented Tyndale, by saying, that,
6 Wo may, however, quote the passage—" Dixit nobis, Buschius, fVormaties sex mille exem-
plaria Novi Testamenti Anglicd excusa. Id operis versum esse ab Anglo, illic cum duobus aliis
Britannis divertente, ita septem liuguarum perito, Hebi'aicee, Grcecce, Latince, Italicse, His-
panicie, Britannicse, Gallica:, ut, quamcunque loquatur, in eS, natum putes. Anglos enim
quamvis reluetante et invito Rege, tamen sic suspirare ad Evangelion, ut afirment, sese emp-
turos Novum Testamentum, etiamsi centenis millibus leris sit redimendum. — Schellhoi-nii
Amcenitates Uterarice, iv., pp. 431, 432. Bxcerpta qucedam e XHario Georgii Spalatini MS*"-"
This is given under anno 152fi, by which time the Testaments of Tyndale had created such com
motion in England. 5-/^? thousand copies corresponds with the number given by Cochlseus as
iirst contemplated at Cologne, which, he adds, was afterwards reduced to three thousand.
But Buschius now speaks of fVorms. Are we, then, given to understand here, that Tyndale
went oo with his three thousand quartos, and adding as many in octavo, made the number »ix
thousand? So it should seem. We have no contirmation to present; but such a number may
account for Tyndale having so many to dispose of, through Packington, at Antwerp, in 1529.
This, however, was certainly not the only time that Buschius met with 'Tyndale. They may,
if not must, have had many conversations together at Marburg. Buschius was Professor of
Poetry and Oratory there, and was in the press, too, at the same moment, with both Tyndale
and Fryth. The sensible tract of Buschius—" De singulari auctoritate Veteris et Novi Instru-
menti, sacrorum, &c.," is dated, " Marpurgi, 4. Idus Aprilis," or 10th April 1529. But, as al
ready noticed, Tyndale was publishing here in June, and Fryth in July, immediately following.

398 JOYE'S INTERFERENCE EXPLAINED. [bOOK I.
in his preface, his language expresses a great deal too much
passion and resentment against Joye ; the best refutation of
which is to be found in Tyndale's own words —
" William Tyndale, yet once more, to the Christian reader. Thou shalt
understand, most dear reader, when I had taken in hand to look over the New
Testament again, to compare it with the Greek, and to mend whatsoever I
could find amiss, and had almost finished my labour : George Joye secretly
took in hand to correct it also, by what occasion his conscience knoweth, and
prevented (went before) me, insomuch, that his correction was printed in great
number, (most of the sheets) ere mine began. When it was .^pieA, and word
brought me, though it seemed to divers others, that G. Joye had not used the
office of an honest man, seeing he knew that I was in correcting it myself ;
neither did walk after the rule of love and softness, which Christ and his dis
ciples teach us ; how that we should do nothing of strife to move debate, or of
vainglory, or of covetousness," &c.7
This, it will be allowed, is a very mild commencement ;
and whatever expressions follow, appear to have been dictated
by zeal for the purity of the Word of God, and such as be
came any man, with whose language such freedoms had been
taken. After this, the " Apology" of Joye made matters
worse. It involved little else than an unfair, not to say in
temperate and unfeeling attack on the original translator.
Thus, for example, he talks of Tyndale's long sleeping since
his last edition. Sleeping ! So thought not Henry the
Eighth ; so felt not Sir Thomas More, whom he had kept
thoroughly awake for years ; although both the King and
the Chancellor would have been most happy, had Tyndale
then only drawn the curtains and retired to rest. Of Tyn
dale's eminently laborious life, Joye could not be altogether
ignorant, though it may have been above his comprehension ;
but there could be no excuse for the absence of gratitude,
much less for the presence of any evil feeling ; and if this
Apology, so called, did not come out till after Tyndale was
in prison, as there is reason to apprehend, then no wonder
that the writer was very soon made to feel the consequences.
The public feeling, at the moment, clearly proves that he

7 Joye, however, fully acquitted himself of the last motive here imputed to him. The prin
ters offered him only threepence for correcting every sheet of 32 pages. He compounded for
three stivers, or about fourpeuce halfpenny. " So that, in all, I had for my labour but four
teen shillings Flemish ; which— had not the goodness of the deed compelled me— I would not
have done for five times as much." " Vain-glorious" seems to have been the correct imputa
tion ; for, not a little vain himself, he actually could not conceive of Tyndale's disapprobation
as arising from any other source ; while Joye could not clear himself, or even apologise for hav
ing first made such alterations in the sacred text, and then published them as under Tyndale's
name. There was no other translator of the English New Testament.

1534.] TYNDALE'S PROTESTATION. 399
must have been blameworthy both in temper and conduct ;
for the fact was, though never known before, that, for some
months, Joye lay under the imputation, both in England and
Antwerp, of having been concerned in the apprehension of
Tyndale ! This turned out to be a gross aspersion, as we
shall hear next year; but still, as " the merchants of Ant
werp, and many others that were his friends, did greatly
blame him," there must have been something very reprehen
sible. " At this juncture," says one author, " he does not
appear to have possessed that conscientious integrity which
would have added Christian dignity to his character ; and it
is to be regretted, that whilst he (at other times) defended
the Truth, the Truth does not seem to have made him free
from guile and deception."" It was the sin of the age, when
almost every man was taught equivocation from his youth.
We have only to add, that Joye could not remain in Ant
werp, but removing as far distant as Emden, he there pub
lished a small duodecimo — " The subversion of More's false
foundation." But we shall hear of him again, after Tyn
dale's apprehension.
Few things, however, happened to our Translator which
did not bring out the character of the man more fully, and to
£jreat advantage. But for what had taken place, we should
never have had his noble protestation, with regard to his
secret motives, as well as the grand object he had kept in
view, ever since he began to translate. The words may be
regarded in the light of a peroration, for they mark the close
of his labours, while still at liberty. Not that he is about to
die, but they were among the last words he had printed before
his apprehension, and, as such, become the more memorable —
" Moreover, I take God, which alone seeth the heart, to record to my con
science, beseeching him that my part be not in the blood of Christ, if I wrote
of all that I have written, throughout all my books, ought of an evil purpose,
of envy or malice to any man, or to stir up any false doctrine or opinion in the
Church of Christ ; or to be author of any sect; or to draw disciples after me ;
or that I would be esteemed, or had in price, above the least child that is born ;
save only of pity and compassion I had, and yet have, on the blindness of my
brethren, and to bring them into the knowledge of Christ ; and to make every
one of them, if it were possible, as perfect as an angel of heaven ; and to weed out
all that is not planted of our heavenly Father ; and to bring dosvn all that lifteth
up itself against the knowledge of the salvation that is in the blood of Christ.
a Townley's Biblical Literature, vol. ii., p. ."JiM.

400 STATE OF ENGLAND. [bOOK I.
" Also, my part be not in Christ, if mine heart be not to follow and live ac
cording as I teach ; and also, if mine heart weep not night and day for mine
own sin, and other men's — beseeching God to convert us all, and to take his
wi-ath from us, and to be merciful as well to all other men, as to mine own soul —
caring for the wealth of the realm I was born in, for the King, and all that are
thereof, as a tender-hearted mother would do for her only son.
" As concerning all I have translated, or otherwise written, I beseech all
men to read it for that purpose I wrote it : even to bring them to the know
ledge of the Scripture. And as far as the Scripture approveth it, so far to al
low it ; and if in any place the Word of God disallow it, then to refuse it, as
I do before our Saviour Christ and his congregation. And where they find
faults, let them shew it me, if they be nigh, or write to me, if they be far off ;
or write openly against it and improve it ; and I promise them, if I shall per
ceive that their reasons conclude, I will confess mine ignorance openly."
Such, while yet at liberty, was nearly the impressive conclu
sion of Tyndale's labours. His enemies were now thirsting,
more than ever, for his blood ; though still he has yet nearly
two years before him. But the base and artful traitors have
already embarked from England — they are almost in sight I
With them, and the long eagerly pursued victim, very soon,
we must repair to the castle of Vilvorde !
At the close of this year, however, we shall have occasion
to revert once more to the various editions of the New Testa
ment, which had issued, in only a few months, from different
presses in Antwerp ; but, at present, we first return home
to our native land, and observe the leading occurrences by
which the period was so distinguished.
In England, the political events of this year were at once important
and decisive ; while, as it regarded the Scriptures and their dispersion,
a separate department of history, and altogether as distinct as ever, the
change was not less remarkable. Not that there was any change on the
Monarch, except that of going on from bad to worse : but we shall see
him in trouble respecting his own personal safety, adopting such mea
sures as fear suggested, and at the same time pursuing his career after
power, with an ultimate view to the acquisition of wealth, by whatever
means. For what though the clergy were still paying up the price of
their pardon ? These monasteries and religious houses, full in view, were
rich, and Henry still was poor.
In December last, the English Council had settled their mode of pro
cedure with regard to Clement, after he had so threatened if not fright
ened Master Bonner. They came to nineteen resolutions, and the Duke
of Norfolk, though so decided a friend to the claims of the Pontiff, had,
as Minister, to convey the intelligence to France, then in the closest al-

1534.] PARLIAMENT ASSEMBLED. 401
liance with Rome. It was still only the system of intimidation that was
pursued, as the English Monarch partook of certain leanings, very much
akin to those of Norfolk, his prime Minister. He wished to retain some
undefmed connexion with the Pontiff, perhaps from fear of his subjects ;
whUe he was still bent on reigning with unlimited sway, as Head of the
Church of England. The Council therefore had decided that Henry's
subjects should now be fully informed of his having appealed to a General
Council ; and it must be preached throughout the land that the authority
of a General Council was superior to that of the Pontiff, who, in England,
had now no more than that of any other foreign Bishop. The King of
Prance thought that this was going too far, as well as too fast. His able
courtier, De Bellay, well acquainted with England by his residence of
two years as Ambassador, and now a Cardinal, offered, as a final effort,
still to negociate at Rome, if any grounds were furnished to him. By
way of carrying on the double game, Henry actually desired him to
certify, that if the Pontiff would now supersede the sentence he had
already given, that is the Bull of last year, and grant to him only im
partial judges, to sit at Cambray in France, then the King would still
submit his whole conduct to their deliberate decision. De Bellay posted
to Rome, amidst the rigour of winter, Henry having also said, that he
would send after him, suflScient authority to confirm, on^his part, as
much as should be granted. Here, however, we must leave Italy till
March, that the curious contrast, furnished by the proceedings in Eng
land, may be first observed.
On the 15th of January, Parliament sat down, and the Convocation
assembled about the same time. In the latter there was now no more
discussion respecting the burning of heretics ; while in Parliament,
the Upper and the Lower Houses were exchanging bills with each other,
characteristic of the times. On the 4th of February, the Commons sent
up a bill in mitigation of those who might be charged with heresy,
which will be glanced at presently ; the Upper House, on the same day,
sending down the clergy's submission bill, to which the Convocation bowed,
and the Commons readily agreed. This passed on the 28th of March,
when the clergy, entering into new bonds, acknowledged that all con
vocations should be henceforth assembled by the King's writ, — that they
should make no new canons without the royal assent, — that a committee
should sit on all present canons prejudicial to the King's prerogative, and
that all grievances in the Archbishop's court, might be appealed to the
King. On the 21st of February, that strange imposture of the Nun of Kent,
a young woman of Aldington in that county, named Elizabeth Barton,
was brought before Parliament. She had been playing her part for the
long period of nine years. Tyndale had alluded to the case as a device
of the Priests, so early as 1527, and but for them certainly she had soon
VOL. I. 2 c

402 SEPARATION FROM ROME. [bOOK I.
sunk into oblivion. The King himself had once consulted Sir Thomas
More on the subject, long since. He then professed to wink at the
affair, as unworthy of notice, and then it might be so ; but afterwards,
from such men as Warham, Fisher, and himself, as well as many others,
holding communication with her, there can be no doubt that the matter
had grown into some treasonable conspiracy, under the fostering care of
those who were friends to "the old learning," and to priestly dominion.
It was well for Archbishop Warham, that he was gone, otherwise he had
now fallen into disgrace ; or at least, been implicated, as Fisher and
More were ; but on the question being put, whether they should be ex
amined in the Star Chamber, Audley and Crumwell prevailed with the
King, and More's name was struck out. John Fisher, once so high in
Henry's esteem, for concealment of what he knew, was found guilty ; but
a heavier storm soon awaited More, as well as him. One man, however,
the Parson of Aldermary, once chaplain to Warham, Henry Oolde, of
whom we have heard before, was now deeply involved.^ He used to in
terpret the ravings of the Nun, (who uttered what, of course, she was
taught,) and also report progress to Queen Catherine. So far back as the
beginning of this year, Cranmer was examining him, and requesting
Criunwell to do the same.'*' In the end, the poor woman, with six men,
including Golde, being convicted of high treason, against the King's life
and crown ; the whole with one exception, (Rich, an observant friar,)
were executed at Tyburn on the 20th of April.
On the 26th of March, a Bill had passed through both Houses, dis
charging Henry's subjects from all dependence on the Court of Rome.
On the same day, Parliament again confirmed the King's marriage, as
well as the succession to the crown, and then, on the SOth, adjourned to
the third of November. During the whole session, a Bishop had preached
at Paul's Cross, every week, that " the Bishop of Rome had no authority
in England ;" and yet, notwithstanding all these measures, there was still
a pause in giving th^ formal royal assent ; a sort of avenue left, however
narrow, in case of any conciliatory intelligence arriving from Clement.
His Majesty, however, had not long to wait ; for at the moment that
his Parliament was thus proceeding on their way, the Cardinals, in
conclave, were sitting in judgment upon him. Clement had certainly
been as cautious for years, as Henry had been pertinacious and perse
vering ; but at last the former was surprised into an act, of which on
the spot, he at once repented. On the 23d of March, the imperial
Cardinals, in the Rota, carried the day by a large majority, and Clement
yielding, pronounced a fimM sentence — " That Henry's first marriage

9 See the strange letter from Dr. Ridley addressed to him, anno 1627. Ridley was yet alive
but dared to write in the same strain no more, as he had done then. See p. 153.
10 Crumwell's Cor., Chapter-house, Westminster, letter of 6th January

1534.] HERESY EXCHANGING FOR CONSTRUCTIVE TREASON. 403
was valid, that he should be compelled to live with Queen Catherine,
and be for ever silent on the subject !" " Clement actually sat up all
night to consider of a remedy, but there was none — though " he was so
annoyed and tormented," says De Bellay, " that it was not possible he
should be more so." The King of France, after all, is supposed to have
been pleased with this decision ; as for the Emperor, he had pressed it
sharply, acriter, on the Pontiff so long ago as the 8th of January. The
Cardinals wished the sentence to be sent off immediately, but Clement
delayed it for ten days. The decision must stand, and the Emperor was
made the executor of it ; thus leaving Henry, after his long delay and
many expedients, in a predicament sufiiciently foolish. He had sent on
Dr. Came, and Dr. Revet, towards Rome, but they met De Bellay, now
returning from Italy, and the game of years was at an end for ever.
Thus was there only one path left open in England. But who de
vised it ? Not the King, certainly ; for he had been long brooding over
some crooked path of his own, which no writer can well explain, and for
the best of all reasons — Henry did not actually know it himself. But
at all events, no man can now dream that religion, in any sense, had
ever the shadow of an influence, with either party, in these wearisome
negotiations. On the contrary, and so far as England was concerned,
we shall find her Monarch waxing worse and worse, to the day of his
death. But it was the will of God that the connexion should come to
an end, and so says Halle, the earliest historian of the times, " God be
everlastingly praised therefore."
Parliament being now prorogued, one feature of the time
is worthy of notice. It was the exchange of the fear of heresy,
for the fear of treason. That bill in mitigation of the treat
ment of any who were suspected of the former, is worthy of
remark, as its success has been partly ascribed to feelings
excited by the death of Fryth. ^^ One Thomas Philip, who
had been delivered by Sir Thomas More to Stokesly, of Lon
don, by indenture, in 1530, had been cruelly detained in
prison by him ever since ! Of Philip, who had appealed to
the King, but could not gain access to him, an account is
given by Foxe, with an interesting letter of exhortation to
firmness, from "the Congregation," or those followers of Christ
who met in Bow Lane, Cheapside ; but Foxe concludes by
saying, that he knew not what became of him. The truth
is, that, at last, he complained to the House of Commons
against Stokesly, and as the Bishop would not appear at their

1 ' The Rota. Such was the name of the Court. It has been said, from the marble pavement
of the apartment where it assembled, resembling a wheel. ^2 jjy Southey; and see pp. 381-401.

404 MORE AND FISHER. ' [BOOK I.
bar, to answer for his conduct, the Commons' House framed
their bill, which had now passed.
It repealed the statute of Henry IV., by which Bishops
might commit to prison on suspicion of heresy ; heretics were
only to be proceeded against, by two witnesses, and to answer
in open court ; if guilty, the King's writ must be obtained,
before any sentence could be executed ; but it was declared
that none should be troubled upon any of the Pontiff's canons
or laws, or for speaking or acting against him.
This act was generally regarded by the people as an especial
blessing, since it not only delivered them in a great degree
from the paw of ecclesiastical tyranny, but immediately
brought some of the most worthy characters from their dun
geons. Not only did Philips, who had been there for years,
escape, but Thomas Patmore, who had been confined as long,
obtained a commission from Audley, Crumwell, and Cranmer,
to enquire into " the injurious and unjust dealings" of both
More and Stokesly. Patmore, who was most probably a
relation of that gentleman who had been so shamefully
treated for importing and dispersing Tyndale's New Testa
ments, in 3 531, seems to have been restored to his former
living. Thus, after a long season of most reckless cruelty,
here now was the dawning of a day of retribution, and as such,
should not pass unobserved.
It will be remembered, that immediately on Sir Thomas More coming
into power he began by urging Henry to follow up the persecution of
heretics, so called, with rigour, and that, too, as one method of advanc
ing his influence at the court of Rome.*^ Upon his successor, Sir Thomas
Audley, being nominated, he certainly advised no violence of any descrip
tion ; and yet this, as well as the following years, became polluted with
blood, nay, the very month after Parliament rose, had furnished one
palpable instance.'* But then this was not the blood of reputed heretics,
13 "It is hard to say what were More's original sentiments about the divorce. In a letter to
Crumwell, he speaks of himself as always doubtful. But, if his disposition had not been rather
favourable to the King, would he have been oifered, or have accepted the Great Seal ? We do
not, indeed, find his name in the letter of remonstrance, signed by the nobility and chief com
moners in 1S30 ; but in March I431, he went down to the House of Commons, to declare the
King's scruples about his marriage, and to lay before them the opinions of the Universities. In
this he perhaps thought himself acting ministerially. But the King did not look upon him as
hostile, even so late as 1532, for Dr. Bennet, the envoy at Rome, proposed that the cause should
be tried by four commissioners, of whom the King should name one, either Sir Thomas More,
or Stokesly, Bishop of Lonion."—HaUam's Constitutional History.
14 In the course of last year we have seen five men perish at the stake in London, but on the
2Cth of April this year, as already stated, five were put to death in one day. The former were
friends to the new Icarniug, the latter the adherents of the old.

1534.] MORE AND FISHER. 405
nor was heresy laid to the charge of any Englishmen who were put to
death for four years to come.''' The charges now are those of treason,
constructive treason, misprision, or the concealment of known treason-
But treason was the very charge which Sir Thomas More had laboured,
throughout his writings, to fix upon men branded with heresy, and more
especially on Tyndale.
What then, if the Monarch, whom the retired Chancellor once so pressed
to pursue such a course, shall now turn round, and either from personal
apprehension, or from having tasted of blood, which he had urged him
to shed, shall become indifferent to his own, as well as that of others ?
What, if he shall now deal chiefly in charges for treason, and cease per
secuting his subjects for heresy 1 When writing out his folio pages,
early and late. More could not foresee such a change ; otherwise he would
certainly have spared his ink, and spent his wit on some other subject.
But such was the fact. Heresy had been the death-word before ; it is
now changed for another, and that word is treason. Once on a time,
the busy Chancellor would have rejoiced, if heresy and treason had been
convertible terms ; but now, in England, heresy, so called, is to be let
alone for its season, and treason is to be the imputation, Nay, more than
this, treason shall now be the denial of Henry's supremacy, as Head of
the Church ; although, some time before, it would have been fatal for
any subject to have asserted this ; and before this year comes to an end,
it shall be treason in any man to call the King a heretic, notwithstanding.
For five years his Majesty had been dealing with heresy, so called, and
even attempting to convert it into treason ; and though not put to death
himself, for so doing, yet, for as many years after, the charges of treason
shall bear upon himself, and almost all involve the idea of fear for his own
personal safety. Without doubt, Henry was often not a little afraid.
He had been setting himself against the truth, nay, against the King of
Zion, and the reaction will, by and bye, shake his kingdom to its centre.
It was after Parliament rose, that the oaths of allegiance to the King,
to the lawfulness of his marriage, and the succession to the crown, came
to be tendered to all parties. Sir Thomas More, and Bishop Fisher,
hesitating, they were committed to the Tower, till the meeting of Par
liament. Henry was greatly irritated against both : and it being ap
prehended, if they had books and paper, that they would write against
the King's marriage, or his supremacy, these were denied them. Thus
it was, emphatically, that More's controversial career came to an end.
The remaining political events of this year may be soon told. In
April, an "Inhibition" of all seditious preaching, or, in other words,
saying any thing contrary to the acts just passed, was sent out by Cran

io The sufFererB for heresy, next year, were the only exception ; but they were natives of
Holland, called Sacramentaries, or Anabaptists, and as to them some fear was entertained of
their political influence, and hence all others were ordered to leave the country.

406 THE PONTIFF'S SUPREMACY [^BOOK I.
mer.'s In June there was a public proclamation against the supremacy
of the Pontiff. In August, the observant Friars of St. Francis, strongly
suspected of opposition to the supremacy of Henry, were unhoused, when
many of them took their departure. This was a preliminary feeler, put
forth with an ultimate view to the Monasteries, and all other religious
houses throughout the kingdom. In September, Clement died at Rome,
surviving his sentence against Henry only six months. He was succeeded
by Farnese, or Paul III. In October, Secretary Crumwell was made
Master of the Rolls, and on the third of November, Parliament again
sat to the 18th of December.
All preceding Acts of Parliament bearing upon the great controversy
with Rome, were now fully recognised and confirmed. It was made
treason for any one not only to deny the King's dignity, but his attend
ant title, as " Head of the Church of England ;" nay, once calling him
heretic, schismatic, tyrant, infidel, or usurper of the crown, subjected
every man to the same imputation ! By this Parliament also, both Sir
Thomas More and Bishop Fisher were attainted for misprision of
treason, so that, in six months hence, we shall see them come to their
unhappy end.
And now that the year has closed, its political events were un
questionably pregnant with meaning ; but, above all, there was one
loaded with significance, and intended as a lesson to the Nation
entire. The great body of the people, still sunk in ignorance, could
not be expected to understand this lesson. The guilt of not doing so,
lay with the better informed. The pen, indeed, was busy, including
that of the King himself, that all might be informed concerning " the
Pontiff's usurped supremacy," for such was the phrase employed ; and
Richard Sampson, Dean of the Royal Chapel, published for the learned
everywhere, his Latin Oration on the subject. '7 He said of the Pontiff's
supremacy, what certainly could not be afiirmed of Henry's, — " With a
certain secret, or still consent of men, the Bishop of Rome crept into
this realm," — adding, however, that which was manifestly not true, —
" but now is it enacted, with an open and universal consent, that ye
should no more be subject to this foreign power."
To this crisis the King of England had driven on, and to this strain
of writing, he and his satellites were now shut up ; for, with regard
to the separation of this country from Rome, it has already been
demonstrated, that Henry the Eighth had no credit whatever. At the
moment, " he meant not so," neither did he in his heart so intend.
Could he only have moulded the Pontiff to his will, no such event had
happened during his administration ; and had Clement not been under

16 Harl. MS., No. 6148, fol. 20.
17 This was replied to afterwards, in his usual style, by Cocl.teus, who was now as busy as
ever, but more especially against Scotland, as we shall seo iu its proper place.

1534.] TRANSFERRED TO THE KING. 407
the control of the Emperor, Henry would have been an adherent still ;
as, in opinion, if he had any opinions, he remained to the end of his life.
But although the Monarch was unteachable, although he acquired no
wisdom, and absolutely learnt nothing ; stUl this great and significant
event, as it was calculated, so was it intended to teach his subjects —
Not surely that they should turn away from one presumptuous ofiScial
human being, the Pontiff at a distance, to any other, and, more especially,
to such as the King, at home ; but to Him, alone, who is " wise in heart,
and mighty in strength, and who, if He will not withdraw his anger,
the proud helpers," sooner or later, must " stoop under him." If a man,
such as Clement, very well informed, who was possessed of no inferior
abilities — " Naturally grave, diligent, assiduous in business, and averse
from pleasures ; orderly and regulated in all things ; in his conduct
serious, circumspect and self-conquering;" — for such is the character
given of him by Guicciardini ; — if such a man had been pushed about
and trampled on ; had been agitated in his ofiScial proceedings, and not
unfrequently made to wring his hands with vexation ; if, within the
City called Eternal, he had been almost starved to death, in durance
vile, and mocked by a brutal soldiery, till he was daily in terror of his
life ; if, robbed of his temporal sovereignty, he remained a mere puppet
under his conqueror, and was befooled, in turn, by all the great sovereigns
of Europe to his dying day ; then, certainly, if ever there was a voice in
the providential treatment of any one man, styled Pontiff, upon earth,
there had been one here. And what did that voice say to the King of
England personally, if it did not say — " Beware especially of treading in
his footsteps, in matters called religious ; but be wise, and be instructed 1 "
And what to all his subjects if it did not amount to this — " If any man
defile or destroy the Temple of God, him shall God destroy ? " But
however loud, and however distinct might have been the voice of warn
ing to both King and people, it was disregarded ; emphatically dis
regarded by both ; nor was the Divine Word once appealed to for
guidance at such a crisis ; though it was tortured by professed theolo
gians to answer their purpose. Henry and his Council were, indeed,
for ever dabbling in something called religion, but " the natural man
discemeth not the things of the Spirit of God, neither can he know
them, for they are spiritually discerned ;" and we must not expect to
find his Majesty have any discernment, or, consequently, any taste for
these things, nor even his leading advisers.
This year, amidst all the policy, and even the wrath of
statesmen, still absorpt in their own affairs, concurring events,
in which the overruling hand of God had been conspicuous,
were favourable to the progress of Divine Truth in Britain.
That cause, continued to be one by itself, and still certainly

408 DIVINE TRUTH IN PROGRESS. [^BOOK I.
without any visible Head in England. There had been
frowns, and proclamations, and denunciations ; there had been
solemn warnings, and martyrdoms ; but never one smile from
the Throne, no sanction from the Privy Council, not one voice
in Parliament. But what did all this signify ? We observe
edition upon edition of the New Testament, as well as the
Law of God, prepared at a distance, for English eyes. The
cause was God's ; by way of emphasis, His. He alone had
carried it on, in defiance of all the power and policy of the
nation ; and He will continue to do so, after the same marked
and peculiar manner, until the Sacred Volume He was now
giving to this favoured country, shall be completed ; but that
will not be till three years hence.
Yes, it will bear to be repeated, that this cause had been
advanced, in a manner altogether difi'erent from every thing
else, whether in this, or in any other country, at the moment ;
and no historical error can be much greater than that of merg
ing it, in what was doing in any other European nation.
The greater error would be to represent it, as merely an efiect
or consequence of contemporaneous movements elsewhere.
Correctly speaking, it was the Almighty, employing human
agency after a peculiar fashion ; while, with that unpretend-
ingness, and without that show of authority, which is all his
own, He was drawing nearer and nearer to the land which he
purposed to favour so highly. After all we have related, and
what is yet to come, it was a course of procedure to be ob
served, with veneration and adoring gratitude, by the posterity
of Britain to the latest age.
Little more than ten years ago, William Tyndale was
• walking towards St. Dunstan's, near Temple Bar, to proclaim
the Word of Truth, having indeed one kind-hearted friend,
who had, from sympathy, invited him to abide under his roof,
but who was afterwards called to a sharp account for having
so done. To " withdraw man from his purpose, and to hide
pride from man," God sent his chosen instrument abroad, and
employing hira to prepare the boon, with a very few others,
of no note whatever, to convey it ; He himself had been the
breaker up of the way into England, and, as we shall find,
into Scotland too. After this, there was no Boanerges in
any quarter of the entire Island : influential or commanding
human voice, there was none ; nor, for all these years, was

1534. J RICHARD HARMAN RESTORED 409
any such demanded. No, but as we have seen, the good seed
had been sown by a higher hand.
" Jehovah here resolved to show.
What his Almighty Word could do." —
Among all the wonders He hath wrought for this favoured
Island, and they are now numerous as the sand upon her sea
shore, there is not one to be compared with His conveyance
of the Bible to its inhabitants ; nor should the way in which
he did so, be confounded with other passages in English his
tory; much less be " buried in forgetfulness, or in oblivion die."
Thus much it was incumbent to repeat here, in point of jus
tice to the past, and before we find one ray of approbation
coming from any one, in what is styled an influential station
of life ; though even this will pass away, like a transient
gleam, before the clouds return ; when the hostility of certain
men in England, will burst out afresh, till at last it proves
fatal to the man whom God had employed from the beginning.
But to proceed. After such eflbrts made in printing the
Scriptures in Antwerp, and to the extent which we have al
ready witnessed, it may naturally be expected, that we shall
discover in England itself, at least some of the grounds of en
couragement. The intelligence of all that was transacted in
Parliament, of course, went to Antwerp immediately, for
there was no city on the Continent, where every thing pass
ing in London was better known, or so soon. The bill intro
duced by the Commons, which would have the eff'ect of taking
any who were suspected of heresy, out of the hands of the
Bishops, was of itself ominous of better days. Originating in
a complaint against the late Lord Chancellor and the present
Bishop of London, and this complaint terminating in such
a cure, was better still. There must have been various other
encouraging circumstances, of which we have no account ; but
there was one party now in England of whom, till now, we
have heard nothing so tangible and distinct.
The reader is fully aware that five years ago, a gentleman
of Antwerp, Mr. Harman, was grievously molested by Hac
kett the English envoy ; that he, and his wife, equally zealous
with himself, were confined in prison for months, and had been
seriously injured through the furious enmity of both Hackett
and Wolsey. Such a change had taken place, that he was
now arrived in London, and to seek redress ! It is worthy of

410 BY THE QUEEN. [^BOOK. I.
remark, that he did not apply to Audley, the Lord Chancel
lor of the day, though certainly a very different man from
either of his predecessors ; nor to Cranmer ; nor to Crumwell ;
but to the Queen herself.'" The writings of Tyndale had been
for years well known to her ; and that she had stolen a march
upon his Majesty, with one of his publications, cannot be for
gotten.'? Unhappy man ! It apparently interested him for
the moment, but it was only as the voice of John did the ear
of Herod, or that of Paul the ear of Agrippa ; since all such
impressions, for Henry was not without them, like the morn
ing cloud or the early dew, passed away. The Queen, how
ever, though she had been in no favourable situation, had
been interested, and now, it is quite evident, more than ever.
At all events, Mr. Harman or Herman fully succeeded in his
application, and fortunately, the very letter written on his
behalf, by Anne Boleyn herself, has been preserved. The
following is a copy. By the Queen.
Anne the Queen.
Trusty and right well beloved, we greet you well. And whereas we be credi
bly informed that the hearer hereof, Richard Herman, merchant and citizen
of Antwerp, in Brabant, was, in the time of the late Lord Cardinal, put and ex
pelled from his freedom and fellowship, of and in the English house there, for
nothing else (as he affirmeth,) but only for that he, still like a good christian
man, did both with his goods and policy, to his great hurt and hinderance in
this world, help to the setting forth of the New Testament in English : We
therefore desire and instantly pray you, that, with all speed and favour conveni
ent, ye will cause this good and honest merchant, being my Lord's true, faithtid,
and loving subject, to be restored to his pristine freedom, liberty, and fellow
ship, aforesaid, and the sooner at this our request, and at your good leisure to
hear him in such things, as he hath to make further relation unto you in this be
half. Given under our signet, at my Lord's manor of Greenwich, the xiiii day
of May. To our trusty and right well beloved, Thomas Crumwell, Squire, Chief
Secretary unto my Lord the King's Higliness.^0
Whatever may be said, whether to the praise or disparage-
18 At this moment, or in the same month, if not the same day, the style of Cranmer when en
forcing one of his own requests, is worthy of quotation — " And albeit I may, if I would, obtain the
King's Grace's favourable letters, and the Queen's Grace's also, for the furtherances and accom
plishment of this request, yet for as much," &c. Harl. MS. 6148, fol. 18. — Cranmer's Remains by
.Tenkyns, I. 110. is See page 219.
20 Cotton MS., Cleop. E. v., fol. 330. We observed the pen has been drawn across the words,
••still like a good christian man." Strype has omitted the words, and Sir H. Ellis has put them
iu a note at the bottom, but we restore them, under the impression that "an enemy hath done
this." The Queen never could, nor would she have «o sent her letter, sealed with her own signet,
to the Secretary of State, nor would such terms occur to any copyist. Though only tho month
be given, that the letter was written this year is evident. The year before, Anne was engrossed
by her coronation, and by the 14th of May 1535, the situation of Tyndale and other circumstances
entirely forbid the idea of such a letter being sent then.

1534.] THE PAST AND PRESENT. 411
ment of Anne Boleyn, it should not now pass unnoticed that
no man, either of influence or office in all England, ever so
expressed himself, while Tyndale lived. Nor is this merely a
letter of authority ; the sentiments of the writer appear
throughout, and it also conveys some information. From one
expression it is evident that Mr. Harman had done much more
than coolly import the volumes. " With his goods and policy
to his great hinderance in this world," he had done this. Every
one acquainted with the history of the Hanse towns, knows
how much had been involved in the forfeiture of his privileges
as a merchant adventurer. The " English house," like all
these towns, exercised a judicial superintendence over its
members, and punished them by a species of commercial ex
communication. Mr. Harman had evidently been suffering
under this for years. He had been a friend of the cause, and
therefore the friend of Tyndale.
As Crumwell had been appointed " chief Secretary of
State," only one week before the date of the preceding letter,
this must have been one of his earliest acts in that capacity.
But the tide is turning for a short season, and so does the
" chief Secretary" with it.
On the whole, what singular recollections does such an in
cident as this suggest ? What a striking difference between
even the letter of Cranmer, only eleven months ago, and the
present ? That involved the death of " one Fryth going to the
fire," Tyndale's friend and assistant ; this is in vindication
of all that Tyndale had done ! We glance at the contrast,
only in justice to the change which had, for this year, taken
place, but there is one other reflection which seems to be
forced upon us.
Tunstal, that early opponent, once of great power, was yet
alive, and what would he have said, or not have said, in 1526,
to such a document, from the Queen of England ? He is now
professedly approving of the Pontiff's entire exclusion from this
country, nay, and preaching this to the people ; while there is
no word now of " the crafty translation of the New Testament
in the English tongue, containing that pestiferous and most
pernicious poison, dispersed throughout all our diocese of Lon
don, in great numbers."^! But this is the book itself, and

21 Sec his itroclamation or injunction, anno 1526.

412 THE SCRIPTURES IMPORTING. [bOOK I.
this is one of the very men, who to his damage and loss, had
so heartily imported it. The writer had these days in her eye,
when she took up her pen ; and yet, says the Queen, Harman
was only acting in character, and doing only what he ought
to have done, " as a good Christian man." Wolsey and War
ham were in their graves. Sir Thomas More and Bishop
Fisher were in the Tower. Tunstal and Gardiner and
Stokesly are muzzled. Norfolk, the Prime Minister, must
wink hard. The Secretary of State is requested to proceed
forthwith, " the sooner at this our request ;" while Henry
himself, wilful, wayward, and reckless as he was, is, at
the least, occasionally now kept in check by the writer of this
letter. It was fit that the very book which had been so vilified, so
trampled on and burnt, by the King, Wolsey, Warham, and
Tunstal ; which had been fastened in derision, by Sir Thomas
More, to the garments of Tyndale's brother, or the men who
were then marched to the spot, where they must cast it into
the fiames ; — nay, the book which had been denounced from
the Star Chamber by the King himself, should at last meet
with some such notice as this ; and that it should proceed from
the pen of one, who, at this moment, could turn the heart of
even such a Monarch. The Translator himself should never
be forgotten, but he never set his foot on English ground
again ; the change was the work of no human hand, and more
than the finger of Providence was here. Is it too much to say,
that for the sake of His Blessed Word, first its entrance into
this country, and then its effects, God had shown strength with
his arm, and scattered the proud in the imagination of their
hearts? — had put down the mighty from their seats, and
honoured a man of low degree? Nor had the word, so
singularly introduced, returned to him void. Think of the
many whom Fryth had met with in England before his death,
and of the high character he gave them. God had filled his
own, however poor, with gladness, though of the rich, there
was only one at this moment to justify the whole proceeding,
and thus far espouse the hated though uninjured cause.
This token of regard, on the part of Queen Anne, was not
unfelt by Tyndale. He must have known her sentiments as
well as most men, and been fully apprised of her influence ;
an influence which had been at once deprecated and dreaded

1534.] CONVOCATION IN CONTRAST. 413
by the old school. He had learnt also of this incident in
sufficient time for him to lay down at the press, one copy of
his corrected New Testament, on vellum. Beautifully printed,
with illuminations, it was bound in blue morocco, and the
Queen's name, in large red letters, equally divided, was placed
on the fore-edges of the top, side, and bottom margins : thus,
on the top, Anna ; on the right margin fore-edge, Begin a,
and on the bottom, Anglic — Anne Queen of England.
The Translator, when he put forth his first edition, in that
spirit which Christianity alone inspires, sjmk his own name ;
aud would have done so afterwards, but for the character
and writings of his amanuensis, Eoye ; and this year the inter
ference of Joye ; but here he does so once more. Even his
name is withdrawn, and with great propriety, all prefatory
matter is omitted. Tyndale was no sycophant. There is no
dedication, — no compliment paid, as there never ought to be,
to any human being, along with God's most holy Word. The
history of this beautiful book, since it was handled by Anne
Boleyn, above three hundred years ago, would have interested
any reader ; but all that can here be stated is, that the last
private individual into whose possession it had come, was the
late Eev. Clayton Mordaunt Oracherode. After his death, in
April 1799, the volume came into its proper place, when,
with his large and valuable library, it was bequeathed to the
British Museum,
The Scriptures, as translated by Tyndale, were now coming
more freely into England, and were reading in various places
with all eagerness. No man was now molested abroad, as Mr.
Harman had been, nor was any man to be tormented at home,
for selling or buying, possessing or reading them, as had been
the fashion too long. For the moment at least, the storm was
changed into a comparative calm, and it is curious to contrast
all this, with the doings of the Convocation, which sat in
November and December. By their own journal, it appears
that they addressed the King before rising.^ This was on the
19th of December, aud exhibited a striking proof of a house
divided against itself. Their resolution passed both Houses
of Convocation, in which they all agreed that Cranmer should
make instance, in their names, to the King, that his Majesty

22 Journal of the Convocation, fol. 60.

414 CONVOCATION IN CONTRAST WITH [bOOK I.
would vouchsafe, for the increase of the faith of his subjects,
to command that all his subjects in whose possession any books
of suspected doctrine were, especially in the vulgar language,
imprinted beyond or on this side the sea, should be warned,
within three months to bring them in, under a certain pain,
to be limited by him ! And that, moreover, his Majesty would
vouchsafe to decree, that the Scriptures should be translated
into the vulgar tongue by some honest and learned men, to be
nominated by the King, and to be delivered to the people
according to their learning !
The first request exhibits the influence of Gardiner and
Stokesly in the Convocation, the latter that of Cranmer ; and
it seems to be evident that the two parties must have come to
a compromise, for the sake of each party securing, if possible,
its favourite request ; or this might be a feeler, put forth to
ascertain more precisely the existing state of their master''s
mind. At all events, the two requests exhibit glaring in
consistency, since the books of suspected doctrine might be
made to include all the Scriptures ever yet printed. How
Cranmer acquitted himself with the King, is not upon record.
There was, however, no interdict, no collecting of books ; but
the reader must not fail to observe next year, when Cranmer
comes to attempt a translation of the New Testament, by
actually employing these Bishops, what was the result, and
how they wrangled.
Meanwhile, dreaming, as some of these men in this Convo
cation were, about the Scriptures being translated, for it was
but a dream; what a singular contrast is presented in the
editions of Tyndale printed this year, and the vindication of
Harman, by the Queen herself, for importing them eight years
ago ! And now, if at last, after such long and vigilant pursuit,
Tyndale himself was about to be betrayed into the snare so
basely laid for him, his seizure will only add renewed vigour
to the press. Besides the Testament by Joye, we have already
mentioned Tyndale's own corrected edition finished only in
November ; but their year ran on to the 25th of March, and
before that day we have not fewer than three impressions all
dated in 1 534. The books being nearly of one size, rather
less than Tyndale's own, may be mistaken for the same edition,
but there are various points of distinction.

1534.] THE SCRIPTURES NOW PRINTING. 41.5
I. " The Newe Testament, Anno mdxxxiiii." printed within an ornamented
compartment ; at the top, Jesus preaching an the Mount ; on the right side, the
brazen Serpent ; on the left, Moses with the two tables, and at the bottom G. H.
on a shield, perhaps the initials of the printer ; the name, if found out, will appear
in our list. II. " The Newe Testament, Anno mdxxxiiii." also in black letter,
but not in a compartment, nor having any such initials affixed. These two
books have been compared. The first is in the collection of Earl Pembroke at
Wilton house, the second is in that of Lea Wilson, Esq. They are in the same
type, but the folios of the first are paged throughout, the second is not paged at
all ; and there are various characteristic differences, both in the orthography and
the disposition of the pages. III. " The New Testament, Anno mdxxxiiii." also
in a compartment with G. H. &o. This edition, imperfect, is in the Bodleian, and
as described by Herbert p. 1S43, and Dr. Cotton p. 131, might be mistaken for
the first mentioned. But this book, though the numbering of the folios be of
ten incorrect, mns from Matt. fol. i. — ccolx. falsely numbered ccclxii. ; whereas
the Testament at Wilton-House runs only from Matt. fol. i. — cccxlvii. This third
book, however, owing to what Dr. Cotton has said, we have ranked under 1 S3S,
(see p. 45S,) though perhaps the above might have been also placed there.
Besides these, there is in the Bristol Museum a Newe Testament in quarto,
dated on the back 1534 — certainly ancient, but the title-page is gone. Dr. Gif
ford thought it might have been printed in Scotland, as Lewis did, of one in
1636 ; but an acquaintance with the interesting state of Scotland, as about to be
given, precludes every such conjecture.23
In justification of the anxiety felt by Tyndale respecting the reprints of his
translation by others, it deserves notice, that in both the Testaments first
mentioned, there is an omission which unfortunately hecarae parent of the same
mistake in not a few subsequent editions. It is in I Cor. xi. The words—
" This cup is the New Testament in my blood" are left out ! The omission,
though significant at such a time, could scarcely be intentional, as it could
answer no end ; but it occasioned the leaf to be reprinted in various instances
afterwards. Thus the contrast between the Convocation held in Eng
land and these busy men abroad, furnishes one of the most
observable features of the time. It was like a flag of defiance
hoisted in Antwerp, to signalize the moment, or the conse
quences, of Tyndale's apprehension.
23 With reforonce to these Testaments dated in 1534, it should here be observed, that iu
describing Lord Pembroke's copy, Lewis (pp. 7^, 8U,) has confounded it with the editiou by
Joye, already mentioned ; and Lowndes, apparently thus misled, has attached to it the widow
of Endhoven as the printer, thus representing another New Testament as coming from tho
same press, in the same month of the same year, with that of George Joye! Until another
copy be found, that of Joye's in the Grenville Library must be regarded as unique. There is
no such book at Wilton-House, in the Bristol Museum, or St. Paul's Library.

C 4.16 ]

SECTION XII.
tyndale's apprehension AT ANTWERP  IMPKISONMENT IN THE CASTLE
OF VILVORDE  DISTINCT INFORMATION CONVEYED TO CRUMWELL AND
CRANMER  THE STRENUOUS EXERTIONS OE THOMAS POYNTZ  ^RISKINS
HIS OWN LIEE, BUT IN VAIN  TYNDALB's PROGRESS IN PRISON  STATE
OE ENGLAND  KEY TO ITS COMMOTION  HENRY'S SUPREMACY  FISHER
AND MORE FALL BEFORE IT  THE ODIUM ENSUING  THE VISITATION OF
MONASTERIES  CRANMER AND THE BISHOPS — CEANMER AND GARDINER
IN COLLISION  THE LATTER OFFENDING  HIS DEXTERITY OR ADDRESS 
HE IS TRANSLATING LUKE AND JOHN !  GARDINER AND POLE  SPAIN 
PRANCE — GERMAN STATES, AND BARNES AS ENVOY  THE BISHOPS AP
PLIED TO FOR A TRANSLATION OP THE NEW TESTAMENT  A FRUITLESS
ATTEMPT  AND IN CONTRAST ONCE MORE, WITH FRESH EDITIONS OF
tyndale's TRANSLATION, PRINTED AND IMPORTING THIS YEAR.
The last year turned out to be nothing more than a brief
respite, or a transient gleam of sunshine. The present was
distinguished throughout, by the imprisonment of Tyndale
abroad; by the agitation and perplexity of public men, as
well as by cruelty and bloodshed at home. The former was
an exhibition of enmity to the truth on the part of its oppo
nents ; the latter, gave decided proof of fear for the safety of
the throne. But before adverting to the peculiar state of af
fairs in England, we first proceed, as in previous years, to en
quire respecting the Translator of the Scriptures.
After a thorough investigation of this period, there can re
main no hesitation in ascribing the apprehension of Tyndale,
to the influence and authority of the old party in England, in
alarm at the steady progress of the " iiew learning." " A
plan was laid," says Foxe, " for Tyndale being seized in name
of the Emperor." By the name of the Emperor, as now men
tioned, could be meant nothing more than the authority of
the persecuting decrees he had sanctioned; but from any
share in this plan, Henry, in the first instance, must be en
tirely exonerated ; as the chief agents employed will turn
out to have been as great enemies to the King of England,
and his royal progress, as they were to Tyndale and his pro
vidential one. For years, it is true, Tyndale had been deem
ed a man of such importance, that he had enjoyed the dis-

1535.] TYNDALE'S APPREHENSION. 417
thiction of having been pursued by the agents of Wolsey the
Cardinal, and of the King himself — of Sir Thomas More the
Lord Chancellor, and even Crumwell, the future vicegerent ;
but in the final seizure, his Majesty had no concern what
ever ; though at last he will certainly come in for his full share
in the guilt of Tyndale's death. In the concealment of this
plot from Henry before it commenced or succeeded, we descry,
not improbably, the existing powerful infiuence of the Queen,
Anne Boleyn. Had she been apprised of it, and moved the
King, this might have proved fatal to the scheme.
Up to this hour, it has all along been generally supposed,
that there was only one man hired to apprehend our Trans
lator ; but there was a second, of far greater note as to charac
ter, joined with him, both in counsel and action ; and so, says
Halle, " he was betrayed and taken, as many said, not without
the help and procurement of some Bishops of this realm."
The help, partly consisting in money, of which we shall find,
presently, there was no lack, is to be traced, therefore, to this
source. The Bishops, in 1527, had leagued together under
Warham, and contributed to the strange and fruitless project
of buying up the New Testaments to burn them ; and now,
though Warham be gone, several survivors of the same temper,
were still more eager to consign the Translator himself to the
fiames. That Stephen Gardiner, the Bishop of Winchester,
who had succeeded against Fryth, was in the secret, and
deeply concerned in the intrigue, there will be little or no
doubt presently ; but if so, he may have been the chief, for
such was the well known temper of the man. " Unless," says
Bonner, who knew him well, " unless he was the only and
chief inventor of any matter, he would have thwarted it."
Tutored and bred up under Wolsey, though the King and
the Cardinal, Sir Thomas More and Crumwell, had not suc
ceeded, and though abroad neither Hackett or West, Sir
Thomas Elyot or any other agent, had been able to apprehend
Tyndale ; yet intimately acquainted with all circumstances,
with persons and places, and of great address, there was
no man now alive, who excelled Gardiner in gaining his end,
by secret and circuitous methods. As his strength and skill
lay in fetching a compass, like the gyrations of a hawk be
fore pouncing on its prey, so was he much more likely to suc
ceed in ensnaring Tyndale than any one who had previously
VOL. I. 2d

418 TYNDALE'S APPREHENSION. [^BOOK I.
attempted it. At least, no other individual knew so well how
to take advantage of the rising discontent of monks and friars.
The men in England selected on this occasion, were Henry
Phillips, belonging to Poole in Dorset, on the borders of Gar
diner's diocese ; and the other individual, in counsel with
him, hitherto altogether unknown, was Gabriel Donne or
Dunne, a monk from Stratford Abbey, who had proceeded
to Louvain. The former, a good-looking young man, acted
as the gentleman, and the latter in disguise, as his counsel
lor and servant.
The apprehension of Tyndale has been sometimes supposed
to have happened at the end of last year ; but as his confine
ment before death has been limited even to a year and a half,
it seems to have commenced not sooner than the beginning
of the present year. Certain parts of the story cannot be
better told than in the words of Foxe ; but we shall now inter
weave a variety of other particulars, hitherto unnoticed by any
historian, and not a few of them altogether unknown.
"William Tyndale, being in the town of Antwerp, had been lodged about
one whole year in the house of Thomas Poyntz, an Englishman, who kept
there a house of English merchants ;l about which time came thither one out of
England, whose name was Henry Phillips, his father being a customer (belong
ing to the custom-house) of Pool, a comely fellow, like as he had been a gentle
man, having a servant with him : but wherefore he came, or for what purpose
lie was sent thither, no man could tell.
" Master Tyndale divers times was desired forth to dinner and supper amongst
merchants ; by means whereof this Henry Phillips became acquainted with him,
so that within short space Master Tyndale had a great confidence in him, and
brought him to his lodging, to the house of Thomas Poyntz ; and had him also,
once or twice with him, to dinner and supper ; and further entered such friend
ship with him, that through his procurement he lay in the same house of the
said Poyntz ; to whom he showed, moreover, his books, and other secrets of his
study, so little did Tyndale then mistrust this traitor !
" Poyntz, having no great confidence in the fellow, asked Tyndale how he be
came acquainted with this Phillips. Tyndale answered, that he was an honest
man, handsomely learned, and very conformable. Then Poyntz, perceiving that
he bare such favour to him, said no more, thinking that he was brought ac
quainted with him, by some friend of his. The said Phillips being in the town
three or four days, upon a time, desired Poyntz to walk with him forth of the
town, to show him the commodities thereof ; and in walking together without
the town, had communication of divers things, and some of the King's affairs ;
by which talk, Poyntz, as yet suspected nothing, but after, by the sequel of the
matter, he perceived more what he had intended. In the meantime, this he

1 This seems to be Foxe's mode of expressing that Mr. Poyntz was an English merchant-ad
venturer, belonging to "the English house" of Antwerp.

1535.] AT ANTWERP. 419
well perceived, that he bare no great favour, either to the setting forth of any
good thing, or to the proceedings of the King of England. But after, when the
time was past, Poyntz perceived this to be his mind ; to feel, if he could perceive
by him, whether he might break with him in the matter, for lucre of money, to
help him to his purpose ; for he perceived before that he was monied, and would
that Poyntz should think no less ; but by whom, it was unknown. For he had
desired Poyntz before, to help him to divers things, and such things as he named,
he required might be of the best, ' for,' said he ' I have money enough :' but of
this talk came nothing but that men should think he had some things to do. So
it was to be suspected, that Phillips was in doubt to move this matter to any of
the rulers or officers of the town of Antwerp, for doubt it should come to the
knowledge of some Englishmen, and by the means thereof Tyndale should
have had warning.
" So Phillips went from Antwerp to the court of Brussels, which is from thence
twenty-four (rather 30) English miles, the King having there no Ambassador ;2
for at that time the King of England and the Emperor were at a controversy
for the question betwixt the King and Catherine, who was aunt to the Emperor ;
and the discord grew so much, that it was doubted lest there should have been
war ; so that Phillips, as a traitor both against God and the King, was there the
better retained, as also other traitors besides him ; who after lie had betrayed
Master Tyndale into their hands, showed himself likewise against the King's
own person, and there set forth things against the King.3 To make short, the
said Phillips did so much there, that he procured to bring from thence with him
to Antwerp, that Procurer-general, who is the Emperor's Attorney, with certain
other ofiicers, as after followeth ; which was not done with small charges and
expenses, from whomsoever it came.
" Within a while after, Poyntz sitting at his door, Phillips's man came to him,
and asked whether Master Tyndale were there, and said his master would come
to him, and so departed ; but whether his master, Phillips, were in the town
or not, it was not known ; but at that time Poyntz heard no more, either of the
master, or of the man. Within three or four days after, Poyntz went forth to
the town of Barrois,'* being eighteen (rather 24) English miles from Antwerp,
where he had business to do for the space of a month or six weeks ;5 and in the
time of his absence Henry Phillips came again to Antwerp, to the house of
Poyntz, and coming in, spake with his wife, asking her for Master Tyndale, and
whether he would dine there with him ; saying — ' what good meat shall we have V
She answered, ' such as the market will give.' Then went he forth again, as it
was thought, to provide, and set the ofiicers whom he brought with him from
Brussels, in the street, and about the door. Then about noon he came again,
and went to Master Tyndale, and desired him to lend him forty shillings ; ' for,'
said he, ' I lost my purse this morning, coming over at the passage, between this
and Mechlin.' So Tyndale took him forty shillings, which was easy to be had

2 This was a mistake. Vaughan, of whom we have already heard, was still there.
'd Tho reader will come to full proof of this presently.
* This Barrois, Barrow, Darough, Bergen, we repeat, is no other than Bergen-op-Zoom, now
greatly blocked up by the sands of Beveland, but having still a communication with the Scheldt,
by canal. Hence the title. Marquis of Barough or Bergen.
s In the marts or fairs of Brabant the English, and probably other foreigners, were obliged to
sell their cloths, &c. in fourteen days, and make their purchases of mercery, haberdashery,
and groceries, in as many more, on pain of forfeiture. Those fairs were frequented by the Eng
lish, French, Germans, and other nations.

420 APPREHENSION OP TYNDALE. [bOOK I.
of him, if he had it ; for in the wily subtilties of this world, he was simple and
inexpert.6 « Then said Phillips, ' Master Tyndale, you shall be my guest here this day.'
No, said Tyndale, ' I go forth this day to dinner, and you shall go with me, and
be my guest, where you shall be welcome.' So when it was dinner time. Master
Tyndale went forth with Phillips, and at the going forth of Poyntz's house was
a long narrow entry, so that two could not go in a front. Tyndale would have
put Phillips before him, but Phillips would in no wise, for that he pretended to
show great humanity, (courtesy.) So Master Tyndale, being a man of no great
stature, went before, and Phillips, a tall comely person, followed behind him ;
who had set olBcers on either side of the door on two seats, who being there
might see who came in the entry ; and coming through the same, Phillips pointed
with his finger over Master Tyndale's head down to hira, that the officers who
sat at the door might see that it was he, whom they should take ; as the officers
afterwards told Poyntz ; and said, when they had laid him in prison, that they
pitied to see his simplicity, when they took him. Then they brought him to the
Emperor's attorney where he dined. Then came he, the attorney, to the house
of Poyntz, and sent away all that was there of Master Tyndale's, as i well his
books as other things, and from thence Tyndale was had to the castle of
Vilvorde, eighteen (rather 23^) English miles fi'om Antwerp." Thus far at
present the narrative of Foxe.
Though Mr. Poyntz was from home, his friends, among
the merchant-adventurers of the English house, were imme
diately alive to what had happened, and application was made
without delay to the court of Brussels, but without efi"ect.
Many of these merchants were much in favour of Tyndale,
but they communicated as " the English house" officially,
through one of their number, elected periodically, called their
GovEKNOR. This was at present one Walter Marshe,'' and he,
if not an enemy to the cause for which Tyndale was seized,
was at least indifierent. England, it is true, had no infiuence
with the Emperor, who, at all events, was then engrossed by
his famous enterprise against the piratical states in Africa ;
and though Stephen Vaughan, of whom we have heard, was
still at Brussels, he seems to have been indisposed to say or
do any thing, after all he had suffered at Antwerp, through
the violence of Sir Thomas More, now himself a prisoner in
the Tower. Vaughan, however, had received no instructions
from England, and without these, perhaps, would not interfere.
The merchant-adventurers were a powerful body of men, and

6 The betrayer, in this instance, first took from his kind hearted and unsuspicious victim, more
than "thirty pieces of silver." Two pounds then, was equal in value to thirty pounds of the
present day.
7 Or Marsch, not improbably related to John Marshe, cousin of Sir Thomas Gresham.

1535.] CARDINAL POLE IN CONTRAST. 421
had Marshe, as Governor, only taken up the outrage as soon
as it was committed, and with the spirit which became him,
Tyndale, most probably, would have been extricated. His
tardiness was prejudicial to the case, and, as we shall see,
much regretted at the time. But by no other man was the
painful event so deeply felt and lamented, as by the kind and
generous host of Tyndale. This gentleman of family, Mr.
Poyntz, upon returning home to Antwerp, resolved at least
to do his duty ; and he did so with a noble zeal and fortitude
for which he ought, long ago, to have been better known.
This will appear presently ; but intervening events first de
mand our special notice. They are ultimately connected with
Tyndale's apprehension.
The state of the Continent, at this period, having become
exceedingly critical, with regard to Henry's personal security
as King of England ; it became necessary for that division of
his Privy Council who favoured his movements, to have a
watchful eye over the secret intrigues of the adverse party,
and their correspondents in foreign parts. For ten long years,
it is now very observable, Tyndale had been working abroad,
and only for good ; to whom the Monarch and his ministers
had been ever opposed ; but now, another man is becoming
active and formidable, who, for more than twenty years, and
abroad too, shall work only for evil ; his baneful influence
extending not only until the death of the reigning King, but
to that of two of his children. This was Eeginald Pole, the
future Cardinal, whom Henry had cherished, and educated
with a princely munificence, and even kindness, such as he
had never shown to any other human being." The cousin of
the King, and now abroad ; of polished manners, possessed of
the best education, having easy access to the highest circles,
wherever he travelled ; the vivacity of his genius, and his
playful affability, endeared him to all. His Majesty, having
literally made him the man he was, became eager to have his
opinions in writing, as to himself and his movements ; expect
ing, of course, that they would be entirely in his favour.

R " Out of all the English nobility," says Pole himself, addressing the King, " you selected
me to have a careful education. You had me instructed in virtues and letters from a child.
If I have profited but little, it has been my own fault, but your kindness was certainly very
great. It was such that no kingly father could have given more to a prince, his son. No man
could have conferred upon another an ampler benefit, nor one more pleasing to the Deity him
self "—ZJe Eccl. Unit., p. 120.

422 DISTINCT INFORMATION CONVEYED [^BOOK I.
Pole assented, and all the time living on Henry's bounty,
carried on the delusion. His opinions grew into a volume,
which he began in January of this year, and so late as June,
he had the profound hypocrisy to give assurances, in writing,
that he meant to serve the King in the cause desired.® His
book, however, such as it was, had been completed in March,
but it was retained for more than twelve months after that,
and shown to select enemies, just as if intended to produce
the more astounding effect on the day of its presentation,
next year.'"
Now, comparing the last ten years with all those that fol
lowed, it is not difficult to perceive the finger of retributive
justice pointing out the contrast. But it is rendered far more
striking from a singular coincidence at the present period, and
never before observed. It was this. Henry's mind continued
in great kindness and respect for Pole, down to the end of April,
or the beginning of May, this year. It then became necessary
to watch him. But the same man who was now engaged to
examine and report as to the state of the Continent, and the
movements of Pole ; in his very first despatches, brings the
imprisonment of Tyndale before the eye of both Crumwell and
Cranmer. He writes, however, merely as though he would
invite their sympathy ; for it is evident, from his style, that
he had received no instructions to enquire with kindness after
him. The writer, Thomas Tebold," (Theobald,) was a man
of no notoriety; but being well qualified, by shrewdness and
address, to answer Crumwell's purpose, he was to travel from
city to city, and report. He had left England about the
end of June, proceeding first to Antwerp, and by the middle
of July commenced his first letters, despatching them at the
end of the month. Both are full of information, and having
never before been printed, we give them entire. The first is
addressed to Crumwell.
" Pleaseth it your Lordship to understand, that the last day of July I do take
my journey from Antwerp straight to Nurenberg, from whence I may always
9 Cotton MS., Cleop. E. vi., fol. 334.
10 See an analysis of Cardinal Pole's character and writings, his virulent and treasonable
language, in Turner's Henry VIII., chap. 28.
J 1 His name is spelt in different places, Tebald, Tybbald, Thebold, and Theobald ; we use the
last, as that which he himself finally did. This man had been a student at Louvain ; he could
speak Latin iJuently, and Crumwell's wish was, that he should now acquire German, as well as
other languages. He generally subscribes himself his god-son— and Cranmer, in writing to the
Continent, calls hira his friend.

1535.] TO CRUMWELL AND CRANMER. 423
send letters to Antwerp by post ; and so I have spoken in Antwerp to an
Englishman, called John James, both to convey such letters as I send unto
him, to England, and, likewise, such letters as shall come from England, to be
conveyed up to me, so soon as I have received my banks in Nurenberg, and
tliere agreed with my merchant and other acquaintance, to convey at all times
my letters to Antwerp. Then I will go to an University called Tilbingen, or
else to some other University nearest to Antwerp, for the intent I may write
often, and send with speed, to your Lordship.
"News here, at this time, be none, but that here is most earnest communication
that the French Queen, and her sister the Queen of Hungary, shall meet to
gether at Cambray now afore Michaelmas, (29th September.) All these Low
Countries here, be most earnest with the Bishop of Rome and his traditions,
and therefore he hath now sweetly rewarded them, sending them his deceitful
blessing, with remission of all their sins, so that they fast three days together,
and this is given gratis, without any money. Here is an evil market, — that
whereas he was wont to sell his pardons, by great suit and money, now he is
glad to offer them for nothing ! And yet a great many make no haste to re
ceive them, where they be offered. I do hear that the Bishop of Rome is
contented, and doth desire to have a General Council, and that this matter is
earnestly entreated of divers. I am sure, if this be truth, your Lordship hath
heard of it or this time, more at large.
" He that did talce Tyndale, is abiding at Louvain, with whom I did there speak ;
which doth not only there rejoice of that act, but goeth about to do many more
Englishmen like displeasure ; and did advance this, I being present, with most
railing words against our King, his Highness, calling him — ' Tyrannum ao ex-
pilatorem reip,' — tyrant and robber of the Commonwealth.
" He is appointed to go shortly from Louvain to Paris in France, and there to
tarry, because he feareth that English merchants that be in Antwerp, will hire
some men privily to do him some displeasure unawares.
" Pleaseth it your Lordship to understand, that I have determined a better way
to send my letters by — and that is, by one Thomas Leigh, merchant of the
staple in Calais, which is of great acquaintance with my Lord, his Grace of
Canterbury, &c. Written in haste, at Antwerp, the last day of July, by your
godson and daily bedesman, Thomas Tebold."W
The reader may recollect a notable man, John Tibald,
examined before Tunstal in ] 528, who suff'ered much. This
may have been some relation; but, at all events, from the
close of the letter, the writer seems to have been long known
to Crumwell, who was now at once promoting his education,
and employing hira for other purposes. But his second letter,
addressed to Cranmer, is much more pointed.
" Pleaseth it your Grace, that I have delivered your letters unto Mr. Thomas
Leigh, which, according to your writing, hath delivered unto me twenty crowns
of the same, which money, God willing, I will deliver where your Grace
assigiied.13 Witliin these sixteen days, I take my journey from Antwerp, the
12 Galba, B. x., 81, but marked in the Catalogue, by mistake, as addressed to Cranmer.
'3 This may have been money for his uncle-in-law, Osiander. Theobald was going to Nurem
berg, and Cranmer, in 15.32, having married the niece of Osiander, the pastor of that city, kept
up a correspondence with him for many years.

424 DISTINCT INFORMATION CONVEYED [^BOOK I.
last day of July.W And because at my first arrivance at Antwerp I found
company ready to go withal to Cologne, I went to see my old acquaintance at
Louvain. Whereas I found Doctor (Bockenam) Buckingham, sometime Prior
in the Blackfriars in Cambridge, and another of his brethren with him. I had
no leisure to commune long with them ; but he shewed me, that at his departing
from England, he went straight to Edinburgh in Scotland, there continuing to
Easter last past ; and then came over to Louvain, where he and his companion
doth continue in the house of the Blackfriars there ; having little acquaintance
or comfort but for their money; for they pay for their meat and drink a
certain sum of money in the year. Allsoever that, I can perceive them to
have it only by him' that hath taken Tyndale, called Harry Phillips, with whom
T had long and familiar communication, for I made him believe that I was
minded to tarry and study at Louvain."
It will be observed that the writer of this letter shows no
scruple at informing Cranmer of his dissimulation ! It was one
reigning vice of the times : but this information is at once
curious and important. Perhaps the reader may recollect,
that Buckingham was the man, whom Latimer so successfully
exposed, at Cambridge, in 1526. By this letter it appears that
he must have lived for some time among his brethren, in the
Blackfriars' monastery at Edinburgh, on the high ground op
posite the wynd of that name, or nearly in the site of the present
Royal Infirmary. Having received intelligence from Louvain,
Buckingham, in company with some other friar, had left that
city about the 28th of March. There was evidently a bond
of union between the parties, and Phillips paid all charges,
possessing, as we have learned, money at command. This, by
the way, is one token of Tyndale's powerful influence in both
countries, of which there will be ample proof, when we come
to treat of North Britain ; so that Scotland, however remotely,
must now come in for her share, as well as England, in the
guilt and shame of persecuting to the death their common and
highest benefactor. But these men were generally friars, and
all the friars hated Tyndale, as they had done Wicliffe, with
a perfect hatred. Theobald, however, went on to inform Cran
mer, of all the other circumstances.
" I could not perceive the contrary by his communication, but that Tyndale
shall die ; which he doth follow, and procureth with all diligent endeavour, re
joicing much therein ; saying that he had a commission out also for to have
taken Doctor Bcirnes and George Joye, with other.is Then I shewed him that
 ,  i 
i^f Hence he had begun to write both letters on the 15th of that month.
1 5 These two names certainly point us, and directly, to Gardiner and his party ; for he was
the inveterate enemy of both men. Joye was nowat Embden, where he had publislied his "Sub
version of More's false foundation," against the fallen Chancellor. Barn^, in November last,
had taken a bold step, which must have greatly incensed tSjrdiner, as well as all the Bishops

1535.] TO CRUMWELL AND CRANMER. 425
it was conceived both in England and in Antwerp that George Joye should be
of counsel with him, m taking of Tyndale, and he answered that he never saw
George Joye, to his knowledge, much less, he should him. This I do write, be
cause George Joye is greatly blamed and abused among merchants, and many
other that were his friends, falsely and wrongfully.
" But this foresaid Harry Phillips shewed me, that there was no man of his
counsel, but a monk of Stratford Abbey besides London, called Gabriel Donne,
which at that time was student in Louvain, and in house with this foresaid
Harry Phillips. But now, within these five or six weeks, he is come to Eng
land, and, by the help of Mr. Secretary, hath obtained an Abbey of a thousand
marks by the year in the west country.
" This said Phillips is greatly afraid, in so much as I can perceive that ' the
English merchants,' that be in Antwerp, will lay watch to do him some dis
pleasure privily. Wherefore of truth he hath sold his books in Louvain, to the
value of twenty marks worth sterling ; intending to go hence to Paris, and doth
tarry here upon nothing but the return of his servant, which he has long since
sent to England, with letters. And because of his long tarrying, he is niarvel-
ously afraid lest he be taken and come into Master Secretary's handling, with
his letters.
" Either this Phillips hath great friends in England to maintain him here ;
or else, as he showed me, he is well beneficed in the bishopric of Exeter.17 He
raileth at Louvain, aud in the Queen of Hungary's Court, most shamefully against
our King his grace and other.18 I being present, he called our King his High
ness, — tyrannum, expilatorem reipublicce, — with many other railing words, re
joicing that he trusteth to see the Emperor scourge his Highness, with his council
and friends. Also he said, that Mr. Secretary hath privily gone about matters
in Flanders and Brabant, which are secretly come to the knowledge of the
Queen of Hungary, the governess here, which she reckoneth one day, at her
pleasure and time, to declare to his rebuke. What this meaneth I cannot tell,
neither could I hear farther ; but if I had tarried there any time, I should
have heard more.
"  I beseech your Grace to render thanks unto Sir Thomas Leigh for
his pains that he took for me in making my bank and otherwise, at the instance
of your Grace's letters. I am minded to send all my letters from Nuremberg by
post to Antwerp, to a merchant there of Thomas Leigh's acquaintance ; which
will always send them most surely with speed to him. Written at Antwerp the
last day of July, by yom- bedeman and servant, ever to my small power, Thomas
Tebold. ' To S[C. my Lord tlie Archbishop of Canterbury his Grace.' "19

of the old learning. He then had put forth his " Supplication to Henry VIII ;" explaining his
original quarrel with these men, when he was examined before them, and sadly abjured ; saying
that he was now ready to meet them in argument ; a measure on which Barnes would not have
ventured, had the tide not been turning in favour of some alliance with the Lutherans. The
fact is, that Barnes had already arrived on the Continent when Theobald was writing, and not as
a private character, but as no less than Envoy from Henry to the German States ! It was,
therefore, a bold step indeed to propose seizing him i but such was the rage of the party and their
willing agents, the friars. At^his very moment, Barnes was in Hamburgh, on his way to Wit
tenberg, and we shall hear of him again, before the year is ended.
10 TJie information given as to the time of the monk's return, and his resort to the west of
England, was perfectly correct, as will appear iu due time.
17 Vesey, Bishop of Exeter, was a decided enemy of the new learning, and Cardinal Pole was
Dean, of Exeter. We shall find Phillips, ere long, in great distress, earnestly soliciting an
audience of the Cardinal, but in vain.
18 He refers to Mary, sister of the Emperor, once Queen of Hungary, and still occasionally so
called, though now she was Princess Regent of the Low Countries.
10 Galba, B, x., fol. 102. .31st Ju^535, larked by mistake in the Catalogue 1539.

426 POYNTZ, THE FRIEND OP TYNDALE, [|boOK I.
Thus then, whatever is to become of our immortal Trans
lator, by the month of August 1535, it plainly appears that
both Cranmer and Crumwell were very distinctly informed of
the circumstances connected with his apprehension. The for
mer, especially, is warned of Tyndale being in imminent dan
ger of death, as well as of a certain Monk by name, deeply
implicated. Was it possible that, in future life, he could ever
forget the name of this man ? But whether the Archbishop
or Mr. Secretary then moved one step ; or whether Tyndale,
to say the least, was ultimately neglected and forgotten, and
this Very monk was left at large to be promoted ; it must be left
for the sequel to explain. At all events, Tyndale has still
fourteen months to live. Here was ample time to interpose.
Previously to these letters, however, some application had
been made to England, for the report in Antwerp was, that his
Majesty had interfered, requesting Tyndale to be sent back to
that city. It was but a groundless rumour ! But August
had now come, when Mr. Poyntz, like a sound-hearted
Englishman, and impatient of delay, could no longer refrain.
At such a crisis, it is refreshing to find that there was one
man true to his crest, throughout ; 20 whether Crumwell or
Cranmer move or not. His first step was to send an earnest
letter to his brother, imploring his immediate and most zealous
exertion. It is dated "at Antwerp, 25th August 15.35."
" Right well beloved brother, — I recommend me unto you, and to [Ann,]
your wife, trusting in God that you be in good health. Brother, the cause of
my writing to you at this time is, as seems to me, for a great matter concerning
to the King's Grace ; for though I am herein abiding, yet of very natural love
to the country that I was born in, so also for the oath and obedience the which
every true subject is bound by the law of God to have to his Prince, compels
me to write that thing [which Ij know or perceive might be prejudicial or
hurtful to his most noble Grace ; — which may come through counsel of them
that seek to bring their own appointments to pass, under colour of pretending
the King's honour, and yet be as the thorns under a goodly rose, — I might say,
very traitors, in their hearts, reckoning at length to bring their purpose to pass,
as they have always done, through such means. Who they be, I name no man ;
but it is good to perceive it must be the Papists, which have always been the
deceivers of the world, by their craft and juggling.
« For whereas it was said here, the King had granted his gracious letters in
the favour of one William Tyndale, for to have been sent hither ; the which is
in prison, and like to suffer death, except it be through his gracious help. But
it is thought those letters be stopped.

20 A cubit arm, erect, the fist clenched, jtp. vested arg.

1535.3 WRITING URGENTLY. 427
" This mau was lodged with me, three quarters of a year, and was taken out
of my house, by a Sei'geant-of-arms, otherwise called a dore-wardore, and the
Procurer-general of Brabant ; the which was done by procurement out of
England, and, as I suppose, unknown to the King's Grace, till it was done.
For I know well, if it had pleased his Grace to have sent him a commandment
to come into England, he would not have disobeyed it, to have put his life in
jeopardy. But now these privy (lorcarys) lurkers, perceiving that his Grace,
of his entire will would have sent for him, by the means whereof, it is to be
thought, they fear that if his Grace, (as no doubt but his abundant goodness is
such he would) charitably hear him, — then it might be the froward's fate for
their purpose they went about. Wherefore it is presupposed, that they have
solicited this to his Grace or to his Council, — that the putting to death of this
man here, in this country, might be to the King's high honour, making greatly
for his purpose in time to come, when a (his) matter shall be disputed, if it
come thereto. Wherefore, if it be their persuading, they know themselves it can
stand in none effect, to no purpose, but might be greatly against his Grace, in
that, and other things. Whether this be their device, or be what other mis
chiefs mean, I cannot tell ; but be, whatsoever it be, if a poor man might and
durst boldly reason with them, I think if they had either fear of God, their Prince,
or shame of the world, they should (would) beware or ever they did go about to
procure such a thing. For they would that the King should highly favour them,
because they can prevent such things for his Grace, and be the mean whereof
they may come to high promotions, and stand fast in them ; and so as they
may bring that to pass, they care not : And the effect of their [motions]
is nothing else, nor is it possible it should be, of them that seek their [all]
in worldly pomp, whatsoever their outward pronouncing be. And  to
play with his Grace, as some men do that be put in trust, and with 
confederacy with others, deceive them that put them in trust, and handle it so
that he shall make the party think he has done more for him than his reward
is worth. And so play 'Schoggyn behynde hys boke.' When these crafty
fellows meet, they jest and pout at him they have so cleanly deceived, and
though afterward it be known, yet they care not, for it shall be reckoned among
such as they be, for great wisdom. Wherefore they be past shame, and the
paxty past his remedy.
"But a poor man that has no promotion, nor looks for none, having no
quality whereby he might obtain honour, but of a very natural zeal, and fear of
God, and his Prince, had (lever) rather live a beggar all days of his life, and
put himself in jeopardy to die, rather than to live and see those lying
counsellors to have their purpose,' — for some men perceive more than they can
express by words, the which sorrow it inwardly, till they see remedy.
" And by the means that this poor man, William Tyndale, has lain in my
house three quarters of a year, I know that the King has never a truer-hearted
subject to his Grace this day living, and for that he does know that he is bound
by the law of God to obey his Prince. I wot it well, he would not do the con
trary, to be made Lord of the World, howsoever the King's Grace be infoi-med ;
but what care these Papists for that 2 For tlieir pompous and high authority
have all things been liolden up, by murder and shedding the blood of innocents ;
causing Princes, by one mean or other, to consent with them, to the same.
" Brother, about eighteen or twenty years ago, they at Rome, to magnify the
King's Grace in his style, gave him the name 'Defender of the Faith,' the
which may be likened to the prophecy of Caiaphas, when he said — ' It is expedi
ent for us, that one man die for the people, that all do not perish.' That
prophecy was true, but yet contrary to his meaning. So likewise, they thought.

428 TO HIS BROTHER IN ENGLAND. |[bOOK I.
by the mean thereof, he (our Prince) should be a great maintainor of their
abominations. Howbeit, God, the which sees all things, has entered his Grace
into the right battle, according to that style, as never Prince has done so nobly
since Christ died, in the which I beseech God give him victory.
" And that his Grace be not persuaded to let be undone, what might greatly
prevail thereto, by the death of this man, which should be a great hindrance
to the Gospel ; and, to the enemies of it, one of the highest pleasures : But,
and if it would please the King's Highness to send for this man, so that he
might dispute his articles with him at large, which they lay to him, it might,
by the mean thereof, be so opened to the Court and the Council of this country,
that they would be at another point with the Bishop of Rome, within a short
space. And I think he (Tyndale) shall be shortly at a point to be condemned ;
for there are two Englishmen at Louvain, that do and have applied it sore,
taking great pains to translate out of English into Latin those things that may
make against him — so that the Clergy here may understand it and condemn
him, as they have done all others, for keeping opinions contrary to their busi
ness, — the which they call, ' the order of holy Church.'
" Brother, the knowledge that I have of this man, causes me to write as my
conscience binds me ; for the King's Grace should have of him, at this day, as
high a treasure as of honour ; one man living \there is not] that has been op
GREATER REPUTATION. Therefore, I desire you that this matter may be solicited
to his Grace for this man, with as good effect as shall be in you, or by your
means to be done ; for, on my conscience, there be not many perfecter in this
day living, as knows God, who have you in keeping.
" Your Brother, Thomas Pojntz.
" Brother, I think if that Walter Marsoh, now being Governor, had done
his duty effectually here at this time, there would have been a remedy found
for this man. There be many men care not for a matter, so as they may do
ought to make their own seem fair, in avoiding themselves that they be not spied.
" To his well-beloved brother, John Poyntz, Gentleman, dwelling 1
in North Okendon, in Essex, this be delivered." ^^ j
The presumption, if not the certainty, is, that it was this
letter which at last took eff'ect ; for we have now the proof
that Tyndale's situation must have been explained to his
Majesty. Mr. John Poyntz had been, for twenty years, in
familiar intercourse, not only with the Court, but the King ;
he had been long about the King's person, and in the house
hold, though now at his estate in Essex. Hence the style of
his brother's letter. It was to be a direct appeal. At all
events, Crumwell was roused at last. He had indeed spoken
with great bitterness of Tyndale, when writing to Vaughan ;
and we have seen Cranmer, too, in company with Sir T.
Elyot, then charged to seize him ; but the times had now
materially changed, and they alike wavered with them. Be-

21 Cotton MS., Galba, B. .v., fol. 60.

1535.3 ONE MESSENGER PROM CRUMWELL. 429
fore, there was no such Queen upon the throne ; and Crum
well could not have forgotten her letter to himself, last year,
respecting Mr. Harman. He, therefore, now acts very diffe
rently, at least for a little moment. Since Marshe, the
Governor of the Merchant- Adventurers, had been complained
of as so remiss, the messenger despatched had been directed
to wait upon another person, Mr. Eobert Flegge ; and he re
plies, on the 22d of September, in the following terms —
"  Pleaseth it your mastership to understand, that the tenth day of this pre
sent month of September, was brought to rae, by one George Collins, two letters
sent by your mastership, as he reported, the one directed to the Marquis of
Barough, (Bergen-op-Zoom,) and the other to the Bishop (Archbishop) of
Palermo. And when T understood that the said letters came from your
mastership, I did my best diligence to make enquiry whether the said Lords
were in the Court or not ; then I was informed that the Marquis of Barough
was departed two days before, towards Dutchland, (Germany,) as Governor
and ruler of the Princess of Denmark, to conduct her to her husband, the
Palsgrave. Supposing the said letters were of importance, I sent one of our
merchants (Mr. Poyntz) after him, with the said letters, and to bring the
answer thereof. Also I had written to the said Lord Marquis, desiring him,
right humbly, that he would vouchsafe to write to such of his friends in the
Court, which should do for you, as ranch in his absence, as if he were present,
in all such causes as your mastership should have to do before the Queen and
the Council. Whereupon I have received a letter from the said Lord Marquis,
wherein he writeth, that he is very sorry that it is his chance to be absent from
the Court at this time, so that he cannot do the King's Highness and you such
service, as his good mind and will is to do. Also he wrote me, that, according
to my desire, he had written to his great friend, the Bishop of Palermo, con
cerning your causes, that, in everything, he should, for his sake in his absence,
do therein as if the matter extended to his own person. He is the man that
may do most in these matters, of any other resident in the Court at this time.22
" And so is come from my Lord, the man that I sent the letters by, the
bringer hereof, and brought with hira both your letters, and the Lord Marquis's,
and delivered them to the Lord of Palermo. Whereupon the Lord of Palermo
spake with the Queen and the Council, and hath made you such answer, by
writing, as this bringer hereof shall deliver you, the which, I pray God, may
be to the King's pleasure and yours, &e. — At Antwerp, the 22d day of Sep
tember, an. 1635."23
By Foxe's narrative, in his first edition, we learn that
Flegge had consulted with the chief English merchants —
that Mr. Poyntz had to proceed sixtj"- miles to the eastward.
However, he overtook the Marquis at Achon, (Alkhen,) fif
teen miles from Maestricht. On reading the letter addressed
to him, the Marquis, at first, retorted, that " there were of
their countrymen burned in England not long before" — allud-
22 Carondelet, Lord Archbishop of Palermo, and President of the Council.
23 Cotton MS., Galba, B. i., fol. 62.

430 POYNTZ EARNESTLY ENGAGED. [bOOK I.
inff to the Dutchmen burnt in Smithfield. Poyntz acknow-
ledged the fact; " howbeit," said he, " whatsoever the crime
was, if his lordship, or any other nobleman, had written, re
quiring him to have had them, he thought they should not
have been denied." — " Well," said he, " I have no leisure to
write, for the Princess is ready to ride." Then said Poyntz,
" If it shall please your lordship, I will attend upon you to
the next baiting place." The Marquis assented, adding, " if
you so do, I will advise myself by the way, what to write."
At Maestricht, accordingly, Mr. Poyntz obtained the letters
referred to by Mr. Flegge ; one to the Brabant Council, one
to the Merchant- Adventurers, and a third to Crumwell. Mr.
Poyntz proceeded direct for London, but there he had to wait
during the greater part of the month of October. " At
length," says Foxe, " the letters (in reply) being delivered
him, he returned and delivered them to the Council at Brus
sels, and there tarried for answer of the same." This was on
or before the first of November.

" When the said Poyntz had tarried three or four days, it was told him, by
one that belonged to the Chancery, that Master Tyndale would have been de
livered to him, according to the tenor of the letters ; but Phillips being there,
followed the suit against Master Tyndale, and hearing that he should be de
livered to Poyntz, and doubting lest he should be put from his purpose, he
knew no other remedy but to accuse Poyntz ; saying, that he was a dweller in
the town of Antwerp, and there had been a succourer of Tyndale, and was one
of the same opinion ; and that all this was only his own labour and suit to have
Master Tyndale at liberty, and no man's else.
" Thus, upon his information and accusation, Poyntz was attached by the
Procurei'-general, the Emperor's Attorney, and delivered to the keeping of two
Sergeants-at-arms. The same evening was sent to him one of the Chancery
with the Procurer-general, who ministered unto him an oath, that he should
truly make answer to all such things as should be enquired of him, thinking
they would have had no other examinations of him, but of his message. The
next day likewise, they came again, and had him in examination, and so five or
six days, one after another, upon not so few as a hundred articles, as well of the
King's affairs, as of the message concerning Tyndale, of his aiders, and of his
religion. Out of these examinations, the Procurer-general drew twenty-three
or twenty-four articles, and declared the same against the said Poyntz."
Eight days after, he was ordered to have his answer ready.
Meanwhile, he must send no message to Antwerp, or any
other place, but by the Brussels post: he must send no letters
except in Grerman, and these to be examined first by the
Procurer-general : he must speak only in that language, that

1535.3 NARROW ESCAPE FOR HIS LIFE. 431
his keepers might know every word he said. To this last
rule there was but one exception, when an English Noviciate
of the White Friars was allowed by their Provincial to con
verse with Mr. Poyntz. It was only a politic step, to ascer
tain his principles, before receiving his written answer.
Among other topics. Sir Thomas More and the Bishop of
Rochester, and their executions in England this summer were
introduced, as one key to their purpose. On the eighth day,
when the Commissioners came for the answer in writing, Mr.
Poyntz had not his excuse ready, when they gave him another
week. He then presented a general reply, but they insisted
upon a specific answer to each of the articles, separately.
Thus he " trifled them off'" from the first of November to the
twenty-fourth of December. On the morning of that day,
they informed him, that if his reply were not brought in
before night, he should be condemned without it : It was
eight in the evening before the Procurer-general received the
document. This led to a tedious altercation in writing,
during which process, Mr. Poyntz demanded bail, on security
being offered. They at first assented, but afterwards declined
to take any security whatever. He had applied to the
English Merchants in Antwerp, for surety, and had they
come forward, it would have altered the case from a criminal
to a civil one ; but, strange to say, if they actually had re
ceived the application, it was in vain. In the meantime, the
expenses of this process were accumulating to a considerable
amount. During the whole time, Poyntz was not in a common
prison, but in the keeping of the two Sergeants-at-arms :
besides his own expenses, he had to maintain them, so that
the daily charge was not less than five shillings ; an enormous
sum in those times. Altogether he had now been detained
about thirteen weeks, from the first of November to Candle
mas, which, at five shillings daily, had cost about ^£"23, or equal
to above d£?300 of the present time. For part of these charges
they now demanded payment or surety, and gave him eight
days to settle the matter. Poyntz sent a messenger to the Eng
lish Merchants who were then at Barrow (Bergen) Market,
resolving, however, not to wait his return. If taken, he knew
it would be but death, and so during the night he contrived
to escape, and at the opening of the city gates, in the morning,
got oif. As soon as it was perceived that he was gone, men

432

TYNDALE'S PROGRESS IN PRISON. [bOOK I.

on horseback were sent out in pursuit; but he knew the
country well, and at last arrived safely in England.
Here is a man, hitherto unknown, though certainly he now
demands our most grateful remembrance. For his friend he
could not possibly do more than he had done. It was the
most memorable exploit in his whole life; and what is re
markable, we shall, by and bye, find it to have been engraven
on his tomb-stone, which, we are gratified to add, is still dis
tinctly visible, and not far from London.
With respect to Tyndale himself, now in close confinement
at Vilvorde, we are not altogether without information. The
fact of his imprisonment was now well kno'v^ in England,
Scotland, and Germany ; and the zeal against him was " burn
ing hot," especially at Louvain, a place long celebrated for its
ardent attachment to the old learning. This may easily be
conjectured from the men now arrayed, and apparently
gathered together against him. Dunne, having fulfilled his
commission, and for six months done his best, had left for
England ; but Phillips and Buckenam, with others, were still
at Louvain, only twelve miles from Vilvorde ; and they, in
conjunction with the doctors there, had led Tyndale into dis
cussion. He, having been permitted to reply in writing, was
not slow to answer. " There was," says Foxe, " much writ
ing, and great disputation to and fro, between him and them
of the University of Louvain ; in such sort, that they all had
enough to do, and more than they could well wield, to answer
the authorities and testimonies of the Scripture, whereupon
he, most pithily, grounded his doctrine."
They had, indeed, now laid Tyndale in prison, but even
this could by no means prevent the progress of his work. It
must not pass unobserved, that there came out this year
another, or the third edition, of his " Obedience of a Christian
Man," and it may very safely be presumed not without his
approbation, if not concurrence ; as it was printed at Marburg,
where he and Fryth had dwelt.^* Wolsey had been five years
in his grave, whose policy it so effectually exposed ; but Tyn
dale had there said, even after the Parliament of November
1629, that as they had not uprooted the tree, it would grow

24 It is in 12mo. black letter — " Marlborow in the Land of Hesse, 1535." — Bibl. Harleiana,
vol. i., no. 2892, p. 136.

1535.3 STATE OF ENGLAND. 433
again. By the reprint, therefore, he seemed to repeat, that,
in his estimation, much still remained to be done in England ;
and he himself was now suff'ering under the very system he
had there exposed. The republication at this period, how
ever, would certainly not contribute to his enlargement, nor
would it now help to raise him in the estimation of Henry
VIII. Once on a time, it is true, he is reported to have
said — " this is a book for me and all kings to read," — but
then, to such a man, there were " hard sayings" in it, and
that emotion had died away.
Another piece also now appeared, and appropriate to the
war then waging with the Doctors of Louvain. This was
Wicliff'e's Wicket, or an exposition of the words " This is
my body," accompanied by Tyndale's judgment respecting the
Testament of William Tracy .^^ But the most memorable
circumstance was, that in this, though the year of Tyndale's
imprisonment, not fewer than three editions of his New Tes
tament came from the press. These, however, will come be
fore us, with much more eff'ect, after we have observed what
was doing in England, or that country for which they were
all intended.
Upon returning into England, the altered or peculiar character of
public affairs invites our special notice. For the gratification of his
own passions, and for this alone, Henry the Eighth, in his long contest
with Clement, had now wrought his kingdom into a distinct and very
marked position ; not only as it regarded Italy, but the rest of Europe.
Before the death of that Pontiff, in September last, the contest was, in
many respects, a personal one, and there had been not a little of mutual
personal provocation ; but now that another man, Paul III., has suc
ceeded at Eome, and circumstances are so changed at home, two
questions naturally occur — What was the actual state of England ? and
what were the intentions of the executive government ?
In addition to those titles which his ancestors had worn for ages, his
Majesty might assume an additional one, involving vast claims ; but it
by no means followed as a consequence, either that the nation would
bow assent, or his own Council see eye to eye. Henry, therefore, though
the resolute monarch still, nay, more so than ever, was, after all, within
his own kingdom, in fact, only the head of a party, and the mind of

26 " Wjckliffo's Wycket, whyche he made in Kyng Ryoarde's Days the Second, 1399; with
the Testameut of Mr. William Tracy, Esquior, expounded by William Tyndale, wherein thou
shalt see, with what charitie (he Chancellor Qf Worcester burned, when he took up the dead
carcase, and made ashes of it, after it was buried. 1535."— A;W. Harl. No. 2891).
VOL. I. 2 K

434 STATE OP ENGLAND. [^BOOK 1.
England was divided. Not merely divided between him and the Pontiff,
which it certainly was, as long as he lived ; but the Volume of Inspira
tion had been introduced from time to time, for the last nine years, in
spite of all opposition, and it was now working, as it had done, with an
influence irresistible. Here, although hidden, lay the future stability
of England, notwithstanding a divided Cabinet, and a monarch so
capricious. All men in turn, it is true, must bow to the Sovereign's will and
pleasure, yet did this never prevent his having two parties, inveterately
opposed to each other, and continually standing in his presence. They
did so to the hour of his death ; and, during the entire period of his future
reign, these two parties continued to rise and fall, like the corresponding
scales of a balance ; while the monarch himself, a " double-minded man,"
and therefore " unstable in all his ways," was often " driven as by the
wind and tossed." The old party were hostile to the liberty of the
subject, or the enlargement of his just rights, but, above all, to the
liberty of the press, aud the progress of the human mind in Divine
knowledge : the new, although bloated by time-serving, as well as
notorious compliance with the passions or vices of the monarch, and
occasionally not scrupulous in the means employed to gain their end,
were, however, overruled by God, for bringing the kingdom into better
times. At the head of the former still stood the Duke of Norfolk, the
Prime-Minister,^^ and Gardiner, the Bishop of Winchester, that able,
but deceitful man. Crumwell, Audley, and Cranmer, conducted the
other party ; while under both there were, of course, active subordinate
agents. The influence of Anne Boleyn, in her character as Queen, was
decidedly in favour of the advancement of truth ; but this influence
operating at once as a restraint or correction of the old party, and a
check on her unbridled husband, her career soon closed, though in a
manner which has scarcely even yet been fully explained.
Meanwhile, let it be observed, that, during the whole of this year,
there was no meeting of Parliament, nor any Convocation held in Eng
land.^ The prospective measures, which had been sanctioned in the
close of 1534, afforded quite enough of employment till February 1536,
when both Houses sat, after a prorogation of fourteen months.
The transactions of the present period deserve notice, as an exhibition
of the King of England still advancing in the exercise of his newly
assumed prerogatives. The last Parliament having, for the augmenta
tion of the King's royal estate, assigned to him the fwst-fruits of all

21! The only man, so long near his person, of whom Henry was at once jealous and afraid.
a? There is some confusion in Bnrnet, and others, in regard to this. In one place he marlis
the long recess, in another he appears to forget it. There was no meeting in the spring, and
in the fall of the year tho plague prevented any Session. All the measures of 1.535 rose out
of the Parliament and Convocation of 1631 ; or from Henry's will and pleasure.

1535.3 KEY TO ITS COMMOTION. 435
spiritual livings, and the tenths throughout the kingdom, Henry resolved
not to be deceived. Some step must be taken to ascertain what, and
how much, these exactions ought to be. "We forget not that the Observant
Friars of Greentvich and Richmond, of Canterbury, Newark, and New
castle, had already been put down, and this of itself must have produced
not a little excitement ; but they were not possessed of wealth, so that
a far more important key to the commotions ensuing, may be found in
the " Instructions and Commission of Henry," on the SOth of January,
for knowing " the whole and just yearly value of all possessions, lands,
tenements, profits, &c., as well spiritual as temporal, pertaining to any
manner of dignity, monastery, chui'ch, parsonage, vicarage, or other
dignity, throughout England, Wales, Berwick and Calais." The Com
missioners, when once appointed, were to survey the same " effectu
ally, with all uprightness and dexterity, as they were to answer to his
Majesty at their peril I"^" The precise yearly income of every Bishop,
nay, of every parsonage, must now be made apparent to all ; the revenue
of every minor abbey, priory, or monastery, would no longer be a secret.
The sweeping decree came with equal pressure on every priest, and
upon all the friars, whether white, black, or grey. Such a step, it may
easily be presumed, would not only rouse up the kingdom, but it ac
counts for many a heart-burning, as well as many a plot and intrigue
that now followed.
His Majesty had resolved also to be supported in his assumed Supre
macy, by an oath, to be taken by all parties ; and the reader must not
forget, that it was now become treason for any man, either to deny the
King's dignity, or to call him heretic, schismatic, or tyrant, on account
of any thing he had done, nay, or was yet to do ! "When this act was
passed in the last Parliament, " it put many," says Strype, " who were
still devoted to Rome, into very terrible concern."
The situation of Henry was critical in the extreme ; perhaps never
more so than at this moment. Two measures, one relating to the minds
of his subjects, the other having an immediate eye on their property,
had been determined. Both were now full in view, having been made
known to all, and the oath in favour of the King's supremacy was to be
first enforced. Then came the days of the shedding of blood ; but the
word of terror was changed. For years it had been heresy, but as far as
Englishmen were concerned, it was now treason. On the part of the
Government, a certain system is very observable in the order of proced
ure, while it is not difficult to perceive in this order, the tokens of retri
bution. Thus, the Clergy had been the main, if not the sole persecutors,
till now, and from them obedience was now to be first exacted. To pre
pare the way, the earliest cruelties were inflicted on men of an inferior

so See the original instructions, on vellum, signed by the King, and the Commission, for the
tamo purpose, .lOth January, Cotton MS., Cleop. E. iv., fol. 167.

436 HENRY'S SUPREMACY. QbOOK 1.
grade. On the 4th of May, five individuals were hanged, drawn, and
quartered, for treason ; these were a monk, a vicar, and three priors,
all natives of England ;^ but, on the 25th of the same month, as many
as nineteen men, and six women, were arraigned. These were Holland
ers, and not fewer than fourteen of the number were condemned and
burnt for heresy ; though the fear felt must have been respecting their
political influence.^" Again, on the 19th of June, three monks,^' of the
Charter-house, in London, were hanged for treason, all of whom were
executed in their habits ; but still, these revolting cruelties could not
shake the resolute minds of two far more eminent men, firmly opposed
to the title on which the King now doated. These were, Fisher, Bishop
of Rochester, and Sir Thomas More.
The Bishops, in general, had hitherto bowed to the times, and all
escaped with their lives ; but here was Fisher, a formidable case for
Henry, not merely among his own subjects, but especially at Rome ; yet,
with Crumwell by his side, there was to be no favour nor exception.
This old man, now in the seventy-seventh year of his age, once stood
above all in the King's estimation ; when he was in the habit of boasting
that no Prince in Europe possessed a prelate equal to him, in virtue
and learning. He it was, it may be remembered, who had been ex
pressly selected by Henry, to preach the first sermon at the burning of
books, and the recantation of Barnes ; but not long after this he began
to sink in the royal favour. In 1527, he had resolutely refused to sign
the paper declaring the King's first marriage to be unlawful, and then
he became counsel for Queen Catherine. In 1529, he had loudly ex
claimed against the bills introduced into Parliament by the Commons,
aflirming that they all had but one object and intention, and that was —
" Down with the Church." He had been implicated in the strange
business of the Maid of Kent, and being judged guilty of misprision of
treason, had been left in prison more than a year, and treated with
great neglect, nay, shocking severity. And now that the oath of suc
cession, under the Great Seal, was tendered to him, the utmost that he
would promise was, that he would swear to the act itself, but not to the
preamble, which included the King's beloved title. The Pontiff at Rome,
aware of his situation, (perhaps by a foolish bravado, and to inspirit the
English malecontents,) sent to Fisher the red hat of a Cardinal. Crumwell
went to sound him as to whether he would accept of it ; but it is of little
moment what he said in reply, as the event seems only to have hastened

29 These were Richard Raynold, for whom Cranmer, on the SOth of April, interceded in vain ;
John Halle, vicar of Thistleworth ; Prior Houghton, of the Gharter-house ; Prior Webster, of
Bevall ; Prior Laurence, of Exham. The rumour was, that they had combined to kill the King.
30 As it appears by certain expressions of Henry, next year, when writing to Germany. These
were the men to whom the Marquis of Bergen alluded, see p. 429 last line.
31 Middlemore, Exmew, and Newdigate, three young men of good families, the last of whom
had been brought up at court.

1535.3 FISHER OF ROCHESTER. 437
his destruction. That self-same article, which Wolsey had imported
with such mock solemnity and pomp, which used to be borne on high
before him by a person of rank, and laid on the altar whenever he came
into the Royal Chapel, was now to be treated by Henry, the Defender of
the Faith, with truly sovereign contempt.^^
The aged man was arraigned before Sir Thomas Audley, the judges,
Crumwell, and three peers ; and that, too, as the late Bishop of Rochester ;
for since Cranmer's appointment, the Legislature had made and unmade
Bishops, denying all right to any other authority. Fisher had enter
tained no objections to Henry's strange title of " Defender of the Faith,"
and most probably had assisted him to attain it ;^ but the present claim
to be " Head of the Church," was out of the question with him, and
firmly denied. The indictment for what they then called treason, having
been found against him on the llth of June, he was tried on the 17th, and
beheaded on the morning of the 22d ; his head afterwards, with shame
ful barbarity, having been placed in terrorem on London Bridge.**
A more notable person was soon to follow ; for this oath must also be
tendered to the laity. At the very top of the list, in point of reputed
talents, eloquence, and character, stood Sir Thomas More, and to him the
oath was now administered. Like Fisher, he proposed to swear to the
act, and not to the preamble ; but this similarity of sentiment only the
more excited the King's suspicion and fear, that there was lurking trea
son, and far more involved, in this second firm refusal, than met the ear.^
To uphold that system, which, in England, was now tottering to its
base, More had laboured like another Hercules. Many a tedious sheet
had he penned, night and day, and many a thrust had he aimed at our
Translator ; and yet now he must die before him, and soon follow that
Bishop to the grave, who had so early preached in St. Paul's against the
books of the new learning. But, perhaps, the most striking point of all
was, that in the net, by which he had hoped to ensnare others, was his
own foot taken. He had been eager to prove that Tyndale and his fol
lowers ought to be held guilty of treason, as well as heresy ; and now,
for his own opinions, he is held to be guilty of that very crime ; while
32 One account states, that Fisher replied, "If the Cardinal's hat were laid at my feet, I would
not stoop to take it up, I set so little by it."— Another, that he said, " If it should come, 1 would
receive it on my knees." But if the reader wish to have farther information as to this trial and
death, he may consult with advantage, an article by John Bruce, Esq., in the Archasologia, voL
XXV., pp. 61-99.
83 Seethe Archseologia, vol. xxiii., p. 76, note.
34 Owing to a mistake in the Catalogue of the Cotton MS., Cleop. E. vi., fol. 204, one may be
misled to imagine that another man died, or was tried, along with him. This is described as " a
bill found against Bishop Fisher and James Whalworth for denying the King's supremacy.'"
It is a true bill found by a grand Jury against John Rochester and James Whalworth, two Car
thusian Monks, though for the same reputed offence. Though " John Rochester" was Fisher's
oiticiol signature, the manuscript, of course, alludes to some monk of no note, named Rochester.
35 Cranmer had advised that their oaths should be received, with the Umitation they had pro
posed, as this might deprive tho Emperor abroad and Catherine at home, of the support derived
from their example ; but Henry was bent on the intimidation of all others. He might blame
Anne Boleyn, but he justiliod himself, in the most violent language, to the King of France.

438 SIR THOMAS MORE. [BOOK L
the monarch, whose honour and dignity he had been professedly so eager
to uphold, now stands in his way, and barbarously exacts his life. Nor
do the tokens of return for past offences end here. Sir Thomas, when
in power, had been severe in the extreme, towards his Majesty's subjects,
putting them to death for what they called heresy, upon old if not obso
lete statute, without application for the King's writ or sanction ; and
now that King, although Cranmer and others were alike eager to save
him, had made a new law, to which every knee must bow, and he will on
no account suffer his old Chancellor to escape. The first lay Lord Chan
cellor for the last 125 years, must therefore be the first layman to suffer
death at this crisis. He had been first sentenced to be hanged, drawn,
and quartered as a traitor, but this decree was changed into that of de
capitation, and he suffered accordingly on the 6th of July in the fifty-
sixth year of his age. " In both cases," says Southey, " the work of re
tribution may be acknowledged ; as persecutors both sufferers had sinned,
and both died as unjustly as they had brought others to death. The con
sideration is important in a Christian's view, but it affords no excuse, no
palliation, for the crime." Certainly not, nor will the odium of the death
of both these men ever cease to recoil upon the royal murderer.^6
Sir Thomas More having had a fortnight to reflect on the death of
Fisher, it would have been well for him, if he had taken example by the
last end of his friend. In his behaviour at death there was not one iota
to provoke remark ; but, to say the least, in regard to More's deportment
at that moment, the opinion has never been unanimous. He had resolved
to die as he had lived, and fond to excess of smartness of expression, he
carried his facetiousness with him to the very block on which his life
was extinguished. This has been represented by some as magnanimous,
and by others the wit, if it deserve the name, has been smoothed down
as merely characteristic of the man. But in connexion with this playful
ness, displayed on the very borders of another world, is it fair to forget
the peculiarity of Mo^'ce's professed faith ? Or in estimating the character
of the man, and more especially of his mind, is there any discrimination
shown in passing over this ? He had written laboriously in favour of
purgatory, and consigned his fellow creatures to destruction, without
mercy, for denying it. If, then, he believed in it himself, was it likely
that he would prefer plunging into such a state as he had so graphically
described, with a jest upon his lips ? Was such a manner of meeting
death, at all consistent with that faith for which he had -written so
much ? Or rather, are we not now given to understand, that he had been
governed, in speculation, by a theory, which, in practice, he denied ?

35 In a very confused passage Foxe ascribes to Fisher the deaths of Hitten and Bayfield,
Tewksbury and John Fryth. The first was the work of Warham, the last we have tr.aced to
Gardiner. Bayfield and Tewksbury were martyred by Sir Thomas More aud Stokesly. Fisher,
no doubt, was a persecutor, and presided on other occasions, but not on these.

1535.] SIR THOMAS MORE'S DEATH. 439
That he had viewed religion, of some sort, as a convenient instrument
for governing the multitude, while he himself had taken the liberty of
being a free-thinker all his days t " It is true, that good men of a high
order, have been known to utter pleasantries in their last hours. But
these have been of a fine etherial quality ; the scintillations of animated
hope, the high pulsations of mental health, the involuntary movements
of a spirit feeling itself free even in the grasp of death ; the natural
springs and boundings of faculties, on the point of obtaining a far
greater, nay, a boundless liberty."^^ But the pleasantries of the de
ceased Chancellor were of a widely different character. They were spent
upon Kingston, the Lieutenant of the Tower, aud in rallying the execu
tioner, to pluck up his spirits, and beware of a stroke awry, — they de
scended even to the beard he wore, or the manner in which his death was
to ensue. No, death is an event, by itself, and certainly ought ever to
be so treated. Should any man, whoever he be, mingle merriment with
the more solemn events of even the drama of life, he must not count upon
general respect ; but if he chooses to do this with the last moments of
his own earthly existence, he labours under a prodigious mistake, if he
expects to insure the unanimous admiration of posterity.
Such, according to most historians, were the ostensible effects of the
King's newly assumed title. Mr. Sharon Turner insists that in all these
cases, it is not correct to suppose that death ensued in consequence of
merely declining to acknowledge Henry's supremacy as Head of the
Church of England. The foreign and domestic conspiracies that were
afloat, against the King personally, and against his government, he sup
poses to have been the original charge. But we have no record of the
trials ; though still, if the acknowledgement of Henry's title was meant
or offered, to secure his clemency, as not one of the parties would accede
to it, so they died. Sir Thomas had pronounced the oath of supremacy
unlawful. Tho deaths of Fisher and More especially, produced a deep sensation,
not in England only, but throughout Europe. Two pillars of the old
faith had fallen, and the indignation of Henry's political enemies rose to
its height. On the arrival of the tidings in Spain, the Emperor sent for
the English ambassador, and this was no other than Sir Thomas Elyot,
of whom we have heard before. " We understand," said the Emperor,
" that the King, your master, has put his faithful servant and wise
counsellor, Sir Thomas More, to death." Elyot answered — "I under
stand nothing thereof." " But," replied Charles, " it is true ; and had
we been master of such a servant, we would rather have lost the best city
in our dominions, than such a counsellor." As for Paul, the Pontiff,
Henry had put a new made Cardinal to death, and the red hat had

37 Ji.hn Foster.

440 THE PONTIFF'S WRATH. j^BOOK I.
never before been treated with any thing but reverential awe. Fisher's
hat had come as far as Calais, and what became of it afterwards, no one
knows. But the contempt shown was unprecedented, and the Pontiff
gave out his loudest thunder, by a Bull, dated on the SOth of August.
It decreed that Henry should be deprived of his dominions, — it put all
places under an interdict, — declared his offspring by Queen Anne to be
infamous, — absolved his subjects from their allegiance, — ^forbade all
trading with him, — directed all ecclesiastical persons to leave his king-
dom,^-ordered the nobility to take up arms against him, — ^made void all
his treaties, — surged the Kings of Europe to pursue him, — doomed all his
adherents to be slaves, and ordered the prelates to excommunicate him
in their churches ! ! This document was posted up in Flanders, France,
and Scotland ! But there could not have been a more foolish step : the
sack of Rome had dissolved the terror once occasioned by all such raving.
The Bull, after all, was suspended in its operations for the present, and
still more impotently employed three years after this : but its contents
were, of course, now known in England, where they were disapproved and
opposed by even Queen Catherine herself, though such a devoted ad
herent of the Court of Rome.
The other measure on which his Majesty had fully resolved, as abeady
noticed, was the Visitation of the lesset Monasteries, and the estimated re
turn of the Clergy's annual income. The fact was, he anticipated war
with the Emperor, if not invasion, and money he must have : but a
deputy, firm and resolute, was essential to such a mode of obtaining it.
Henry, through the instrumentality of Wolsbv, had, for a short time,
once tasted the pleasure of ruling these men called Spiritual, but then he
was, what they all acknowledged him to be, an eminent ecclesiastic. There
was one other man, fully qualified, now at the King's right hand ; but
he was a layman, and this might have seemed to others an insuperable
objection. He was merely the King's Secretary, Master of the Rolls,
and in rank, as yet, no higher than a knight. No matter — he was fitted
for his Majesty's purpose, and he must be clothed with power sufiBcient
to rule over the highest Church dignitary in the land, or the entire body
of the Clergy, however refractory ; and, as Head of their Church, Henry,
of course, could do whatever seemed to be best in his own eyes. This man
it is well knovm, was Cbumweli, who, before visitors were appointed, or
the visitation began, was constituted — " Vicegerent, Vicar-Oeneral, Com
missary, special and general."^ By virtue of this office, which gave him
rank next to the King himself, all the monasteries must now regard him

33 Cotton MS., Cleop. F. ii., fol. 131. The date in this copy is wanting, and, indeed, the con
clusion ; but it ia given by Collier, and dated. An. Dom. 1535. Stowe says it was 18th of July
but places it, by mistake, under 1636. Crumwell, indeed, must have been clothed with the
highest official authority before these men could thm go out. We find no such commission for
him as " rm'tor-General," as it has sometimes been stated. Burnet had not observed the com
mission to which we have referred, but Collier printed it as far as extant.

1535.] THE VICEGERENT AND VICAR-GENERAL. 441
as their superior ; and no Convocation could sit, where he, in absence of
the King, might not preside. Crumwell, therefore, having once sent out
his agents or commissioners, the principal of whom were, Richard Lay-
ton, (once a fellow-servant with him in the house of Wolsey ;) Thomas
Legh, William Petre, Doctors of Law ; John London, Dean of Walling-
ford, and others ; we shall hear the result next year. Meanwhile, they
were furnished with power to visit Archbishops, and all below them —
to confirm or null the election of prelates — to deprive or suspend them !
and as for monasteries, their powers were unlimited.39
If from the "V^icegerent, Crumwell, we now turn to Cranmer among
his official and troublesome companions, the Bishops, another vivid pic
ture of parties, and of the times, is presented. After the Convocation
at the close of last year, in which Cranmer had been thwarted by Gar
diner and his party ; he seems to have determined that his hands should
be strengthened before another was assembled. He watched every
opening ; and circumstances proving favourable to his purpose, sup
ported as he was both by Crumwell and Queen Anne, we shall find him
occupy a different position before the close of this year.
There were two Italians, Cardinal Campeggio, (who so figured away
with Wolsey in 1 529,) and Jerome de Ghinuccii, who occupied the Sees
of Salisbury and Worcester ; but now, as no foreigners or non-residents
were to be allowed, here were two vacancies to be filled up. Cranmer,
at Queen Anne's instance, had begun the year by patronising Latimer
and Shaxton, thus paving the way for their advancement. Latimer
had been examined once and again before the Bishops in London ; and
so lately as the 2d of October 1533, Stokesly had expressly inhibited
him from preaching within the diocese of London.^" It was, therefore,
no slight proof of the change of the times, through the Queen's in
fluence, that while Latimer was yet only resident on his living of West
Kington, in Wilts, Cranmer had licensed him to preach throughout his
entire province ; (as Wolsey had once done throughout England,) and
not only so, but appointed him his Commissioner to license other
preachers.** But, as early as January this year, he went farther ; and,
however galling it must have been to Stokesly and Gardiner, summoned
him up to London, to preach before the King and Queen, on all the
Wednesdays in Lent, or from the lOth of February to the 24th of
March.*^ The reader must recollect of Latimer preaching before
Henry, several years ago ; and, therefore, this was not a new thing to
38 The decided proof of Crumwell having been appointed to these high offices, is to be found
in the commissions received by certain Bishops from the King, to act in their several spheres,
and execute everything belonging to their office, in defect of Crumwell, as Vicegerent, not being
at leisure. 'The commissions to Cranmer and Lee, Longland and Stokesly, are dated in Octcber,
and Tunstal's 10th November 1536. Gardiner's was just before his going to France, in the same
year, and Bonner received a simiLtr one in 1539.
¦•o Wilkins' Concilia, vol. iii.. p. 760. " Lansdowne MS., No. 1045, fol. 73, b.
<»Idem, fol. 7'1.

442 CRANMER AND [bOOK I.
him ; but Cranmer's eager solicitude that he should make a favourable
impression now, was very observable. Through his secretary, he ad
vised him, " in any condition, to stand no longer in the pulpit than an
hour, or an hour and a half, at the most, for by long expense of time, the
King and Queen shall, peradventure, wax so weary at the beginning, that
they shall have small delight to continue throughout -with you to the
end." — " And for your further instruction in this behalf, I would ye
should the sooner come up to London, here to prepare all things in a
readiness, according to such expectation as is had in you."*^
At the same time, Cranmer ordered Shaxton, already the Queen's al
moner, to preach before the Court, on Sunday the 28th of February ;^
who, however, on the Monday preceding, had been appointed Bishop of
Salisbury, in place of Campeggio, the Italian.'*^ As for Latimer, Queen
Anne, it is well known, became very partial to him, as well as to his
preaching ; and, on the 4th of September, he was made Bishop of Wor
cester, instead of Ghinuccii.'*^
Charles Booth, Bishop of Hereford, having died on the 5th of May
this year, and Fisher of Rochester having been put to death, two very
different men succeeded — Edward Fox, the King's almoner, to Here
ford, on the 2d of September ; and John Hilsey, or Hildesley, on the 4th
of October, to Rochester. The former, one of the most enlightened men
of the day, had been frequently employed abroad ; and after proceeding
to the German States, where he spent the winter, he will make a con
spicuous appearance at the next Convocation ; the latter, a Dominican
friar, was once of very different sentiments, having, in the days of Wol
sey, when Prior of his Order at Bristol, objected to the preaching of
Latimer ;*7 but now, and to the day of his death, in 1538, he afforded
valuable assistance to Cranmer. Thus it will be observed, that, during
the course of this year, not fewer than four votes were gained to the
party of the Archbishop.
Were this all, passing events might seem to be in Cranmer's favour,
but this is only one side of the picture. He was far from reposing on a
bed of roses. His elevation was still anything but welcome to all the
men with whom he was associated. Crumwell at present, indeed, could,
and did, either brave, or brow- beat any one of them ; but Cranmer was a
man of different temperament.

13 Harl. MS., No. 614R, fol. 41.
44 Idem, fol. 41. b. " The third Sunday in Lent," which, in this year, was the 28th February.
The correct date of this letter is the 9th of January, though it has been copied in the manu
script 9th July. In this letter Cranmer says, that he had already *' suffered great obloquy,"
for having licensed Latimer, and that Latimer had not only so suifered, but hath " lately been
endangered." It was to put down the calumny that he had " humbly sued unto the King's
Highness" to grant him license to preach before him ; and it was with similar views he had now
got Shaxton, the Queen's almoner, to do the same.
I'' Nicolas' Synopsis of the Peerage and Bishops. -16 Idem.
¦17 Cotton MS., Cleop. E. iv., fol. 140.

1535.] THE BISHOPS. 443
It may be remembered that Gardiner of Winchester, then the King's
Secretary, and Edward Fox, just mentioned, were the persons who first
introduced Cranmer to Hem'y VIII. ; but certainly nothing could then be
farther from their thoughts, than that Cranmer should so soon rise above
them both, and become Primate. Fox was a candid and generous man,
and, probably, had no objection ; but Gardiner, as ambitious as he was
crafty and cruel, invariably owed Cranmer a grudge. Ever and anon
was he trying to undermine him, to bring him into discredit, or counter
work him iu his progress.^^
In the Convocation of November last, Cranmer had argued for a
translation of the Scriptures, and whether it rose out of this discussion
or not, it was then that alarm was afresh excited, and at that very period
that the plan was laid for seizing Tyndale, in which Gardiner, no doubt,
was interested ; but his movements at home demand notice at present.
Perhaps he was never in more critical circumstances, at least during
Henry's reign, nor in such fear of his neck. The times demanded all
his subtlety, more especially during the months preceding and follow
ing the executions of Fisher and More ; when his profound obsequious
ness to the King, and even to Crumwell, the rising sun, at whose
progress he must wink, stands in curious contrast with his behaviour
towards Cranmer.
In the course of the spring, Cranmer had resolved officially to visit
his entire province, in which, of course, Gardiner's diocese was included ;
but the latter, by way of bidding higher for Henry's supremacy than
any other man alive, pretended that Cranmer's title of " totius Angliaj
Primus," Primate of all England, was prejudicial, as detracting from the
King's supremacy, a point on which he well knew that Henry was
extremely sensitive ; and, moreover, he grumbled at the expense to
which he would be put by this proposed visitation, recollecting, no
doubt, that his Majesty at the moment was athirst for money. Stokesly,
a kindred spirit, at the same time resisted, and in his Register entered
not fewer than three protestations against the proposal '^^ but Gardiner,
coming up to the Court about the 24th of April, complained directly to
the King.'" Immediately after doing this, on the 2d of May he took
care to send a letter to Crumwell, as to his visitation for the first-fruits
and tenths to the crown, in conformity with the Act which had been
passed in Parliament. But here most artfully, so far from grudging any
expense, with consummate hypocrisy, he took care to express himself in
the following terms : —

¦18 After their first casual interview with Cranmer in August 1629, already mentioned, " his
advice was so satisfactory to Gardiner and Fox, that the former, with his characteristic cunning,
proposed to report it to Henry as their own, while the latter ingenuously acknowledged to his
Sovereign the author of it."— roAi's Life qf Cranmer, i., p. 16.
40 Stokesly's Reg. fol. 44. By these, it appears that Craumerhad styled himself—" Apostolical
sedis Legatus," and it was against this style that ho protested, as well as for other reasons.
fio Cotton MS., Cleop. F. i., fol. 260, the original letter of Cranmer, in which this is stated.

444 CRANMER AND GARDINER. QboOK I.
" We have past over all things quietly, without miscontentment shewed by
any party, and without any other suit, than as shall be thought agreeable to the
statute made in that behalf. Ye shall see in the valuation of my bishoprick a
good portion ; but whereof I shall not receive now, very little above the one-
half to mine own use. I am, in some men's judgment, too strait in charging
myself: but I will have mine own will therein : that I may be called self-willed
for some things.61 I am bold to trouble you with my long letters, in which I
talk with you as I were present familiarly. My servant shall shew you the
book, and farther do as ye shall command us. "52
Cranmer being then made aware by Crumwell of the complaints which
Gardiner had conveyed to the King, he replies in a long letter, dated the
12th of May. As for titles, he professed his sovereign contempt, saying,
" I pray God never to be merciful unto me, if I set more by any title,
name, or style that I write, than I do by ih.ei paring of an apple, farther
than it shall be to the setting forth of God's word and will :"^ and as for
the complaint of expense, he overwhelmed Gardiner, by reference to his
past doings in his own diocese ; but still, in the end, the visitation of Cran
mer had to be given up. Perhaps the visitation of Crumwell, in quest
of money for the King, rendered it inexpedient ; for however much was
said respecting the immorality of monasteries^ and, in many cases, not
without reason, still the sole object was money ; and, besides, there must
not, at this moment, be one breath of suspicion as to the King's supre
macy. When, therefore, September came, and before Crumwell com
menced his operations, Henry gave out his letters of inhibition addressed
to Cranmer, charging him and his suffragans not to visit the clergy or
religious, till the Regal visitation was completed. Cranmer, accordingly
had to address his mandate to Stokesly himself, as Bishop of London
who was to transmit copies of the inhibition to the rest of the provincial
Bishops ; a mandate, which no doubt he obeyed with great good wUl.*^
To return, however, to Gardiner, and to the 1 2th of May ; all this time
the eye of Henry had been fixed upon him, for some thing else than these
complaints of Cranmer ; and but a few days after this Gardiner found
and was made to feel, that he had sunk under the suspicions of his royal
Master. In a carious letter of the King's still extant, and formally
dated from Greenwich the 26th day of the 27th year of our reign, that
is, the 18th of May 1535, we find the following expressions, addressed to
Crumwell ; —
" Bight trusty and entirely beloved, we greet you well, advertising you, that we

51 " So," says Strype, so, it seems, he was usually styled.
52 Cleop. E. iv., fol. 307, original. 53 cleop. F. i., fol. 260.
5'> See Cranmer's mandate, dated 18th September 1635, in Stokesly's Register, fol. 47. These
facts seem to have been entirely overlooked by Mr. Todd in his Life of Cranmer, when he says
— " About the same time (with Gardiner) Stokesly, Bishop of London, in vain resisted the
visitation of the Archbishop; and entered in his Register three idle protestations against it "
Vol. i., p. 133.

1535.] GARDINER OFFENDING. 445
having heard what the Bishop of Winchester hath done, in the house of Syon ;
although he would so set the same forth unto us, as we might have occasion to
think he hath done truly, as becometh him, toward us ; yet having this forenoon
spoken with Morris the receiver there, we may well perceive him to have
" ostentyd," and boasted him to have done more, than indeed he hath, and a
coloured doubleness either to be in him, or in Morris, or in both, — Morris not an
swering directly to divers " inti'ogates," by us to him ministered. We, having
therefore showed hira that intending to try his truth to us, will not go about to
grope him, but will see if, according to his duty, he will of his own mind confess
the mere truth ; we already knowing much more than he weeneth. Wherefore
we require you, upon his repair to you, studiously to examine him, by whom
ye shall perceive doubleness in the other, in hira, or both ; the which being never
so craftily handled, I would not were hidden."55
Whatever it was that Gardiner had done, nothing could be more awk
ward for him at this moment, nay even perilous, than that it was in the
house of Syon, — a house of such evil fame, and notorious for most de
termined hostility to Henry's supremacy. Richard Raynold, an eminent
monk belonging to it, for whom even Cranmer interceded in vain, had
been hung in his habit, only a fortnight before this letter, and for months
afterward, the inmates were still refractory .''S But this was not all ;
Gardiner had mightily offended the King in revising or correcting some
manuscript in reference to his beloved supremacy. Witness his artful
and wailing apology : —
" My duty remembered to your Majesty, with all lowly humility and reve
rend honour. Forasmuch as, letted by disease of body, I cannot personally re
pair to your Highness' presence ; having heard of your Grace's almoner (Fox,)
to my great discomfort, what opinion your Highness hath conceived of me ;57
I ara compelled, by these letters, to represent me to the same, lamenting and
wailing my chance and fortune, to have lost beside my deserts, as much reputa
tion in your Grace's heart, as your Highness, without any merit, hath conferred
unto rae in the estimation of the world."
He then, by way of defence or apology, most slyly touches on Henry's author
ship, in his book against Luther, (a notable argument with him on many occa
sions,) on Sampson's defence of his Grace's cause, and the condemnatory articles
against Wicliffe by the Council of Constance, when he adds, — " yet I, not learned
in divinity, nor knowing any part of your Grace's proofs, am I trust without
cause of blame in that behalf. It were pity we lived if, so little expressing our
love to God in our deeds, we should abuse his name and authority, to your high
displeasure, of whom we have received so many benefits ! Your most humble
subject, most bounden chaplain, and daily bedeman, Ste. Winion."58
To those who were not acquainted with the character and adroitness
of Gardiner, it must have seemed impossible for him to have weathered
this storm ; but weather it he did, and that before long, for he was no
C5 Cotton MS., Vespasian F. xiii., fol. 71- b. ; but dated, by mistake, in the Catalogue, 16.36.
The letter, though not marked, must have heen addressed to Crumwell.
56 Nine or ten of them were imprisoned, and died there,— others escaped beyond seas.
57 This may have included both the grounds of offence.
50 Cotton MS., Cleop. E. vi., fol. '2110.

446 GARDINER'S ADDRESS. \JBOOK I.
common pilot. He knew better than any man how to deal with the
royal indignation, and in only three weeks after this, his wheedling letter
to Crumwell, dated from Waltham on the 10th of June, is highly cha
racteristic, not only of the man, but of his manner, when warping into
favour. —
" Master Secretary, after my most hearty commendations. Albeit in my last
letters to you, sent with my letters of answer to the King's Highness, I desired
of you to have knowledge thence, how my Lord of London proceeded there, in
the execution of the King's Highness' commandment, which was, as I think, of
one tenor to us both ; yet now doubting lest your great business, might defer
the answer thereof, longer than 1 would it should, I have, of mine own head,
made out commandments, throughout all my diocese, of such tenor, as my ser
vant, this bearer, shall shew you ; in which I think I have satisfied the effect
of the King's Highness' letters to me, for so much : whereunto if ye think any
thing to be added, in that matter, it may soon be supplied.
" As touching children, I have delivered these verses, herein inclosed, to be
learned, to the scholars of Winchester ; to other petty teachers I gave com
mandment in general. This is done onward, and more shall be, if ye think
necessary ; whereof I pray you take the pain to advertise me. And although
as I have devised the words to be spoken, T preach the matter upon Sunday
next, in every man's mouth, yet will I preach, also omitting all other respect of
myself, rather than I should be otherwise taken, than I am ; that is to say,
openly to sware one thing, and privily to work — say — or do otherwise ; whereof
I was NEVER guilty! ^9 Nevertheless, I have as great cause as any man to
desire rest and quiet for the health of my body ; whereunto I thoiight to have
' entended,' and to abstain from books and writing ; — having finished the transla
tion of Saint Luke and Saint John, wherein I have spent a great labour!.'
" And now resteth the levying of the subsidy, and the commissions of sewars
in two places, and the commission for Musters ; wherein, upon your advertisement,
we have stayed hitherto ; abiding now, whether ye will command us to do any
thing in it or no. I seera to be here in otio, and yet I was never more busied ;
what with the matters, and what with care, lest 1 do not well. Finally, as it
shall please the King's Highness to order expressly, I shall gladly do, of which
mind / ha/oe ever heen — as knoweth God, who send you health and prosperity.
From Waltham, (in Hampshire,) the 10th day of June. — Your assured friend,
Ste. Winton.60
This strange production, a mere fetch of the moment, every line of
which Crumwell would see through, as he read it, is not without
symptoms of anxiety and fear, for the times were critical, and Gardiner
was now within twelve days of even a Bishop's esecution.si And there
fore, 0 how gentle as to the children ! — how zealous towards the people t
— how devoted to the King, and even to his Secretary, sweet as summer !
What a simple hearted, upright man, was the Bishop of Winchester, by
his own account ! But the idea that Stephen Gardiner — suspected and

59 Gardiner had taken the oath to the King's supremacy on the 10th of February.
00 This letter is Iwlograpli— in CrumweU's correspondence, bundle W., in the Charter-House
and has been printed in the Gov. State Papers, vol. i., p. 430.
01 Fisher's,— who suffered on the 22d of this month.

1535.] (GARDINER— OBSERVANT FRIARS— POLE. 447
not without reason, of plotting in the Monastery of Syon, and well
known to be in opposition to Cranmer — who, six months ago, argued
against the Scriptures being given to the people, and was now in the
secret of a plan for apprehending, nay, murdering the immortal Tyndale,
— that he should have been all the time, " spending a great labour " in
translating Luke and John ! ! The reader may be apt to exclaim, " this
is beyond every thing !" But this was not all, for Gardiner went farther
still. Something more was required before this Bishop could be fully
reinstated in the royal favour ; and as he stuck at nothing, being ready
to attempt the translation of Scripture, or curry favour with Crumwell
one day, and justify Henry's bloody footsteps the next, at last he suc
ceeded. Two men of high name had been sent into the other world, —
deeds, the most hazardous which the monarch ever perpetrated, and
demanding as much sophistry as the Bishop could muster, by way of
apology. So, says Lord Herbert, "Stephen Gardiner, as I find in our
records, wrote a justification of the King herein." " When Fisher and
More were put to death," says Jortin, "Gardiner, who was never
wanting in the most servile compliances, wrote a vindication of the
King's proceedings ! "
As a matter of course, therefore, we shall soon find Gardiner in a sphere,
widely different from that of wriggling away under the immediate eye
of Cranmer or Crumwell, both of whom he so cordially hated. He was,
in fact, a man whom it was dangerous not to employ, and as at home he
stood in CrumweU's way, he will soon be the artful ambassador abroad
once more ; where, however, he will continue to flatter Henry, and
retain his ear ; — to thwart the progress of the Archbishop, or the King's
Secretary ; and be most conveniently ready to lend his counsel, either to
the party now leagued against Tyndale, or to that which was ruminating
the downfall of Queen Anne.
Such was the perplexed state of things at home ; but the apprehensions
of government were by no means confined to subjects within the realm.
The Observant Friars, recently put down, had, for years before, been
busy in prcftnoting agitation. We have seen how they burst out before
Henry himself, in his own chapel, two years ago. All the friars now
arrested, and punished by death or imprisonment, were of this order ;
and it is a fact, pregnant with meaning, that the agent of Charles V.
against Henry at the court of Rome, for some years past, waa actually
the General of the Observantines. Cardinal Pole, too, as already noticed,
was this year fully employed, in various ways, against the King his
cousin ; and there can now be no doubt, that, however wild the idea, he
had an eye to the throne. It had been therefore, but was now more
than ever, necessary to watch with vigilance, all the reigning powers.
If Henry will assume a new character and position in Europe, he
must find friends where he can, and also raise supplies in money, to

448 SCOTLAND— FRANCE. QbOOK I.
enable him to cope with his foes ; but the state of things abroad, in con
nexion with those at home, demanded the full display of whatever talents
either Crumwell or Henry possessed. The policy of the Emperor at this
period, was to stimulate the enmity of Scotland, disturb Ireland, and
preserve alliance with Prance. That of Henry, was to watch the two
former, retain his amity with Francis, and, if practicable, form an alliance
with the German States.
As for Scotland, a treaty of peace had been ratified by James V., on
the SOth of June last year, at Holyrood House, in presence of about
two thousand persons, with great joy.^^ Since then, Henry had two
envoys. Barlow and Holcroft, at that court ; but in February this year,
by way of cementing union, he sent the order of the Garter to James
his nephew, and by the hands of Lord William Howard, brother to the
Duke of Norfolk, the Prime Minister.^^ Loj-d William, though not in
every point successful, executed his commission well ; and next month
Bishop Stewart informs Crumwell that no help or supply shall be given
to the disaffected in Ireland.^ In August, the Scotch King sent Lord
Erskine as his proxy, to be installed at Windsor ;^ and although an
attempt, on Henry's part, to excite the King, his nephew, to throw off
the authority of Rome, failed of any effect -p^ yet, to the close of the
year, there was nothing but great professions ; which, however, in the
end, turned out to be those only of hollow friendship.
With regard to France, the game was more difficult. It so happened
that both Francis and Henry were bent on alliance with the German
States, but with widely different views. A circumstance the more ex
traordinary on the part of the former, in that he had just been persecut
ing the Lutherans in his own kingdom, nay, degrading himself to such
a level, as to have walked in procession through his own capital, before
the burning of heretics ! Meditating, however, fresh war with the
Emperor, in order to recover his former possessions in Italy, he had
earnestly solicited the aid of those German Princes who were associated
by the League of Smalkald. In his eagerness, he at first actually softened
down his professed religious views, and so far as to appear blit little re
moved from the terms then employed by these parties, to express their
sentiments. He even had invited Melancthon to Paris, in order to per
fect, for peace sake, their reconciliation. Margaret, the Queen of Navarre,
the King's sister, is said to have urged this course, in the hope that her
brother might be induced to break with Rome.
Henry and Crumwell viewed this policy with alarm, as they wished,
by means of these German Princes, to give the Emperor a powerful
diversion, if he should go about to invade England, and follow up the

02 Gov. State Papers, vol. iv., p. 673. es Idem, vol. v., p, 18. oi Idem, p. 24.
05 Idem, p. 29. oo Cotton MS., Cleop. E. vi., fol. aw.

153,5.] THE GERMAN STATES. 449
censures of the Pontiff. Sir John Wallop was then resident ambassador
at the court of France ; but two men, Hains, the future Dean of Exeter,
and Christopher Mount, a German, must be despatched, merely as friends
visiting the ambassador, to counterwork these movements and prevent
the approach of Melancthon to Paris. The Premier of France, however,
at last advised his sovereign to confine the treaty to temporal affairs,
when the Germans, being disgusted with the French cruelties, broke off
all further negociation. Soon after this it became evident that a still
more able or artful man than the English ambassador was required to be
at Paris ; and so now, at last, came the Bishop of Winchester's opportu
nity. Stephen Gardiner was not only the best French scholar among
Henry's counsellors, but there was no other so fully acquainted with the
Continent ; so that, before the end of the year, he found employment at
the French court, far more congenial with his taste and talents, than that
in which he had represented himself as so harassed and perplexed, in his
letter to Crumwell. Gardiner's departure was on the 1st of October.
It might have been supposed that Henry the Eighth could
never have brought his haughty spirit down so low, as to bow
to Lutheranism, after having so written against Luther, nay
even to him ; for once on a time, not long ago, he would have
disdained the very idea. But the " Defender of the Faith,''
and now, especially, as " Head of the Church of England,"
felt constrained to look after his own personal safety. Dur
ing the last six months of this year, therefore, earnest court
was paid to the Lutheran States of Germany ; though, on
the part of the King of England, it must be evident that
there could not be one religious motive, or any sincere regard to
Christianity in all this. It was simply because an alliance
with these States might prove the most effectual and vexatious
check to Charles V. ; and it so happened, that there was no
man in England so likely to open the way into their con
fidence, as Robert Barnes !
Barnes was a violent Lutheran, the personal friend and acquaintance
of Luther, as well as Melancthon and others. He had resided for years
in Germany, and knew all the leading parties well. And so now, to
serve a purpose, he must be the envoy of Henry VIII. to these very
men ; for though he had to do with the Elector and other civil rulers,
great court must be paid to the former, and that, in the first instance,
by the instrumentality of Barnes. How remarkable were the changes
of these times ! Nine years ago, Wolsey, in great pomp, presided, and
Fisher, who is just beheaded, preached at Barnes' degradation in St.
VOL. I. 2 F

4.50 ROBERT BARNES []b00K I.
Paul's. Nay, only three years since, when he came first to London,
but under a safe conduct, Sir Thomas More would, without scruple,
have violated it, and consigned him to the tender mercies of the Bishops ;
but now, immediately after the fallen Chancellor's execution, Barnes,
as an envoy, is off to those very Lutherans, against whom both Fisher
and More had written with such vehemence.^
In August, Barnes had left Hamburgh for Wittemberg, when he re
quests Crumwell to forward a commission to Duke George, that he might
be permitted to dispute with Cochlseus.^ But so eager was Henry to
succeed in Germany, that it had been resolved to despatch after Barnes,
two abler men, viz. Dr. Edward Pox and Nicholas Heath. Having
heard of this, in September, Barnes, who was then at Gotha, writes to
Cranmer, —
" Now that he (Heath) is going to Wittenberg to entreat of those matters
there, I trust, through his help, and my Lord's wisdom, we shall make a good
end.69 This thing I do know, that the Elector would gladly that his learned
men and we might agree. I have so informed his Grace, that he is not against
us ; but he had rather, for fear of the Emperor, that his learned men should
handle the matter than he, forasmuch as it pertaineth to learning. Farther-
more, Martin (Luther) is more fiery in the cause than before ; (Justus) Jonas
does not fight ; Philip (Melancthon) appears to be with us ; Pomeranus alone
resists tooth and nail ; but I do not despair of happy success. "70
In the month of October, Barnes, being then at Wittemberg, writes on
the 6th as follows : —
" Christopher (Mount) the Dutchman, («. e. the German,) came to Jene (in
Saxe Weimar) out of France, on Friday was eight days, and there I left hira."
" I desire your high Mastership that we may have a commission to dispute
with CocHLiEUS, both to clear the fame of our Prince, and extinguish the
vii-ulence and dissension of this most foolish man. For all men here, that be
the King's friends, think it greatly for the King's honour, that the fool's mouth
should be stopped, even before his own Prince. I am not afraid to dispute
with hira alone, if none other man come. Finally, I would pray your high
goodness to send me more money, for, verily, I ara, and must be, daily a great
charge, and it should be against my Prince's honour, if I should pinch or spare;
and I have nothing of ray own to bear out the charges with. Also, I must
have money plenty, to pay for Philip's (Melancthon) costs, and all their's that
he shall bring with liim."7l

07 Seckendorf says, that Barnes, better known in Germany by the name of Antonius Amarius
came to Wittemberg in the spring of this year, and Strype supposed his departure to have been
in May or June. But the letters from Henry to Prince John Frederic, the Elector, are dated
from Windsor on the 8th of July, the second day after More's death ; and this is the very time
when Henry Phillips has told us that he had a commission from the adverse party in England
to try and catch Barnes. The extracts from Barnes himself, about to be given, afford additional
proof of the precise time. 08 Cotton MS., Vitell. B. xxi., fol. 116.
00 Alluding to Fox, who had been elected Bishop of Hereford, as already noticed, on the 2d
of September. 'O Vitell. B. xxi., fol. 113. 71 Vitell. B. xxi., fol. 110.

1535.] AS AMBASSADOR.

4.")1

Whether Barnes ever held any public disputation with Cochlseus does not
appear, nor was it material. He seems, however, to have gained access
to Duke George, of Saxony, and expostulated with him, respecting the
tirade of Cochlasus, now published, against the King of England. After
this, by letters from Luther and Melancthon, Jonas and Cruciger, he
was introduced to Prince John Frederick the Blector.?^
While Francis and Henry, as politicians, about the same time were thus
dreaming, each after his own fashion, that Lutheranism might possibly
be of service in turning the scale in theii- favour, their mutual applica
tion to Melancthon, not Luther, is worthy of notice. When the adver
saries of truth employed threats, mild and gentle though Melancthon
was, no man showed more intrepidity and independence ; but when
soothed and approached with fair words, or proposals for union, he
seemed ready to comply. He would have gone into Prance, and the
more readily, that Luther approved of his doing so ; but the Elector,
who probably saw farther than either of them, would, on no account,
give his consent ; and to Barnes may be ascribed some share in turning
the balance decidedly in favour of England, at least for the moment.
Some communication seems to have passed between Melancthon and
Henry VIII. as early as March, and by the month of August Melancthon
was quite disposed to have come into this country. Even Luther was
cherishing hopes of some good effect resulting from the journey. " Who
knows," said he to Camerarius, " what God will effect ? His wisdom is
greater than ours, and his will better." Adding, " that care be taken
of Philip, that he might not be afflicted with too much sorrow, for the
repulse which, a little before, the Elector gave him, in forbidding his
journey into France."''^
Before this period, or about the fall of last year, Melancthon had
become acquainted with a native of Edinburgh, Alexander Ales {Alesius^
of whom we shall hear next year, and much more fully when we come
to treat of Scotland, and the introduction of the Scriptures into North
Britain. Ales himself informs us, that he had been invited into Eng
land, by Crumwell and Cranmer.^* Melancthon availed himself of this
opportunity to make some farther advance to his Majesty, and intro
ducing the exiled stranger by a letter to the King, he, at the same time,
sent him a copy of his Commentary on the Romans. Henry was so
pleased with the bearer, as to give him the honorary title of his Scholar,
and he took up his abode at Lambeth. In return for the volume, his

72 Dated from Jene, to which the Professors and scholars had removed, on account of the
plague raging at Wittemberg.— See Seckendorf. Strype.
73 Melancthon, it is well known, was subject to depression of spirit.
74 See the preface to his tract, " Of tho authority of the Word of God." The precise time
when Ales arrived in England is rather uncertain. Todd, in his Life of Cranmer, would make
it after August ; but it will appear, under Scotland, to have been some time before the death
of Fisher, who was Chancellor of Cambridge only to the 22d of June.

452 CRANMER'S FRUITLESS ATTEMPT [^BOOK I.
Majesty sent the author 200 crowns, and a letter from himself, dated
1st October 1536. In September, Melancthon had sent to the King of
France, politely declining his invitation, and, on the 1st of December,
he replied to Henry ; by which time both Fox and Heath had reached
Barnes. From the beginning, as already hinted, Henry's chief, if not sole ob
ject, in seeking alliance with these parties, was to strengthen himself
against the Emperor ; but when the negociations began, the question of
his divorce, which Barnes, no doubt, had been labouring to solve, stood
in the way ; and of this the Germans could not approve. In short, as
the cruelty of Francis had prevented any alliance, so we shall find a
worse display on Henry's part, produce the same effect, in a few months.
Neither the one nor the other ever saw Melancthon.
So ended, for the present, all the movements of worldly policy, over
ruled by Him who has ever been " the Governor among the nations ;"
but before the year is dismissed, we have the far higher gratification of
glancing once more at that peculiar cause, which had existed, not only
without Royal encouragement, but gone on in spite of Royal opposition,
and on behalf of which, not one man of any power or influence in Eng
land, had, as yet, lifted up his voice.
It was now precisely five years since " the translation of
Scripture," said to be '¦^corrupted by William Tyndale, as
well in the Old Testament as in the New," had been de
nounced by the King of England and his Bishops, "as utterly
to be repelled, rejected, and put away out of the hands of the
people, and not to be sufiered to get abroad among his Majesty's
subjects." ""^ But the cause of Tyndale, was that of a higher
power, and as evidently for the people. Nothing, however,
had been done, in the meanwhile, to furnish any other transla
tion ; nay, at that time, these men had the daring impiety to
say to the people at large — " you cannot require or demand
Scripture to be divulged in the English tongue, otherwise than
upon the discretion of your supei'iors ; so as whensoever they
think in their conscience it may do you good, they may and
do well to give it unto you : and whensoever it shall seem
otherwise unto them, they do amiss in suiFering you to have
it!!" They then said also, that this King of theirs "did
openly say and protest, that he would cause the New Testa
ment to be, by learned men, faithfully and purely translated
into the English tongue ; to the intent he might have it in

7S See page 257.

1535.] IN HIS APPLICATION TO THE BISHOPS. 453
his hands ready to be given to his people, as he might see their
manners and behaviour meet, apt, and convenient to receive the
same!!" At the same time, they took care to inform the
people that the King " thinketh in his conscience," and that
by their " deliberation and advice, that in not suffering the
Scripture to be then divulged in English, he did well!!"
By the good providence of God, however, we have seen that
seven years before 1530, Tyndale had resolved that his
countrymen should actually possess the Divine Word ; and
thus come to know more of the Scripture than such men as
these ; and as both husbandmen and artizans had been brought
before Tunstal, Bishop of London, so early as 1528, Tyn
dale, confessedly, had laboured with great eff'ect. For nine
years past we have seen one edition after another coming
into the country.
But now, at the last, it seemed as if something were actually
going to be done, and by Henry's learned men. Even the
Bishop of Winchester himself has told us, that by the month
of June, he "had been spending a great labour in translating
Luke and John !" This was an incident by far too remark
able to pass now without farther notice ; and the more so, as
it admits of an explanation, fully as curious as the fact itself.
In the Convocation last December, it will be remembered that
the necessity for a translation of the Scriptures had been
urged, while all other books of suspected heretical doctrine
were to be called in within three months ; and though nothing
was done as to the latter design, the King seems to have been
addressed as to the former. This was, in fact, a second im
plication of all that Tyndale had translated or written. One
is curious, therefore, to observe the first attempt of these men,
standing as it does, in contrast with the hitherto unaided,
nay, despised exertions of the persecuted and now imprisoned
Translator and patriot.
In proceeding with the plan, Cranmer took an existing
translation, — Tyndale's, of course, for as yet there was no
other, — and having divided it into eight or ten parts, he got
them transcribed. These he transmitted to so many Bishops,
the best learned, accompanied by a request, that each part
should be returned to him, with their corrections, by a certain
day. The time appointed having arrived, every portion, in
cluding Gardiner's, no doubt, is said to have been returned to

454 CRANMER'S FRUITLESS ATTEMPT. [^BOOK I.
Lambeth, with one exception — the Acts of the Apostles, which
had been assigned to Stokesly. Cranmer then sent to Fulham,
for the corrected manuscript ; but Stokesly, far less compliant
than Gardiner, not being then in such fear of court favour, or
of his neck, only made the following reply. " / marvel what
my Lord of Canterbury meaneth, that he thus abuseth the people,
in giving them liberty to read the Scriptures ; which doth nothing
else but infect them with heresy. I have bestowed never an hour
upon my portion, and never will. And, therefore, my Lord shall
have his book back again ; for I never will be guilty of bringing
the simple people into error." When the Archbishop was in
formed of this uncourteous speech, he merely observed — " I
marvel that my Lord of London is so froward, that be will not
do as other men do." — " Why, as for that," said Lawney, one
of the Duke of Norfolk's chaplains, who stood by, — " Your
Grace must consider that the Acts of the Apostles are a
portion of the New Testament. Peradventure, my Lord of
London knows that Christ has left him no legacy, and there
fore he prudently resolves to waste no time upon that which
will bring him no profit ! Or it may be, as the Apostles were
a company of poor illiterate men, My Lord of London dis-
daineth to concern himself about their Acts !"'^^
That such an attempt as this should have entirely failed,
can excite no surprise ; and it not only did so, but Cranmer
ever afterwards, from this moment, despaired of obtaining a
translation of the Scriptures by any such means ; and of this
he will himself inform us, two years hence. These men of
name and pretension must stand aside, for never shall even a
single book of the Sacred Volume be conveyed to their country
by one of them.
In contrast, therefore, once more, to these prelates, whether
in Convocation, as in 1534, or out of it, as in 1535, in the
printing press of Antwerp we can discover no pause or hesita
tion ; no sympathy whatever with the scruples of the blind in

78 Strype's Cranmer. This Thomas Lawney, who was so facetious at Stokesly's expense, had
been one of Wolsey's selected Canons in 1525, and one of the earliest readers of Tyndale's New
Testament ; having, above niu e years before this, suffered for his attachment to the new learning.
He was, in truth, the fellow prisoner of John Fryth, in the noisome cell under Cardinal College
in 1626. With regard to the portions actually returned to Cranmer, they must have formed a
singular medley, and had they remained in existence, mu.st have forcibly illustrated the character
of Cranmer's associates. But not one fragment survives, and it is well. They have been con
signed to oblivion, with the vain efforts, in ancient time, of many who had taken in hand that
for which they were not competent, and that of which God did not approve. Luke, i., 1.

1535.] TYNDALE'S EMPLOYMENT IN PRISON. 455
England, or any fear of the enemy in Antwerp itself. During
last year and the present, not fewer than seven if not eight
editions of Tyndale's New Testament had issued from the
press ! Nor was any printer ever prosecuted, save the first
in 1526, or Christopher of Endhoven. Thus, if the Translator
himself throughout the whole of even this year continued to
war with the enemies of Divine truth on the Continent ; it was
as if " the stars in their courses" were fighting with England ;
nor was there to be any truce in this contest till the enemy was
overcome, nay overruled, and constrained to accept of the long-
proffered boon.
The editions of the New Testament to be ascribed to 1S3S were at least three.
Of the first, wliich has hitherto been ascribed to last year. Dr. Cotton has said, —
" This book was doubtless printed at Antwerp, but from the great variations ob
servable in it,' I cannot believe the date 1534 to be the true one : especially
when it is considered that Tyndale's own (corrected copy,) from which it is
princip>ally copied, did not appear till November in that year." But still by
their computation, as the year continued to the 25th of March, till that day 1534
would be their date. Owing to the circumstances now stated, however, we rank
it under 1535.
Collation. Title, within four wood-cuts, " The Newe Testament, Anno
MDXXXIIII." On the reverse of the title, " the bokes conteyned in the Newe
Testament." The cut of the Apostle Paul prefixed to the Romans, Corinthians,
Galatians, Colossians, Thessalonians and Hebrews, in Tyndale's edition of 1534,
is small ; in this it occupies the breadth of the page. Such is a brief notice of
the book described by Herbert, p. 1543, and by Dr. Cotton, now in the Bodleian
Library. That copy, however, is but very imperfect.
Of the second edition, distinguished by its being in folio, one copy is men
tioned by Dr. Cotton to be ascribed to this, if not the following year.
The third edition, in small 8vo, or 12mo, may be easily distinguished by its
orthography, which is very peculiar, having the colophon in large letters, —
"fynesshed 1535." There is one copy in Exeter College, Oxford, wanting the
first title and preface ; and in which the prologue to the Romans seems to be
transposed, but there is a beautiful one, quite perfect, in the University Library
of Cambridge. Collation. After the first title and Tyndale's preface, tables
for the Evangelists and the Acts, and " The bokes conteyned in the Newe Tes
tament," we find a second title, — " The newe Testament, dylgdently corected and
compared with the Greke by Willyam Tyndale : and fynesshed in the yere of our
Lorde God A. md and xxxv." There are small wood-cuts at the beginning of
each gospel, and larger ones in the Revelations, with heads of Chapters, sup
posed to be for the first time. A full page contains 38 lines. While we at
present, regret our inability to give an explanatory account of this book, it re
mains a great curiosity of its kind. Witness its orthography, so different from
all the other editions.
faetlier, moether, broether, maester, stoene, oones, thoese, sayede, whorsse, behoelde.
father, mother, brother, master, stone, once, those, said, worse, behold.
But is it possible that this could have been part of Tyn
dale's occupation within the walls of the castle at Vilvorde ?

456 COVERDALE'S TRANSLATION. [^BOOK I.
While warring with these Doctors of Louvain, on the one
hand, was he, on the other, at the same time engaged in
earnest pity for the ploughboy and husbandmen of Gloucester
shire V This orthography, being regarded as provincial, so
it has been supposed. If the conjecture be well founded, and
Tyndale himself had to do with this edition, it is but seldom
that, in the history of any man, such an instance of the true
sublime can be produced. The book has never been assigned
to any Antwerp printer ; but if Tyndale only furnished a
list of words, to be employed whenever they occurred in the
translation, the volume could have been printed in Holland
or any other place in Brabant.
At all events, the book comes before us in the light of a
step in advance, or additional triumph. The Translator was
" suffering trouble as an evil doer, even unto bonds ; but the
Word of God was not bound," nor to be bound.
To those who have not before been acquainted with the
history of the English Bible, and in conclusion of the year
1535, one fact remains to be stated, which must occasion
some surprise. For some time past, there had been another
translation of the Scriptures into English in progress, which
was now completed. From the degree of mystery which still
hangs over it, the undertaking must have been conducted
with great privacy ; but it is a curious and not unimportant
circumstance, scarcely before observed, if indeed at all known,
in connexion with the late Lord Chancelloi*, so barbarously
put to death by Henry, in July ; that, though not a party
concerned in the cost, while yet alive, nay, long before his
death, and at the very time he was writing against Tyndale,
with this proceeding he may, if not must, have been acquainted
all along, even from its origin ! From a single line through
out his many pages, no one could have imagined this ; but
the evidence will eome before us in due time.
Meanwhile, it was on the llth of October that the last
sheet was put to press, under the eye of Miles Coverdale.
Printed, as it had been, abroad, copies could not have been
ready for importation to England, till about the opening of
next year, at the soonest ; but if any had reached this country,
at whatever time, the book, owing to very peculiar circum-

77 See before, page .3f>.

1535.] LAST YEAR OP TYNDALE. 457
stances, to be explained, could not have been shown to Henry
the Eighth, before the month of June. This, indeed, was
the earliest moment ; for, most probably, it was not presented
to the King till much later in that year.
But the origin and history of this translation we must re
serve for the year following, or 1 537. Then, only, can we
view with advantage and eff'ect, the whole case at once, and
in comparison with that translation, on which our eye has
been fixed from the beginning. In other words, Coverdale's
will then be compared with that Bible which became the
prototype, or basis, of all that have since followed, to the
present day.
No such digression is admissible here, as the reader must
be impatient to follow the history of that memorable enterprise,
which has engrossed his attention throughout all the war,
as well as that of the man who had been raised up to carry it
on to victory.

SECTION XIII.
LAST TEAR OP TVNDALE — STATE OF ENGLAND  MONASTEEIES — THE QUEENS
 ANNE BOLETN  MOCK TRIAL— QUEEN EXECUTED  SCENE SUCCEEDINO —
THE NEW OR UNPRECEDENTED PARLIAMENT — QUEEN ANNE'S TREATMENT
REVIEWED  HER CHARACTER  THE NEW OR UNPRECEDENTED CONVOCA
TION  LATIMER PREACHING BEFORE IT  STATE OF PARTIES THERE — OLD
AND NEW LEARNING — PROCEEDINGS IN CONVOCATION — THE FIRST ARTICLES
 crumwell's FIRST INJUNCTIONS  NO BIBLE MENTIONED —
tyndale's LATTER DAYS — PHILLIPS ONCE MORE  COLD INDIFFERENCE OF
ENGLAND  THE COURT OF BRUSSELS  HOME AND ABROAD NOW DEEPLY
IMPLICATED  THE MARTYRDOM OF TYNDALE  HIS BENEVOLENT CHAR
ACTER  HIS REWARD  POYNTZ, THE FRIEND OF TYNDALE  FUTURE HIS
TORY OF THE MISERABLE BETRAYERS  STATE OF THE CONTINENT AT THE
TIME OF tyndale's DEATH  STATE OF ENGLAND AND HEE KING  THE
ONLY PROSPEROUS CAUSE, OB THE YEAR WHICH EXCELLED ALL THE
PRECEDING.
We are now within nine months only of the martyrdom of
Tyndale ; but as it is necessary that the reader should have
before him all that previously transpired in England, we
reverse the order hitherto pursued. With the leading events,
Tyndale himself may have become partially acquainted, but,
whether or not, it is due to his memory that they be first

458 DISSOLUTION OF MONASTERIES. [bOOK I.
reviewed; as they involve a direct bearing, not only on his
character, but upon the obligations of his country, for those
noble and persevering exertions, which terminated only with
his last breath at the stake, and have far too long been per
mitted to sleep in oblivion.
Parliament, after being prorogued since December 1534, was opened
at last on the 4th of February. The long recess was chiefly owing to
the plague, which had appeared in difierent parts of London in August
and September, of which Audley, the Lord Chancellor, was not a little
afraid.' But the Monarch must now be gratified in his thirst for more
money ; and to prepare the country for the bold step, already determined,
the report of the visitors of Monasteries was laid before Parliament. The
idleness and depravity of their inmates were depicted, their waste and
misapplication of funds, their frauds and follies ; and, unquestionably,
there were great abuses ; but it was not on account of these that the
monastic institutions were broken up. The abuses furnished an excel
lent handle or pretext ; but the position of the King led him to appre
hend war with the Emperor, if not invasion, and he must have supplies.
The " Court of Augmentation of the King's Revenue" was established,
to receive the surrenders of monasteries, and transfers of property to the
crown, and all monasteries whose annual income did not exceed £'2.00,
were suppressed. Their number amounted to 376, which brought
^100,000 into the royal coffers, and .£32,000 of annual revenue ; or a
sum equal to a million and a half in our day, and above .£400,000
a-year. At the same time, the larger monasteries and abbeys were art
fully commended, and many of those monks or nuns who were turned
adrift, had it in their option to repair to them. This was done in order
to soothe or beguile the mitred Abbots, though the formidable extent of
the " court" established, might have shown that matters were not to
stop here. Perhaps it was this that suggested the often quoted remark,
ascribed to Stokesly, Bishop of London, that " these lesser houses were
as thorns, soon plucked up, but the great Abbots were like putrified old
oaks ; yet they must needs follow, and so would others do in Christen
dom, before many years were past."
Several other acts of inferior moment having been despatched, this
Parliament was dissolved on the 14th of April, after it had sat for a
period of six years, by repeated and unequal prorogations. It had
abundantly answered Henry's varied purposes, but now its pliancy must
have been somewhat doubtful ; otherwise, why was it dissolved 1 This,
however, is a question which the reader will resolve for himSelf, after he
has observed the dark features of this most tragical period ; since all

Oovprnment State Papers, i., p. 438-449.

1536.] QUEEN CATHERINE'S DEATH. 459
public affairs were still interwoven with those which were personal to the
Monarch himself. It is to him, therefore, that we must turn, to account
for one Parliament being dissolved, and for a new one summoned to
attend, in such breathless haste. During the entire session of the Par
liament just dissolved, one of the darkest plots which marked the reign
of this licentious Monarch, had been proceeding in secresy so profound,
as to be unknown to any of its future victims. Its explosion will for ever
distinguish Henry as a man, or, more properly speaking, a monster,
happily of but rare occurrence. It is true, that official documents have
been very carefully destroyed ; but if calm and deliberate attention be
paid to the few manuscripts which have survived, of the entire conduct
of the Monarch, there can be but one opinion, though words may fail to
express it. It borders on the incredible ; and, therefore, requires to be
the more coolly examined.
At two o'clock on Tuesday the 7th of January, Queen Catherine died
at Kimbolton, an event from which, perhaps. Queen Anne might augur
a little more security, and yet even this is doubtful, for before this,
she had perceived that the affections of Henry had begun to waver.^ He
had tormented all Europe, it is true, and waited six years that he might
gain her hand, and this, in other cases, would have been good security
for steadiness of attachment ; but the man she had married was not to
be judged of by ordinary rules. The Queen was near the period of her
second confinement, and on the 29th of this month, she was delivered of
a still-born son. Her first child, Elizabeth, could now lisp her father's
name, and the present moment would have melted most beings in human
form ; but as it was then that he chose to utter certain words ominous
of some dreadful purpose, we have sufficient proof of evil already brooding
in his mind. He intimated, and to herself, in this weak and sorrowful
condition, that he would have no more boys by her. As far as words
could reach, this was an attempt to crush her into the grave ; but as it
did not succeed, we are left to watch what followed.
Burnet has said that " the Duke of Norfolk at court, and Gardiner
beyond sea, (then in Prance,) thought there might easily be found a
mean to accommodate the King, both with the Emperor and even Paul
III., if the Queen were once out of the way ; for then he might freely
marry any one whom he pleased, and that marriage, with the male issue
of it, could not be disputed ; whereas, as long as the Queen lived, her
marriage, as being judged null from the beginning, could never be al
lowed by the Court of Rome." This, if it be taken in conjunction with
the sentiments of the Queen, sufficiently accounts for their brutal zeal,
and that of their party ; but with these reasons of state, another con
curred, without which their desire had never been gratified. The vile

2 Anne, however, is reported by several historians to have made no secret of her satisfaction
at the death of her predecessor.

460 QUEEN ANNE BOLEYN. • [BOOK I.
passions of the Monarch had already strayed in search of another object ;
and though the Queen used every mean to recover his affection, all was
in vain. But no wonder ; for before the sorrowful mother was fully re
covered from her languor and distress, certain steps had been taken
against her, and deliberately pursued, with dexterous secresy, as the
sequel will disclose.
On the 14th of April, Parliament had been dissolved, and presently,
there will be no doubt, with an immediate view to a new one being
summoned ; though, with what intentions, only a few select individuals
could possibly have divined. The first moment that Henry wished it,
the Duke of Norfolk, who behaved with savage cruelty throughout, was
ready to move ; and it was well for Cranmer's character, that he was
not in the secret ; though both Crumwell and Audley were, and seem to
have preserved it inviolate. As early as the 22d, however, there were a
few words from Cranmer, in a letter to Crumwell, which though curiously
ambiguous, certainly refer to what had been going on. After an earnest
application to him on behalf of a Mr. Smith, he adds : —
" I have sent this bearer only to wait upon you, until you have an answer
from the King, and to put you in continual remembrance ; for much business
causeth you to forget many things ; and yet I wonder that you remember so
many ftings as you do.
" I was ever hitherto cold, but now I am in a heat with the cause of religion,
if it be, as the fame goeth ; wherein I would wonder fain break my mind unto
you ; and if you please, I will come to such place as you shall appoint for the
same purpose. Thus, He that made you, ever keep you. From Knol, the 2'2d
of April, your own assured ever — T. Cantuakien." 3
The fame, or rather fama, perhaps Cranmer was afraid to express in
writing, but only one short week will elapse before he shall be called by
Crumwell, and that in obedience to the royal mandate ; though certainly
not to the place he had supposed, and for purposes by far too shocking
for him to have anticipated. Some rumour, it seems, had already
agitated him, but of the awful results within that day four weeks, he
could now form no conception. These results are well known to every
reader of history. By that time Queen Anne, her brother Lord Rochford
and four other individuals. Sir Henry Norris, Sir Francis Weston
William Brereton, and Mark Smeton, had all been put to death ; nay
that day four weeks was the King's marriage day to another Queen !
But we are now only tracing the dark footsteps of the royal murderer
and require carefully to observe ascertained facts, in the order in which
they transpired.
Three days after this letter from Cranmer, we find that certain parties,
secretly sanctioned by Henry, had been engaged, for some time, in col
lecting scandal ; and, by the authority of their names, twisting it into

3 MS. CrumweU's Corresp, Chapter-House, Westminster. Original holograph.

1536.] DARK PLOT AGAINST ANNE BOLEYN. 461
shape, or making it as feasible as they could, for his bloody design.'* A
special commission which had been made out, is tested on the 25th of
April in the 28th of Henry, at Westminster, that is on Tuesday the 25th
of April 1536.^ But then the scandal by this time was all collected, and
various consultations on its effect must have been held, before the formal
completion of such a commission. " The act of executing the commission
was a deliberate and conclusive measure. Whatever occurred afterwards,
could have no more than a faint influence on the succeeding events.
These measures must, therefore, have begun, when the Queen was
scarcely recovered from the birth of her still-born son!"^ "The con
tents of this document of the 25th of April," says the same author,
" would offend every modest eye, even seen through a Latin medium ; "
but it may with truth be added, that their very grossness, and the manner
in which every case is put, carries its own refutation along with it.
Even Turner, who, on all occasions, is so sensitively alive to Henry's
character, has said — " These circumstances do not resemble those of a
true case," — they "are very like the made-up i&cts, of a fabricated
accusation." " I have more doubt of her criminality, since I met with
this specifying record, than I had before." And why not then look a
little farther ? We are only on the threshold of enquiry, and this is
more than sufficient to provoke it, though, like Bzekiel's vision, the
farther we proceed, we should see greater abominations.
For who were those men, twenty in number, to whom the King thus
committed the life of his Queen 1 the men to whom he had addressed
this secret commission ? Their names were the Dukes of Norfolk and
Suffolk ; the Earls of Oxford and Westmoreland, Wiltshire and Sussex ;
Lord Sands ; Sirs William Fitzjames, William Paulet, John Fitzjames,
John Baldwin, Richard Lyster, John Porte, John Spelman, Walter Luke,

4 Lest any reader should imagine that we are already bearing too hard upon these men, with
Crumwell in the midst of them, he has only to understand, that the course now pursued with the
Queen, was neither new, nor seldom pursued by Henry with his subjects after this. There was
a book of Remembrancbs, written by Crumwell himself, and most strangely left in existence
behind him, into which if one has not looked, he never can form any correct estimate of his
conduct and character. This sad book must be opened again before he dies ; but suppose we
open it, for a moment thus early, since it alludes to what is past, as well as to future years ; and
tile Reader should not be allowed to travel on, without some intimation of its contents ; as it is
but fair that he should be apprised with whom he is travelling. The reader has already seen
two men put to death last year, viz., Fisher and More; and what says Crumwell, with his own
bold pen in his Remembrances? "Item. To advertise the Kiog of the ordering of Master
Fisher, and to show him of the Indenture, which 1 have delivered to the Solicitors." "Item,
when Master Fisher shall go to his execution, with also the other." This other was not Sir
Thomas, for he adds—" Itbm, to know his pleasure touching Master More." " Item, what shall
be done farther touching Master More." But the daring progress of this shocking subserviency
will be expressed in still viler terms after this. The reader will find many other proofs taken
from this manuscript in the original letters published by Sir Henry Ellis, the second series, vol.
ii., p. 121. The folds and creases in this manuscript, which we have particularly observed,
"show," says Sir Henry, "that they were the memoranda which Crumwell doubled up, and
carried in his pocket, when he went to the Court, the Council, or the Parliament ; and it ia
singular that he should have suffered such to remain." They speak a volume as to Crumwell's
character, of which we shall yet have too melancholy proof.
e Birch MS., Brit. Mus., No. 4293. « Sir James Mackintosh.

462 DARK PLOT AGAINST ANNE BOLEYN. QbOOK I.
Anthony Pitzherbert, Thomas Inglefield, and William Shelley, with
Audley as Lord Chancellor, and Secretary Crumwell.? Now, of what
complexion was this junto 1
Here was Howard Duke of Norfolk, who, though her maternal uncle,
hated the Queen as cordially as he did " the new learning," — Charles
Brandon, Duke of Suffolk, Henry's brother-in-law and special favourite,
so ready to gratify him in all his humours, — John de Vere, Earl of
Oxford, who supported all the measures of the court — Robert Eadcliff,
who had been restored to honour by Henry, as Lord Fitzwalter, in 1525,
and since then created Earl of Sussex — William Sands, the Lord Cham
berlain of the King's household, who had been made a Baron, and got
the Buckingham estates. Here we have eleven Knights, eight of whom
were compliant Judges, and as for another, William Paulett, the Comp
troller of the King's house, he was a man of the most convenient politics ;
who, when asked, at the end of a long life, how he preserved himself
through so many changes ? answered, " by being a willow and not an
oak."^ Audley was always obsequious to his royal Master, and as to
Crumwell, the share he took in this business must speak for itself, in
connexion with his future career. But with regard to the Earl of Wilt
shire, the Father of the Queen and Lord Rochford, his name being in
serted, was a stroke of hand quite worthy of Henry's barbarity, and
must have been done to save appearances. His name never occurs after
wards, and it is certain that he did not preside at the mock trial.^
Matters being now arranged for the Lady and her accomplices, who
were to be tried and executed ; what was done only two days afterwards,
or Thursday the 27th ? Writs were issued for a new Parliament ! This,
then, was the first measure known beyond the circle already named, and
the reader must not fail to mark the language of Lord Chancellor Audley
afterwards, at its opening on the 8th of June, as an unwitting but de
cided proof of premeditated murder ! In connexion with this very day,
the 27th of April, it has never been sufficiently, if at all, observed, that
one of the parties marked out for death, Brereton, was arrested ; and by
two o'clock he was in the Tower. " Upon Thursday before May-day,
in the morning," says George Constantyne, " I spake with him about
nine of the clock, and he told me that there was no way but one with
any matter.'" For I did ask him, and was bold upon him, because we
7 Birch MS.
8 This man, born in the 16th year of Edward IV., died in the 12th of Elizabeth, had lived
under eight sovereigns. It is curious enough that he became Karl of VFiltshire under Edward
VI., and afterwards Marquis of Winchester, dying at the age of 97, having seen one hundred
and three descendants. He, and the Earl of Pembroke, were ever of the King's religion, and
having spent what was left them, came on trust to the ^onrX.— Collin's Peerage, ii., p. 372. *
9 Burnet at flrst inserted his name, but he had not then seen a record of the trial, now lost.
He was convinced by the papers he saw that the Earl was not present, and expunged the
name ; which is therefore not to be found in certain subsequent editions of his history.
'0 The conversation here is about the very snare that had been laid, without knowing how
many it involved.

1536.] MAY-DAY SCENE. 463
were born within four miles together ; and also we went to grammar
school together. And the same day, before two of the clock, was he in
the Tower, as far as the best. What was laid against him I know not,
nor ever heard." '' Only two days more elapsed, when on Sunday even
ing, the last day of April, a second man, Mark Smeton, was apprehended,
examined at Stepney, and it was affirmed by the rack ; but, at all events,
next morning he was also in the Tower.^
But t]iM morning was May-day, and Henry had resolved to observe
its accustomed festivities. Such was the extraordinary moment in which
he first chose to exhibit himself from behind the curtain. The Court
was at Greenwich, and a splendid joust, or mock fight, was to form part
of the amusements of the day. Two victims were already in prison, but
three if not four others, by far the most eminent, were now to be present,
and without thought for the morrow, came to enjoy the passing hours
amidst splendour and pageantry. " The May-day perturbation," says
Turner, " was mere public scenery." It was, indeed, and such as Herod
or Nero never furnished. There sat the King, and there, the most con
spicuous object of attraction, the Queen, by his side, all unconscious of
impending danger ; to witness a spectacle, in which her brother, Lord
Rochford, and Sir Henry Norris, were the principal actors, one being
the chief challenger, and the other the defendant. Would any one of
these have been present, had the slightest apprehension been enter
tained ? Or, would they all have been here to entertain the Monarch
with a spectacle, had they known that their lives were hanging by a
thread, nay, their deaths determined 1 There is no occasion for repeat
ing the popular story of a handkerchief dropped by the Queen, having
been picked up, and returned to her by Norris. This was a trifle light
as air, and might, or might not have happened. Henry may have found
it difficult to fix on the best moment for rising, but something having
occurred, he made it the pretext for putting on his look of wrath, and
retiring from the balcony. The Queen, in great uneasiness, did the
same, and to enquire the cause : but he took care that she should not,
or should ever, see him again ! Leaving orders that she was not to quit
her apartments, he had mounted his horse for Westminster, with only
six attendants. One of these, however, according to Constantyne, was
his master. Sir Henry Norris. " The King rode suddenly to West
minster, and all the way, as I heard say, had Mr. Norris in examination,
and promised him his freedom in case he should utter the truth. But
whatsoever could be said or done, Mr. Norris would confess nothing to

1 1 See the curious narrative of George Constantyne, ^of whom we have frequently heard be
fore,) first printed in the ArchBeologia, vol. xxiii., p. (^4.
12 " He was at Stepney in examination on May-even ; I cannot tell how he was examined, but
upon May-day, in tlie morning, he was in the Tower. The truth is, he confessed it ; btit yet Vie say
ing was, that he was first grievously racked, which 1 could never know of a truth."— Constantyne.

464 ANNE IN THE TOWER. [BOOK I-
the King, whereupon he was committed to the Tower in the (Tuesday)
morning." '3 The same day Sir F. Weston, and Lord Rochford were
there also.
It is, however, to the Royal victim, the Queen herself, that the mind
now turns with most anxiety for information. Having passed the night
and following morning in great perplexity, she resolved in the after
noon (Tuesday) to make an attempt to see her husband. Once on
board of her barge, she desii'ed the rowers to make speed for West
minster ; but she had proceeded only a little way, when she was met by
one of her unnatural enemies, the Duke of Norfolk. He and other
members of Council came on board, and presented an order for her
committal to the Tower. Another account states that she was arrested
at Greenwich, when, starting with horror, she demanded the reason of
their coming. Norfolk answered—" It is his Majesty's pleasure that
you should depart to the Tower." Regaining her self-possession, Anne
replied — " If it be his Majesty's pleasure, I am ready to obey." But
be this as it may, in the barge Norfolk had the brutality to enter on the
subject. She protested her innocence, demanding, with vehemence, to
be permitted to see the King, and offer her personal vindication. But
Norfolk only shook his head contemptuously, all his coadjutors behav
ing as badly, except Sir Thomas Audley, who acted with becoming
delicacy, and endeavoured to soften the anguish of the forsaken and
friendless lady. On arriving, it was about five in the afternoon, at the
gate of the Tower, once used as her palace, she fell down upon her
knees, with this expressive supplication — " 0 Lord, help me, as I am
guiltless of this whereof I am accused !" She enquired of Sir William
Kingston, the Lieutenant of the Tower — " Mr. Kingston, do I go into a
dungeon V To which he, jailor-like, replied — " No, Madam, you shall
go into your lodging that you lay in at your coronation." The recollec
tion overpowered her, and she cried out — " It is too good for me : Jesus
have mercy upon me !" On various occasions, the first sight of this
man seems to have been equivalent to that of a death-warrant. Wol
sey, it will be remembered, sunk the moment he beheld him. The
Queen then enquired — " Mr. Kingston, do you know wherefore I am
here V And he said, " Nay." She then asked him when he last saw
the King, and when her brother 1 At this moment, she had no idea of
his being implicated, and therefore added — " I hear say that I should
be accused with three men, and I can say no more but nay." She re
ferred then to her mother as likely to die for sorrow — and enquired 
" Mr. Kingston, shall I die without justice ?" To which he, of course,
replied — " The poorest subject the King hath, has justice." At this the
Queen laughed, being, it is evident, in a state of great nervous agitation.

IS Constantyne.

1536.] CRANMER SENT FOR. 465
The utter lameness of the scandal already so collected, and that the
murderer longed for more, become alike apparent, in the female attend
ants now placed around the Queen ; as " they reported, with atrocious
accuracy, all the incoherent ravings of her hysterical agitation" — while
she declared to Kingston, from the beginning, and repeatedly affirmed
in other words — " I am as clear from the company of man, as for sin, as
I am clear from you : I am the King's true wedded wife."
But here we must leave, for a few moments, this scene of anguish in
the Tower, as the next figure in this unnatural tragedy pressing upon
our notice, is Cranmer. Neither Henry nor his accomplices could ad
vance in their career, without his official assistance. He had certainly
been kept in the dark, but the King had already proved his pliancy ;
and though the humiliating style with which he now treated him, was
a greater stretch of authority than any which had preceded, it will be
manifest that there had not been the shadow of a doubt as to Cranmer
being perfectly obsequious, whatever he might say. The King, there
fore, had desired Crumwell to order him up from the country to Lam
beth. But the question is, when did he do this ? For, in obedience to
Henry's command, Cranmer had arrived at Lambeth on Tuesday. He
does not appear to have been in Surrey, as Turner has supposed ; at
least, only a week before, or the 22d oJ April, he was writing to Crum
well, from Knole, in Kent, about twenty-four miles south-east of London.
This distance, at that time, was a day's journey, so that the very latest
moment, in which Crumwell could obey the King's order, must have
been on May-day. But was this after the wretched exhibition at Green
wich, or before it ? It may have been after it ; but, in this case, the
messenger must have travelled in post-haste in the night, and Cranmer
had set off for London instantly on his arrival. The royal mandate,
therefore, looks far too like another link in proof of pre-determined
murder. It may have been given before the joust ; but, at all events,
Cranmer had got to Lambeth about the time that Queen Anne had
reached the Tower, if not before ; though there, in durance, he must wait.
He will tell us himself, that, though at hand, he dared not come into
the royal presence, until he received farther orders. Next day, how
ever, impatient of restraint, and, perhaps, imagining, that he possessed,
at least, some influence, he must write a letter to the King ; and as it
has hitherto baffled description, the opinions of historians being so very
discordant, we are under the necessity of giving it entire — '''

'* The discordancy is so singular, that it is not unworthy of brief notice. Burnet says — " he
wrote with all the softness that so tender a point required, in which he justified her as far as
was consistent with prudence and charity. 'The letter shows of what a constitution he was that
wrote it, and contains many things that tend highly to her honour." " Of all her former ad
herents," says Todd, '* Cranmer now alone retained his grateful regard for the Queen. He,
therefore, resolved to inform Homy, by letter, and with equal tenderness and discretion, while
under the restriction at his palace, thus he wrote." Tamer considers it an injitdicious letter —
VOL. I. 2 G

466 CRANMER'S LETTER I^BOOK I.
" Pleaseth it your most noble Grace to be advertised, that your Grace's com
mandment by Mr. Secretary's letters, written in your Grace's name, I came to
Lambeth yesterday, and do there remain to know your Grace's farther pleasure.
And forasmuch as without your Grace's commandment, I dare not, contrary to
the contents of the said letters, presume to come into your Grace's presence ;
nevertheless of my most bounden duty, I can do no less than most humbly to
desire your Grace by your great wisdom, and by the assistance of God's help,
somewhat to suppress the deep sorrows of your Grace's heart, and to take all
the adversities of God's hand, both patiently and thankfully.
" I cannot deny but your Grace hath great cause.s, many ways, of lamentable
heaviness ; and also that in the wrongful estimation of the world, your Grace's
honour of every part is so highly touched, whether the things that be spoken of
be true or not, that I remember not that ever Almighty God sent unto your
Grace any like occasion to try your Grace's constancy throughout, whether you
can be content to take of God's hand as well things displeasant, as pleasant. And
if he find in your most noble heart such an obedience to his will, that your
Grace, without murmuration and over much heaviness, do accept all adversities,
not less thanking him than when all things succeeded after your Grace's will
and pleasure, nor less proem-ing, His glory and honour ; then, I suppose, did
never thing more acceptable unto him, since your first government of this realm.
And, moreover, your Grace shall give unto Him occasion to multiply and in
crease his graces and benefits unto your Highness, as he did unto his servant
Job ; unto whom, after his great calamities and heaviness, for his obedient
heart, and willing acceptation of God's scourge and rod, addidit ei Dominus
cuncta duplicia.
" And if it be true that is openly reported of the Queen's Grace, if men had
a right estimation of things, they should not esteem any part of your Grace's
honour to be touched thereby, but her honour only to be clearly disparaged.
And I ara in such a perplexity that my mind is clean amazed : for I never had
better opinion in woman than I had in her, which maketh me think that she
should not be culpable. And again I think that your Highness would not have
gone so far, except she had been surely culpable. Now I think that your Grace
best knoweth, that, next unto your Grace, I was most bound unto her of all
creatures living. Wherefore I most humbly beseech your Grace to suff'er me
in that which both God's law, nature, and also her kindness bindeth me unto ;
that is, that I may, with your Grace's favour, wish and pray for her, that she
may declare herself inculpable and innocent. Aud if she be found culpable, con
sidering your Grace's goodness towards her, and from what condition your Grace,
of your only mere goodness took her, and set the crown upon her head ; I re
pute him not your Grace's faithful servant and subject, nor true unto the realm
that would not desire the offence without mercy to be punished to the example
of others. And as I loved her not a little for the love which I judged her to
bear towards God and his gospel ; so if she be proved culpable, there is not one
that loveth God and His Gospel that ever will favour her, but must hate her
above all other ; and the more they favour the Gospel, the more they will hate
her ; for then there was never creature in our time that so much slandered the

ill-timed, and probably did much mischief! " That this was a piudent letter, none will deny,"
says TyOer, "but that it merits the high encomium bestowed on it, by Burnet, maybe ques
tioned." Mackintosh, who, however, mis-dates the letter on the 6th, instead of the 3d of May,
says,—" Cranmer, who had been forbidden to approach the Court, wrote a skilful and per
suasive letter, (if any skill could curb furious appetites-if any persuasion could allay raging
passions,) imploring the King's mercy towards her, ' his life so late and sole deUght.' "

1536.] TO THE KING. 467
gospel. And God hath sent her this punishment, for that she feignedly hath
professed his Gospel in her mouth, and not in heart and deed. And though
she have off'ended, so that she hath deserved never to be reconciled unto your
Grace's favour, yet Almighty God hath manifestly declared his goodness towards
your Grace, and never offended you. But your Grace, I am sure, acknowledgeth
that you have offended him.
" Wherefore I trust that your Grace will bear no less entire favour unto the
truth of the Gospel, than you did before ; forsomuch as your Grace's favour to
the Gospel was not led by affection unto her, but by zeal unto the truth. And
thus I beseech Almighty God, whose Gospel He hath ordained your Grace to be
defender of, ever to preserve your Grace from all evil, and give you at the end
the promise of his Gospel. From Lambeth the 3d day of May."
Certain members of the secret commission, however, must hurry off
Cranmer across the Thames to the Star Chamber, just when he had
written thus far. It was in order that he might receive the full bias,
which might render him an easier agent in whatsoever the King would
have to be done with "the Lady in the Tower;" and the simple man
then subjoined the following postscript —
" After I had written this letter unto your Grace, my Lord Chancellor, my
Lord of Oxford, my Lord of Sussex, and (Sands) my Lord Chamberlain of your
Grace's house, sent for me to come unto the Star Chamber ; and there declared
unto me such things as your Grace's pleasure was they should make me privy to ;
for the which I am most bounden unto your Grace. And what commmiication we
had together, I doubt not but they will make the true report thereof unto your
Grace. I am exceedingly sorry, that such faults can be proved by the Queen,
as I heard of their relation, (and upon no other evidence !) But I am, and ever
shall be, your faithful subject !"
Thus, after commencing his letter with a circuitous not to say flattering
approach to the King, Cranmer certainly at first discovers very eager desire
for Queen Anne's deliverance, not without bearing evidence to a life
which was presumed to give the lie to all imputation, — but then the
alternative is introduced, with such long drawn verbosity, and such
violence of style, that it could scarcely fail to gratify a heart already
bent on vengeance. " The strong reasons which he inserted," says
Turner, " for the unpitying punishment that she ought, if proved guilty,
to receive, must, as coming from the King's great spiritual adviser, have
tended to justify in his mind, the fatal severity which he exerted against
her. No enemy could have put a point so dangerous at that moment,
with an emphasis more likely to be injurious."
No individual, it is true, nor any thing he might say, could have saved
the Queen from death ; but above all, and before Cranmer could possibly
judge of the affair, why seize that opportunity to commence and conclude a
letter by so complimenting the King ? why take occasion in this, or even
any other letter, to speak so of him, and to him t It was one misery of this
Monarch to be surrounded by those who either pandered to his vices, or
grossly flattered him, for qualities he never possessed. But at such a

468 QUEEN ANNE'S LETTER [[BOOK I.
moment as this, how could Cranmer talk of his " Grace's favour to the
Gospel, and zeal unto the truth ? " One can scarcely conceive of any
man being farther removed from both ; so that the association was as
preposterous at the moment, as it is now in the extreme nauseous. The
reader has already often seen how independently that Sacred cause stood
of all such parties. It had commenced evidently in spite of them all; and
as for its farther advancement, until the Bible be completed, though Cran
mer and Crumwell, and even Henry may appear, it -will be only as instru
ments overruled by God. The translation and printing of the Sacred
Volume was not only accomplished by other hands, but independently of
every one of these men ; while it was merely sirvce the defamed Queen
came to the throne, that the King and his advisers had ceased to per
secute those who received or read any part of it. After aU, Cranmer's
language betrays just as much anxiety as he durst express, lest the King
should rwt continue to act, as he had done, in the days of Anne Boleyn.
Three days after this, or on the 6th of May, came the Queen's own
memorable letter to Henry, " from her doleful prison in the Tower." '^
" SiK, — Your Grace's displeasure and my imprisonment are things so strange
unto me, as what to write, or what to excuse, I am altogether ignorant.
Whereas you send unto me, (willing me to confess a truth, aud so to obtain
your favour) by such, and whom you know to be, mine ancient professed enemy,
I no sooner received this message by Am,l6 than I rightly conceived your
meaning ; and if, as you say, confessing a truth indeed may procure my safety,
I shall with all willingness and duty perform your command.
"But let not your Grace ever imagine that your poor wife will ever be brought
to acknowledge a fault, where not so much as a thought ever proceeded. And,
to speak a truth, never a prince had wife more loyal in all duty, and in all true
affection, than you have ever found in Anne Boleyn, with which name and '
place I could willingly have contented myself, if God and your Grace's pleasure
had so been pleased. Neither did I, at any time, so far forget myself in my
exaltation or received Queenship, but that I always looked for such an altera
tion as now I find ; for the ground of my preferment being on no surer founda
tion than your Grace's fancy, the least alteration I knew, was fit and sufficient
to draw that fancy to some other subject. You have chosen me, from a low
estate, to be your Queen and companion, far beyond my desert or desire. If
15 " Itis universally known," says Sir H. Ellis, "as one of the finest compositions in the Eng
lish language, and is only mentioned here, to obviate a notion which has gone abroad against it
as a forgery. The original, it is believed, is not remaining ; bnt the copy of it (as given above,)
preserved among Lord Crumwell's papers, together with Sir W. Kingston's letters, is certainly
in a hand-writing of the time of Henry VIII. ; and Sir 'W. Kingston's will show that Anne was
too closely guarded to allow of any one concerting such a letter with her. That it rises in style
above Anne Boleyn's other compositions cannot be disputed ; but her situation was one which
was sure to rouse a cultivated mind ; and there is a character of nature in the letter, a simplicity
of expression, and a unity of feeling, which it may be doubted whether genius itself could have
feigned!"— .BiJis' Orig. Letters, first series, ii. );. 63. "It is not wonderful," says Sir James
Mackintosh, when speaking of this touching and beautiful letter, " that the excitement of such
a moment, if it left her calmness enough to write, should raise her language to an energy un
known to her other writings." Turner sees no questionable disparity between this and her
other compositions.
IS If this did not refer to the Duke of Norfolk, it was most probably to Sir W. Fitzwilliam, to
whom Anne alluded significantly after this. See the next note.

1536.] TO THE KING. 469
then you found me worthy of such honour, good your Grace, let not any light
fancy, or bad counsel of mine enemies, withdraw your princely favour from me ;
neither let that stain, that unworthy stain of a disloyal heart towards your good
Grace, ever cast so foul a blot on your most dutiful wife, and the infant Princess
your daughter. Try me, good King, but let me have a la/mful trial, and let not
my sworn enemies sit as my accusers and judges ; yea, let me receive an open
trial, for my truth shall fear no open shame. Then shall yon see, either mine
innocency cleared, your suspicion and conscience satisfied, the ignominy and
slander of the world stopped, or my guilt openly declared. So that whatsoever
God or you may determine of, your Grace may be freed from an open censure, ;
and muie off'ence being so wofully proved, your Grace is at liberty, both before
God and man, not only to execute worthy punishment on me as an unfaithful wife,
but to follow your affection, already settled, on that party, for whose sake I am
now as I ara, whose name I could some good while since have pointed unto,
your Grace being not ignorant of my suspicion therein.
" But if you have already determined of me, and that not only my death, but
an infamous slander must bring you the enjoying of your desired happiness,
then I desire of God that he will pardon your great sin herein, and Ukewise my
enemies, the instruments thereof ; and that he will not call you to a strait ac
count for your unprincely and cruel usage of me, at his general judgment-seat,
where both you and myself must shortly appear ; and in whose just judgment
I doubt not, whatsoever the world may think of me, mine innocency shall be
openly known, and sufficiently cleared. My last and only request shall be,
that myself may only bear the burden of your Grace's displeasure ; and that it
may not touch the innocent souls of these poor gentlemen, whom, as I under
stand, are likewise in strait imprisonment for my sake. If I ever have found
favour in your sight — if ever the name of Anne Boleyn have been pleasing in
your ears,— then let me obtain tliis request ; and so I will leave to trouble your
Grace further. With miue earnest prayer to the Trinity, to have your Grace,
in his good keeping, and to direct you in all your actions, from my doleful
prison in the Tower, the 6th of May. — Your most loyal and faithful wife
' Ann Bulen."
This document alone would have ever proved fatal to the reputation
of the King ; but in connexion with the other proceedings, both before
and after, it covers him with infamy. The writer, having little or no
hope of escape, had made up her mind to the consequences of her situa
tion, whatever these might be ; and a mind so fully conscious of its own
wrongs, has but seldom, if ever, expressed itself so nobly, and so well.
Her resignation even imto death, under circumstances so cruel, joined to
such firm assertion of her integrity, would have made most men pause, if
not tremble. Her faithfulness to the King, united with such solemnity
of style, and the amount of truth which we now know the letter to have
contained, were sufficient to have scared any man, except a determined
and unprincipled profligate. And though the relentless husband paid
no regard, it was well, not only that the Queen thus wrote, but so early,
before the atrocious course to be pursued, was more fully developed.
Two parties were now to be gratified, at any cost — the King, in getting
rid of his wife, and the patrons of the old learning, in having not only
the Queen, but certain other obnoxious men, removed out of the way.

470 THE PLOT PROCEEDS. [[bOOK 1.
This will sufficiently account for the shameful rapidity of all the subse
quent proceedings.
Four days after this letter, or Wednesday the lOth of May, the grand
jury of Westminster, consisting of sixteen men, squires and gentlemen,
were assembled before the judges appointed ; but who were these ? No
other than seven already named, as in the secret inquisitorial commis
sion ! The verdict of the jury was, of course, favourable to the King's
wishes, as they found a true bill against the Queen, and all the other
parties marked out.
Only two days after, all the formalities of a trial were gone through
at Westminster, upon Norris and Weston, Brereton and Smeton. This
last alone confessed anything ; but this, even at the moment, an enemy
being judge, amounted to nothing.'? It was a confession said to be ob
tained by means of the rach, and by a promise of life, which, after all,
was not kept.i8 As for the other three gentlemen, they all felt indig
nant at the charge, and not only solemnly denied their own criminality,
but pronounced the Queen guiltless. Sir Henry Norris, in particular,
to whom Henry had promised his life, if he would confess anything,
spurned at the proposal, protesting in his conscience that he thought Anne
blameless, and that he would die a thousand deaths rather than accuse
an innocent person.'^ They were all, of course, condemned ; the three
gentlemen to be beheaded, and Smeton to be hanged.
Meanwhile, and previously to her trial, it was resolved that the Queen
should be carried down again to Greenwich, and examined before the
Privy Council ; where, says Mackintosh, " all the artifices of veteran
pettyfogging were exhibited," Norfolk making himself most conspicuous ;
though all was in vain as to any evidence of evil. " I was cruelly handled '
when at Greenwich, with the King's Council," said Anne afterwards —
" Me to be a Queen, and cruelly handled as was never seen ; but I
think the King does it to prove me.''
17 Sir William Fitzwilliam, Treasurer of the Household, had made himself very busy in op
position, and Sir Edward Baynton anxiously informs him, " no man will confess anything
against her, but only Mark (Smeton.) Wherefore, in my foolish conceit, it should much touch Ote
King's horimir, if it should no farther- appear,"— and it never did ! The words said to have been
uttered by a woman, then dead.. Lady Wingfield, were talked of, if not received as evidence ; but
they never dared to confront this living man, Smeton, with the Queen. They took care, how
ever, that before the time, he should be legally incapable.
18 Carte says, " he was worked upon by a promise of life to confess ; but fearing he could not
stand it out if confronted with her, no use was made of his evidence at her trial, and he was
convicted and hanged, to procure some credit to his defamation." It was not thought "fit to
let him live and tell tales," says Burnet. Of this man it is curious enough, that the Queen
should happen to say, when in the Tower— that he never was in her apartment but once, at
Winchester, to perform on the Virginal, and that she had not seen him since, till the Saturday
before May-day. He then looked sad, which the Queen observed, and though he evaded en
quiry, was there not a cause? Brereton was then already committed, and Smeton was seized,
if not " grievously racked," next day, or Sunday before the May-day scene. Must he not, then,
on Saturday, already have had some fears, of what Queen Anne had then no foreboding ?
'0 Godwin says, on this being reported to Henry, he brutally exclaimed twice—" Hang him
up, then !" Queen Elizabeth, in approbation of his conduct, made his son a baron ; and his four,
if not six grandchildren, the sons of Lord Norris, ancestors of the present Earl of Abingdon,
were eminent as military men under that reign.

1536.] MOCK TRIAL. ITl
And now on the I5th, the Queen and her brother were to be tried, pro
fessedly by their Peers. And were they impartially all summoned ? Tho
Peers were fifty-three in number, but here we find no more than the half,
most carefully selected, or twenty-six, with Norfolk at their head, who,
despising all sense of shame, sat as Lord High Steward.^" Now these were
notoriously, men whom, on various occasions, Henry had employed to an
swer his own ends, before this most melancholy occasion, and at different
times honoured with various titles, to mould them to his will. We might
adduce proofs were they at all necessary. Suffice it to say, that twenty
of these men had subscribed his letter to the Pope, in 1530, and at least
seven of them had been at work in the secret commission. It was be
fore this compliant body that Lord Rochford was summoned, and soon
despatched. On the same day, the Queen appeared before these " Lords triers," as
they were styled, who, in some degree, performed the functions of jurors,
unanimity not being essential to a decision. But where was this Court
held % In a temporary wooden hall, erected for the purpose, within the
Tower ! And who were permitted to be present as spectators 1 Sir
Ralph Warren, as Lord-Mayor, with divers aldermen and citizens !
Upon Anne entering the place, with mock solemnity, she was still
treated as Queen, and a seat was assigned to her, which she took with a
mixture of dignity and composure, curtseying gracefully to the Court.
On the indictment being read, she held up her hand, and pleaded " not
guilty," as her brother had already done. She had no counsel, nor was
there a single man to show any interest in her favour. In her defence,
she did not speak much ; but this was with such effect, that " it was
everywhere muttered abroad, that the Queen had cleared herself in a
most noble speech." So said Wyatt ; and all contemporary writers con
firm this statement. Even the device of having merely select spectators,
failed of its desired effect, for even " they saw no evidence against her ;
only it appeared to them that these Lords were resolved to get rid of
her." " The description of this scene, by the narrative versifier," says
Mackintosh, " bears marks of accurate intelligence, and minute obser
vation. The Queen," says he, " defended her honour calmly against
the imputation of unutterable turpitudes. She proved that she was

20 Of these, seven were Norfolk, Suffolk, Oxford, Westmoreland, Sussex, Sands, and Audley.
The others were, Courtney, Marquis of Exeter, who had been nominated heir-apparent.in 1532,
and who, if it might now be, had no objections, of course, to be heir again. The Earls of Sur
rey, Arundel, Northumberland, Derby, Worcester, Rutland, and Huntingdon; Lords De la
War, Montague, Morley, Dacres, Cobham, Maltravers, Powis, Mounteagle, Clinton, Windsor,
Wentworth, Burgh, and Mordaunt. Here, then, we find Surrey, the son, and Arundel, the
son-in-law of Norfolk, and Maltravers, the son of Arundel. Mounteagle, the son-in-law of
.•Suffolk, and Worcester, his favourite. Rutland and Sussex, Windsor and Wentworth, Burgh
and Mordaunt, men on whom Henry had heaped honour, and Clinton, a ward of his own,
brought up at Court. The entire body consisted of men who were enemies to the new leai-ning,
and therefore at enmity with the principles andprocedure of Queen Anne. Norllmmberland was
here, but he left the Court before the verdict ; and as for Morley, he will be noticed presently.

472 THE QUEEN'S ADDRESS. [bOOK I.
conscious of a righteous cause, more by a serene countenance, than by
the power of language. She spoke little ; but no man who looked on
her, could see any symptoms of criminality." She listened with an un
changed face to the sentence of death, pronounced by her unnatural
uncle, Norfolk — ^but then she spoke, and in language sufficient to have
made every one of her Judges tremble. Raising her hands, and turn
ing her eyes towards heaven, she first exclaimed — " 0 Father ! 0
Creator ! Thou, who art the way, the truth, and the life ! Thou
knowest that I have not deserved this death." Then, turning to these
.Judges, she said —
" My Lords, I will not say that your sentence is unjust, nor presume that
my opinion ought to be preferred to the judgment of you all. I believe you
have reasons and occasions of suspicion and jealousy, upon which you have
condemned me ; but they must be other than have been produced here in Court:
for I am entirely innocent of all these accusations ; so that I cannot ask par
don of God for them. / have always been a faithful and loyal wife lo the I^ing.
I have not, perhaps, at all times, shewn him that humility and reverence which
his goodness to me, and the high honour bestowed by him upon me, did deserve.
I confess that I have had fancies and suspicions of him, which I had not strength
nor discretion enough to manage ; but God knows, and is my witness, that I
never failed otherwise towards him : and I shall never confess any other at
the hour of ray death. Do not think that I say this on design to prolo'ng my
life : God has taught me to know how to die, and He will fortify my faith. Do
not think that I am so carried in my mind, as not to lay the honour of my
chastity to heart. Of this I should make small account now, in my extremity,
if I had not maintained it, my whole life long, as much as ever Queen did. I
know that these my last words will signify nothing, but to justify my honour
and my chastity. As for my brother, and those others who are unjustly con
demned, I would willingly suffer many deaths to deliver them ; but since I see
it so pleases the King, I must bear with their death ; and shall depart with
them out of the world, under an assurance of leading with them an endless life
in peace." With these words, the Queen then retired from the presence of men
who had degraded themselves before posterity as the most cruel of time-
servers ; and now, to crown all, it only remains to be noticed, that a
very bad woman, to whom, unhappily. Lord Rochford had been married,
proved to have been one leading agent in the foul conspiracy ; even
though it involved six lives, and one of these her own husband ! This
profligate, whose name should never be forgotten, was Jane Parker, the
daughter of Sir Henry Parker, Lord Morley.^i The father, who had
been restored as a Baron in 1530, was allied, by marriage, to the King
himself.^ The daughter was a being capable of mischief to any extent
whatever, and she fell, unpitied, on the scaffold, in 1542, in company

21 Not Lord Morley and MonleagUa.%H is sometimes printed.
22 Alice, Lady Morley, daughter of Sir John St. John of Bletshoe, was a grand daughter of
Margaret Beauchamp, whose daughter, the Countess of Richmond, was grandmother of Henry

1536.] FURTHER PROCEEDINGS. 473
with Catharine Howard, the fourth wife of this strange monarch.^
The father, it will be observed, had actually sat at the mock trial of
his son-in-law and Queen Anne ! It was but just, that after this, not
withstanding, he entirely lost the favour of the King, whom he had so
basely striven to accommodate.^'*
It was now Tuesday the 16th, or fourteen days since the Queen had been
kept miserable in various ways, but more especially so, by the daring false
hoods which Norfolk at least, if not others, had told her — affirming that
the parties apprehended had actually accused her ! At the same time,
it deserves notice, that, up to this hour, the Queen was left to indulge at
least the hope of life. Such was the ingenuity with which the moral
torture had been pursued. The Governor had received no orders for her
execution, the idea of her banishment was cherished ; so that " this day
at dinner," says Kingston to Crumwell, "the Queen said that she should
go to Antwerp, and is in hope of life." Before the day closed, however,
Cranmer was sent to her. We have no record of what passed ; but it
must have been for no other purpose than to prepare her for a second
indignity, and before him !
" On the morning of the I7th of May," says Mackintosh, " she was
brought to Lambeth, where she was to go through the forms of trial
once more, that Cranmer (who must then have been either the most un
happy or the most abject of men,) might act the mockery of pronouncing
the nudity of her marriage with the King ! The object in view by the
King was, that he might, if he pleased, be rid of the daughter,
(Elizabeth) as well as the mother ; and if she could be brought down
to the level of an illegitimate child, Henry can tell his subjects, as soon
as Parliament opens, what was then his sovereign will and pleasure !
That a fuU understanding had once existed between Anne Boleyn and
Lord Percy, now the Earl of Northumberland, previously to her marriage
with the King, there could be no question, as it had required the in
fluence or power both of Percy's father, and Wolsey, to put an end to
it ; but the wish now was, to prove that this had amounted to a precon
tract of marriage. They had applied to Northumberland, before the
trial, but he resolutely denied that there was any contract, and, legally
speaking, there was none. And now after it, they had the baseness to
try and extort a confession from Anne. For her confession, whatever
was the amount, it is not difficult to account. She could not be supposed
to understand the legal nicety between "verba de future" and '¦'¦verba de
proesenti" but as far as words could go, had understood Percy to be

23 This Jane Parker, Lady Rochford, was a rigid disciple of Rome, and held the principles
^^tsQueen Anne in superstitious abhorrence. This is one key left, as to the part she acted ; but,
iesiia.'^s, she has been represented as a very profligate character.
\24 He bad, about this time, claimed to be hereditai-y Marshal of Ireland, to which he had
ai indisputable title, but Henry would, on no account, cfjnB^nX.—Collins' Peerage, vol. vii., 387,
odvj. 1812.

474 LORD ROCHFORD PUT TO DEATH. [BOOK I.
sincere, as he certainly was, whatever use they might now make of the
affair. The result, however, was, that Cranmer pronounced the marriage
with the King " utterly void, in consequence of certain just and lawful
impediments, unknown at the tiine of her pretended marriage ! now con
fessed by the said Lady Anne, before the most reverend father in God,
sitting judicially ! " But mark the sequel — No authentic record exists
of the particulars, nor even of the general nature of the alleged " im
pediments " once hinted in the statute : nay more, " I observe," says
Collier, " the record of this divorce at Lambeth, though passing through
all the forms and thus attested, is not entered on (Cranmer's) Register.
This is somewhat remarkable, especially since that of Anne of Cleves is
inserted at length." As soon, however, as Cranmer had decreed Anne's
marriage to have been null from the beginning, what became of the
unjust sentence pronounced on her, only two days before, as Queen of
England ? But such was law, under Henry the Eighth ! And the
reader, it is to be hoped, will search in vain throughout the history of
his country for a course of more malignant wickedness ; even though it
be not yet at an end.
It will scarcely be believed that it seems to have been while the
Queen was thus tormenting at Lambeth, that all the other parties, in
cluding her brother, were put to death ! The mother and sister of Sir
F. Weston had implored his life, offering a ransom of a hundred thousand
crowns, but in vain. Lord Rochford behaved with inflexible propriety.
After entreating his fellow sufferers to meet death without apprehension,
he turned to the spectators. " I am come here to die, since it is the
King's pleasure that it should be so ; and my untimely end should be a
warning to those who hear me, never to build their hopes Upon Courts,
States, or Kings, but upon God alone. I do not complain of my violent
death. My sins have merited, and more than merited, such a penalty :
but I steadily deny that, by any fault of mine, the King has ever been
injured. Him I never offended. Nevertheless, he has my best wishes ;
and I earnestly pray God to grant him a long and virtuous life."
By the evening of this melancholy day, the Queen had been informed
that her death was determined, as her Almoner was with her by two
next morning. That day, after reviewing her past life, she desired Lady
Kingston to sit down, and kneeling before her, with tears, she charged
her, as she should answer to God, that she should go, in her name, and
do as she had done, before the Lady Mary, daughter of Queen Catherine,
asking forgiveness for any wrongs she had done her. " This tenderness
of conscience about lesser matters," says Burnet, "is a great presumption,
that if she had been guilty of more eminent faults, she had not continued
to the end denying them, and making protestations of her innocence.
For that same night she sent her last message to the King." He had
strangely asked for some confession, hut none came. She acknowledged

1536.] COWARDICE DISPLAYED. 475
her past obligations. " From a private gentlewoman," she said, "he had
first made her a Marchioness, and then a Queen ; and now, since he
could raise her no higher, was sending her, by martyrdom, to be a saint
in heaven." She protested her innocence, aud recommended her daughter
to his care.
This day, however, had not passed, it must be observed, without be
traying some cowardice on the part of her official murderers ; some fear
of the people, and of the public voice. It was not enough, that she
had been tried in secrecy, by determined enemies ; she must, as quietly
as possible, be put to death. Crumwell, therefore, had written to King
ston, to clear the Tower from all strangers I And he replies with equal
pusillanimity — " Sir, this shall be to advertise you, that I have received
your letter, wherein ye would have strangers conveyed out of the Tower,
and so they be — but the number of strangers passed not thirty, and
not many others — ^the ambassador of the Emperor had a servant there,
and honestly put out. Sir, if we have not an hour certain, as it might
be known in London, I think here will be but few, and I think a reason
able number were hest; for I suppose she will declare herself to be a good
woman for all men but the King, at the hour of death. I have seen
many men, and women also, executed, and that they have been in great
sorrow, but, to my knowledge, this Lady hath much joy, and pleasure
in death. Her Almoner is continually with her, and has been since
two of the clock after midnight." ^s
" Is there any example in history," it has been asked, " of so much
satisfaction, and so much calmness, in any dying person, who is ascer
tained to have been guilty of acts owned by him to be great offences,
and perseveringly denied by him, to be perpetrated by himself ? ^
The fatal hour arrived before noon next day, and though an uncertain
hour to many, it was well known, as we shall see presently, and even
watched for, by the King himself ! The Dukes of Suffolk and Richmond,
Audley and Crumwell, with the Lord Mayor and Aldermen, were there
officially. On the scaffold, the Queen, the only person present who
seemed to have a perfectly composed mind, uttered but few words —
" Good Christian people, I am come hither to die according to law ; by
the law I am judged to die, and, therefore, I will speak nothing against
it. I am come hither to accuse no man, nor to speak any thing of that
whereof / am accused. I pray God save the King, and send him long
to reign over you ; for a gentler (nobler 1) or more merciful prince was
there never. To me he was ever a good, gentle, and sovereign Lord.
If any person will meddle with my cause, I require them to judge the
best : thus I take leave of the world, and of you, and I heartily desire
you all to pray for me."
25 MS. Cotton, Otho, e. x., fol. 23.1. 26 Mackintosh.

476 THE QUEEN EXECUTED. [BOOK I.
It may be observed, that, throughout the whole proceedings, Anne
appears to have traced her death to the intrigues of her bitter enemies,
not to the malice of the King ; but this very guarded language at the
hour of death, may have been employed for the sake of young Elizabeth.
The phraseology has been ascribed to Cranmer, who might account it an
advantage that the Queen should not provoke Henry against their chUd.
Be this as it may, with the exception of the courtiers, the bystanders
melted into tears. She herself would not consent to have her eyes
covered with a bandage, saying, that she had no fear of death ; but
with her own hands removing her hat and collar, and then kneeling,
she repeated several times before the blow — " Christ, I pray thee, re
ceive my spirit — Jesus ! receive my soul."
The shriek of anguish which burst from the spectators, was quickly
drowned in the discharge of artillery ! a savage and unwonted accom
paniment, which remains to be explained. Thus terminated this slavish
devotion to kingly power ; when the remains were barbarously thro'wn
into a chest, used for holding arrows, and interred without ceremony
within the Tower.^
But what could the sound of those guns intend 1 Was it meant for
other ears than those of the people whose voices it drowned ? So it
turned out ; and it is certainly a remarkable circumstance, that, without
designing it, Henry VIII. should select the moment of death, for begin
ning to render that testimony to his own guUt, and Queen Anne's inno
cence, which he went on so rapidly to confirm by other proofs. The
oak is still standing in Epping forest, named " Henry's oak," under
which the King breakfasted this morning ; his hounds and his attendant
train waiting around him. He listened, it has been said, from time to
time, with intepse anxiety. At length the sound of this artillery boomed
through the wood. It was a preconcerted signal, and marked the mo
ment of execution. " Ah ! ah ! it is done," said he, starting up, " the
business is done ! uncouple the dogs, and let us follow the sport ! "
Such, at least, is the tradition to this hour ; recorded long ago in
Tindal's Rapin, as well as in our own day, by Nott and Tytler ; whUe
the sequel of the day was in perfect keeping with the sport of the
morning. " On the day of execution, Henry put on white for mourning,
as though he would have said, ' I am innocent of this deed.' And — the
rtext day — ^married Jane Seymour, eldest daughter of Sir John Seymour,
of Wolf-hall, Wilts." ^8 We may now be permitted to ask, whether the
King himself could have given more powerful testimony to the inno-

27 The Queen is understood not to have been beheaded with block and axe, after the English
fashion ; but by the French mode of decapitation, with a sword, and by a Frenchman, brought
from Calais. The axe shown in the Tower is a popular mistake ; though it may be handled,
perhaps, as the axe by which Crumwell afterwards suiTered,
20 Ellis" Orig. hetters, first series, vol. ii., p. 66.

1536.] THE SCENE NEXT SUCCEEDING. 477
cence of the depai'ted, and to his own guilt 1 The evidence of both,
however, will not close here.
The moment of exultation for the votaries of " the old learning" had
now arrived ; for, in their feeble apprehension, the greatest obstacle to
its revival, had been the infiuence of Queen Anne with the King, and
other individuals. She was now removed, and the leanings of her suc
cessor, Jane Seymour, could not as yet be divined ; though her having
consented to nuptials the very next day after her predecessor's execution,
was certainly well calculated to deceive them, and inspire hope. As for
the King, if he could " follow the sport" on the day of his Queen's exe
cution, he must have now been rejoicing in the full accomplishment of
his wishes. The annoyance, he might dream, was now at an end.
But see the watchful providence of God ! It was on the following
Tuesday, or only the fourth day after Anne Boleyn's death, that the
book of Cardinal Pole was first presented to Henry .^9 " The work," says
Pole himself, " is divided into four books. In the first, I refute the
Supremacy the King has taken on himself : the second asserts the pre
rogatives of the See of Rome : in the third, / sound in the King's ear the
voice which the guiltless blood he has shed, and tlie horror of his other
actions, raises up io Heaven against him. Having thus discharged what
I owed to truth and my country's welfare, in the last part I cast myself
at the King's feet ; I conjure him to take in good part what I have
written, as it proceeded from zeal and affection I" The author is as
bitter against Queen Anne as he is against Henry ; and by " guiltless
blood," he referred, of course, to the execution of others ; but the book
having been reserved till no w, and not presented till immediately after such
a cruel tragedy as that which we have recorded, might well give a keener
edge to the charge of shedding innocent blood. So far as argument is
attempted, the work is not distinguished, or even for its sophistry ; but
in point of acrimony and virulence, of all that was ever addressed to the
ear of the unprincipled monarch, it stands unrivalled. The rank of the
author, and his relation to the King, gave the work a degree of im
portance, which made it the more formidable and dangerous ; while the
recollection, by Henry, that he had actually reared and qualified the
writer for thus attacking him, must have rendered the language galling
in the extreme.^"
His Majesty might now reflect, or not reflect, on all that he had done ;
but the end being gained, for which so much blood had been shed, there
was still time sufficient left, for all the other perpetrators to repose

23 Though finished fourteen months before, or 24th March 1535, it was not presented to the
King till this day, 23d May 1536, having been read previously by some of his greatest political
enemies! See before, anno 1535, p. 422. Also Herbert's Henry VIII., p. 418, edit. 1672; and
Turner's Henry VIII., c. 28.
30 The King has been somewhere represented as preserving his self-command ; but the evi
dence of facts shows the reverse.

478 NEW PARLIAMENT. [bOOK I.
themselves. This they were permitted to do for a fortnight ; as it was
not till Whitsunday that Queen Jane was openly shown in her royal
habiliments.^' And now, on Thursday the 8th of June, the forty days having once
expired since the writs were issued, Parliament was opened, and Sir
Thomas Audley will explain the reasons ; for never has it fallen to the
lot of any subservient Lord Chancellor to pronounce such an address. It
was, of course, his Majesty's own version of the gloomy past. Audley
actually informed the House, " that when the former Parliament was
dissolved, (14th April,) the King had no thoughts of summoning a new
one so soon ! But that his Majesty's objects in assembling them so
early after the dissolution, were these two — " That he, finding himself so
subject to many infirmities, and considering that he was mortal, he
desired to settle an heir-apparent to the crown, in case he should die
without children lawfully begotten ! And the other was, to repeal an
Act of the former Parliament, as to the succession of the crown, to the
issue of the King by Queen Anne Boleyn ! That Anne and her con
spirators being put to death, as they well deserved, the King, at the
humble request of the nobility, was pleased to marry a Queen, by whom
there were very probable hopes of his having children !" And all this,
of course, he, and these " humble requesters," had quietly and coolly in
view, on the 27th of April, when the writs were issued, nay, and of ne
cessity, as it has been clearly proved, for some time before then ! Per
haps there has seldom been a more striking instance of that " inattention
to particulars," which Providence has appointed as the safeguard of
innocence, for the vindication of character. Such a story, however, was
by far too gross, to be received at once. New Parliament though it was,
and packed as far as it might be, fortunately for the memory of the
murdered Queen of England, there was some slender virtue to be found
in it. A bill could not be agreed upon for three weeks to come, as it
was not brought before the Lords till the SOth of June. The Lords
were now more generally, if not all assembled, and could not exactly
agree in a day or an hour, as the " humble requesters" had done, upon
the mock trial in the Tower. The other House, too, had to be consulted ;
but at last the King's party triumphed, and the bill was passed, con
firming all that had been done, and, moreover, recommending that the
King should provide an heir, at his discretion, in the event of his death
without issue. So absolutely did the tyrant reign !
Before leaving this melancholy exhibition of human depravity, it has
been but an act of justice due to the character and memory of Queen
Anne Boleyn, to expose the wickedness of that conspiracy, which had
been formed against her life. The profound secrecy of the proceedings,
31 Halle.— This was four days before Parliament sat down; Whitsunday falling this year on
the 4th of June.

1536.] QUEEN ANNE'S TREATMENT EXAMINED. 479
till the moment when all things were ready for explosion — Cranmer
carefully kept in the dark, till there could be no retrograde step — and
then the movements as rapid as they were temble — the complexion
of the men who had been selected for the first secret commission — the
character of the judges appointed — of the Peers so carefully selected,
and amounting to only the half of the entire peerage — the trial within
the Tower — the exclusion of spectators, first from the trial, and then
from the execution — the caution, if not cowardice, both of Crumwell and
even Kingston himself, — ^in short, there is not one solitary step in the
entire course, from first to last, which is not pregnant with suspicion or
wrong. The evil intent was never more glaring, nor a case of pre
meditated murder more fully established. At the time, therefore, the
transactions were viewed with indignation in other countries. They at
once made the Germans pause with horror. Melancthon and Bucer
abandoned all idea of setting their foot on English ground. The former
regarded Queen Anne as innocent -p and when the profusion of blood
shed was observed, Erasmus, now within a few weeks of his death, had
already described the country as one where the most intimate friends
were fearful of conversing with each other.
As yet, however, the death of Anne remains to be accounted for ;
and the mystery to be dispelled. That the scheme was fully ar
ranged, that it was deeply laid, has, we presume, been made perfectly
evident ; as well as that " the May-day scene," with which most histo
rians have commenced this tragedy, was merely a link in the chain, and
one worthy of any Roman Emperor in the height of his cruelty. But
still the question returns, — what was the cause of this cruel outrage ?
The King himself was, of course, the chief delinquent ; but he could not
proceed without assistance, and if, before referring to the Queen herself,
we turn to the parties concerned in her death, they, together, may assist
us to some correct understanding. Henry intended one thing, and the
men around him, another ; but the purposes of both, involved the re
moval of the Queen. Her death once accomplished, the former went on
his way carousing ; the latter party were foiled in their ultimate design.
As for the King, Queen Anne's "greatest gmlt," says Fuller, "consisted
in his better fancying another ;" and though he and Crumwell will pre
sently outwit the gentlemen of the old learning, meanwhile no scruple
had been felt at employing them throughout this bloody scene.
The sentiments and feelings of this party need not now be explained,
but its position at the moment, demands notice. The fact was that they
were then opposed to both King and Queen. The former, in his royal
progress was still shaking to its foundations what they regarded as the
good old cause. For five years past, the clergy had been paying his
82 See his letter to Camerarius, dated fifth of the ides, or the 9th of June 1536.

480 THE TREATMENT OP [bOOK I.
Majesty above £20,000 annually, as the price of their pardon, and they
were still smarting under their last instalment ; when behold, here comes
Crumwell in this last Parliament, and having opened, on a large scale,
his " Court of Augmentation of the King's revenue," he had already laid
low 376 monasteries, or, as they styled them, " religious houses." Be
tween these men and their friends in foreign parts, there was a kindred
sympathy as to the importance of this royal progress being stayed.
Here however, and full in their way, stood the Queen, whose principles
and procedure had been alike obnoxious. These will be explained pre
sently, but she had gone much too far to be viewed by the zealots for
" the old learning" without the keenest envy and malice. The moment
for working on the wavering passions of the King had at last come, and
the two parties conspiring together, Queen Anne's downfall was inevitable.
Whatever may be said when summing up her character, it was cer
tainly no slight testimony to the weight of her influence now, that it
was so felt at a distance, as well as at home. She had enjoyed the hon
our of being hated, from the Pontiff downwards ; and if the malice
cherished at home, can be shown to have been in league with a kindred
feeling abroad, it is difficult to say what farther proof the most fastidious
can desire, as to the solution of this catastrophe.
Manuscript letters, still happily preserved, here come to our aid, and
at once suggest a few pointed questions, in explanation, from this party.
Gardiner, Queen Anne's arch-enemy, however eager for the divorce, it
is granted, was not at home ; but what was more to his purpose, he was
in France, or on the way between England and Italy ; and thus could not
fail to have his share in what had been going on for some time, since
Rome itself was so fully informed. While, then, Queen Anne was still
only lying pale and languid, in confinement, what was involved in Sir
Gregory Cassali conferring with the Pontiff about Henry's marriage,
and then writing to his Majesty himself, so early as the 20th of Feb
ruary ?33 How was it that Richard Pate, the English ambassador with
the Emperor, was -writing to the King in cypher, and so early as the 12th
of April about legitimating the Princess Mary, and what meant the am
bassador, in pressing the subject with vehemence ?^* But above all on
the 17th of May, or the day on which they were putting Lord Rochford
and others to death, and harassing the Queen at Lambeth, by whose in
structions or instigation was it, that Cassali was earnestly reporting
progress to the Pontiff 2 That very day, as far distant as Rome, he was
narrating to him the acceptable tidings of the Queen, with her brother
and others, having been thrown into prison. And what was the reply
of Paul the Third, the same man who within the last nine months had

¦13 Cotton MS., Vitellius B. xiv., fol. 162, dated Rome, February 20, 1536, i.e. 1536.
^* Idem, fol. 177.

1536.] QUEEN ANNE EXPLAINED. 481
framed such a Bull against Henry, and which was still hanging over
him ?3* Let Cassali himself, writing to the King, inform us. The tid
ings from England once told, — " he (Paul) then said, that he had been
imploring heaven to enlighten your mind on this affair ; that he had
always had something of this sort in his eye, because he thought the mind
of your Majesty was adorned with such virtues, &o. ! — That your Majesty
now might perform an excellent work for Christendom, being now re
leased from a marriage that was indeed too unequal for you." Such was
the language uttering in Rome, at the very moment when Cranmer was
professedly sitting in judgment at Lambeth ! But this was not all ;
Cassali goes on — " It was most manifest, that if your Majesty had the
Roman Pontiff with you, you might command the other princes, {i. e. the
Emperor and Francis) as you pleased, — he, the Pontiff, promised to obey
you in this business, — desired only peace, — was not disposed to faction,
nor covetously to increase his fortune in immense sums !" He said,
" your Majesty ought not to be in an angry mind towards him, but to be
friendly." The Pontiff went on so far as to apologize for having made
Fisher a Cardinal, and confessed he had erred in that step ! With
many more words in the same strain ; after which Cassali again earnestly
urges the King to compliance. All this was uttered by the I7th of May,
as far distant as Italy, so that the sovereign Pontiff was rejoicing over
the plot entire, and without the slightest hesitation as to its complete
success, two days before the Queen was put to death ! ! The whole des
patch is curious, and worthy of perusal.^^ " No advances," says Turner,
" could be more eager, submissive, flattering and tempting to a King of
Henry's temper, than this ingenious conference ;" and certainly instead
of " entire favour and zeal unto the truth," proceeding from his Majesty's
own motion, for which Cranmer, at the moment, was so grossly flattering
him ; nothing was more likely than Henry's compliance, — only it so
happened, that Queen Jane turned out to be not unfavourable to the
new learning. Again, therefore, was the monarch overruled, partly by
the very marriage into which he had plunged so barbarously, and partly
by the policy of Crumwell, now rising to the height of his transient glory.
Union with the Pontiff, or influence in foreign politics, were, at this mo
ment, of no account in his Majesty's esteem, when compared with the grati
fication of his own wUl, and the pleasing prospect of augmented revenue.
That a perfect understanding had existed, however, between certain
men, and as far as Rome, there is now no reason to doubt. They intended
at once io destroy the Queen, and disgrace her husband, and thus far
they succeeded ; but as the sole cause of this mighty change of mind
35 The reader cannot have forgotten that furious document noticed last year ; but he may
contrast it now with the suddenly altered tone of the the Man at Rome. See p. 440.
38 Vitell., B. xiv., fol. 215, dated Rome, 27th May, 1536. Observe his commencement. " Ten
days have elapsed since I went to the Pope, and narrated to him tho tidings that the Queen had
been thrown into prison, &c. He then said that he had been, &c." as above.
VOL 1. 2 H

482 HER EARLY LIFE [BOOK I.
and conduct in Paul III., was the simple announcement of Queen Anne's
downfall, the fact itself speaks a volume. The language employed by
the cringing Pontiff, lately so furious, and to be so again, becomes the
highest testimony in the world ; which, if not granted to the nature of
her principles, must be acceded to the power and general current of her
influence, and that from the day that Cranmer said, so exultingly, "I
did put the crown upon her head."
Henry's brutal treatment of Anne Boleyn cannot be said to have ter
minated with her death. His procedure towards his own father-in-law,
the father of the lady, once so caressed, crowned the whole. He is to be
removed out of his sight. He was then Lord Privy Seal ; but he must
now, on the 2d of July, give way to Thomas Crumwell, since, among
others, he had bowed so servilely to the royal passion. And yet, by the
month of October, Henry, in terror for the security of his throne, had
the meanness, through Crumwell, to borrow money from the man whose
daughter he had murdered.?'' Nor was this all. Upon the Earl's death,
in February 1538, with matchless rapacity, Henry laid claim to the
favourite residence of Hever Castle in Kent, and that in right of a wife,
from whom, previously to being beheaded, he had been, by a cruelty all
his own, divorced ! The manor is said to have been afterwards settled
on Lady Anne of Cleves ; who, however, had Richmond Palace as her
residence. And yet of a scene, in every point of view, so revolting, the
reader even still cannot form an adequate conception, except he revert
for a few moments, finally, to its victim.
The violence of parties at the moment, combined with the strong
language employed ever since, respecting Anne Boleyn, whether adverse
or friendly to her character, render it no easy task to present any direct
or straight-forward narrative, with regard to her. Nor, so far as the
object of this history is concerned, is it either essential, or of vital conse
quence. The reader has already witnessed that the great cause of
Divine truth had taken effectual root in our native land, independently
of the forecast of a single human being, high or low. He has seen it grow
and flourish, not only above the power of official influence, but in spite
of it, whether in man or woman, and he will see this frequently to the
end. At the same time, it may still be enquired — "Why all this mighty
stir about the death of only one female 1 " The discordancy of historians,
indeed, proves, at least, this much ; that there must have been no want

37 The language of Wriothesley to Crumwell, announcing this, ought not to be omitted. " For
my Lord of Wiltshire, he Ithe King) is very glad you remembered him, and also that you wrote
for so good a sum; for his Grace being very merry, said— there was a servant of King Edward's,
his grandfather, which once made a suit for a thousand oaks, that he might only obtain twenty ;
and so he trusted your request to my Lord of Wiltshire should purchase £500, or such a matter,
by the reason it was so great ; which being less, would else percase have wrought nothing with
him. 23 Oct. 1536."— Got). State Papei-s, i., p. 490. If any man ever had a talent for asking
supplies it was Crumwell, and as long as he could get them, he stood high in Henry's favour, but
when these once fail, we shall witness the sequel.

1536.] AND EDUCATION. 483
of what is styled " force of character " in Henry's second Queen, even
though the period of her ascendency was so transient ; but her influence
over him alone, can never account for this uproar. For this reason, and
with the statements of both foes and friends before us, a few particulars
may be hazarded ; some of which have hitherto escaped notice.
Anne Boleyn, the eldest daughter of Sir Thomas Boleyn of Blickling,
in Norfolk, was bom ai the family seat, about the year 1501. Of her
mother, the daughter of Thomas Howard, Earl of Surrey, and afterwards
Duke of Norfolk, she was bereaved by a fever in 1512. In August 1514,
when Louis XII. of France was betrothed to Mary the youngest sister of
Henry VIIL, Lady Anne, then about fourteen years of age, was ap
pointed her fourth maid of honour. There is a letter extant to her
father, in French, and in prospect of this appointment, promising to do
her utmost in the service of her royal Mistress. ^ Proceeding to France
in the autumn of I5I4, she remained till the death of Louis soon after,
on the 1st of January 1515. Instead, however, of returning with her
mistress, then married to Charles Brandon, Duke of Suffolk, she was re
tained in the court and service of Claude, the daughter of Louis, and
consort of Francis I., an amiable woman, who revived and promoted
the moral restraints of the court, following the example of her mother,
Anne of Brittany. Her maids of honour were diligently occupied in
embroidery, or similar pursuits, and the society of gentlemen was not
admitted. Here, however, Anne had the advantage of being associated
with a lady far better known — Margaret of Valois, the Duchess of
Alenfon, afterwards Queen of Navarre. Hence Lord Herbert, generally
so correct as an historian, informs us that " Anne had been received into
a place of much honour, first with Queen Claude, and then with the
Duchess of Alencjon, where she staid till some diff'erence grew between
our King and Francis," or till the spring of 1522. To any one at all
acquainted with what had taken place in Paris by this moment, or from
the year 1518 to 1622, it must be evident that Anne could not have
existed in such interesting and profitable society, without seeing and
hearing far more than she could have done in England, whether she had
been infiuenced by it at that time or not. Paris, especially in 1520, was
far a^head of London. In 1521, indeed, the writings of Luther were
condemned alike in both cities, but London had no such men to show
as Lefevre, Bri^onnet, and Farel, nor England any such woman as
Margaret of Valois.

3f Turner, who, with other historians, has supposed the birth of Anne to be in 1507, perplexed
by the style of this letter, as not that of a child, ascribes it to the year 1527, when Anne was
about to enter the household of Queen Catherine of England. But, independently of its being a
letter bearing on a French court, it is in perfect harmony with a young lady in her teens, going
from under her father's eye. Turner agrees in sending Anne to France in 1514 ; but would a
child of six or seven years have been sent as maid of honour, and actually named, as she was,
in Mary's retinue?

484 HER PROCEEDINGS AND [bOOK I.
Aftef being introduced into the royal household of Henry, as maid
of honour to Queen Catherine, an attachment which had been formed
between Anne and Percy, the future Earl of Northumberland, was im
peratively and with great cruelty broken up, at the instigation of the
King ; at least, it has always been taken for granted that ii was at his
instigation. But be this as it may, Wolsey was the agent, and the
natural consequence, on the part of both, was an unbroken jealousy of
the Cardinal ever after. Percy was dismissed the court, and Anne
also withdrew to Hever Castle, a favourite residence of her father, thirty
miles distant in Kent.^ As the daughter of Sir Thomas certainly did
not appear in public, or at court, till May 1527, there remain four years
to be filled up. Injuriously dismissed, she not only discovered a perse
vering sense of the affront, but, according to the shrewd supposition of
Burnet, again returned to Prance. One of Anne's latest biographers^*
has no doubt that farther research will verify Burnet's statement, while
both agree with Turner in assigning to her a residence with Margaret, till
her marriage with Henry D' Albret, King of Navarre. This took place on
the 24th of January 1527, when Anne returned with her father to Eng
land, early in that year. That her father, who had been created Viscount
Rochford in 1525, was abundantly ambitious of his daughter's advance
ment, as well as his own, has been made very e'vident ; and he it was who
first led her into such critical circumstances, by promoting her return
to court once more, where she attended on Queen Catherine. The
question of Henry's divorce from his unimpeachable wife, with whom he
had lived so long, being once moved ; this young woman was then ex
posed to all the sophistry of Gardiner and Fox, but above all, to that
of Cranmer, who wrote his book in her father's house, and had free
access to her day by day. Lending an ear to the doctrine of the day,
could not save Anne from personal responsibility, any more than it could
those men who laboured to promote it. At the same time all the ad
vances of the King, previously to a certain period, ought to have been
regarded as deeply insulting. That he met with a decided and notable
repulse on his first approach, has been recorded by Anne's bitterest
enemies ;^i but for her yielding to any alliance by marriage, at least
before the day that Cranmer took it upon him, not to pronounce a di
vorce, which he never did, but to declare the union itself nuU and void
or at an end ; for her subsequent carriage towards the Queen Dowager and
her daughter Mary, she was personally responsible — and let her be
blamed. Nothing of all this, however, and though it had been ten times
greater, would ever have been so severely censured, had Anne Boleyn,

30 P^rcy was married to a daughter of the Earl of Shrewsbury, about 1524, in consequence
of a previous contract between that nobleman, and the Earl his father. The father dying in
1527, it was the same man whom Wolsey had once so thwarUd, who, with Sir W. Walshe was
sent by Henry to apprehend him in 1630. '
10 Agnes Strickland. 41 Sloane MS., no. 2496.

1536.] CHARACTER AS QUEEN. 485
after she came to the throne, only lent her influence in favour of " the
old learning." Here it was that, in the estimation of leading men in
power, she had erred so grievously. Here lay her sin unpardonable.
There were certain palpable steps never to be forgiven, and which, in
the eye of the timid and time-serving, had shown more of generous zeal,
than worldly prudence. These have been too slightly explamed hitherto,
though a brief digression might have explained them.
Let any one peruse the account recently given of Margaret of Valois,
by Merle D'Aubigne, from manuscripts of the time, and he can scarcely
fail to conclude, that the early and intimate acquaintance of Anne
Boleyn with such a character, must have had some beneficial effect
upon her.**2 But be this as it might, at all events, we have already seen

¦*!* It was creditable to the Earl of Wiltshire, while yet Lord Rochford, as well aa his daughter,
that society with such a princess waa preferred and prized ; for many historians agree in allow
ing to her this privilege, and Anne could not fail to have enjoyed benefit from it, ultimately.
Margaret of Valois waa an ardent reader of (he Scriptures, and every day perused a portion of
them, or rather twice a day. She has described this habit so beautifully herself, in the preface
to her tales, that we must present it in her own words, since they are bo very appropriate
to these pages.
" You ask me, my children, to do a very difficult thing— to invent a diversion that will drive
away your ennuis. I have been seeking all my life to efifect this, but 1 have found only ons
remedy, which is, reading ike Holy Scriptures. In perusing them, my mind experiences its
true and perfect joy ; and from this pleasure of the mind, proceed the repose and health of
the body. If you desire me to tell you what I do, to be so gay and so well, at my advanced
age ; it is because as soon as I get up, I read these sacred books. There I see and contemplate
the will of God, who sent his Son to us on earth, to preach that Holy Word ; and to announce
the sweet tidings, that he promises to pardon our sins and extinguish our debts, by giving ua
his Son, who loved us, and who suffered and died for our sakes. This idea so delights me, that
I take up the Psalms, and sing them with my heart ; and pronounce with my tongue, as humbly
as possible, the fine hymns with which the Holy Spirit inspired David, and the sacred authors.
The pleasure I receive from this exercise, so transports me, that I consider all the evils that
may happen to me in the day, to be real blessings ; for I place Him in ray heart, by faith, who
endured more misery for me. Before I sup, I retire in the same manner, to give my soul a con
genial lesson. At night, I review all that I have done in the day ; I implore pardon for my
faults ; I thank my God for his favours ; and I lie down in his love, in his fear, and in his peace,
my soul being free from every worldly anxiety. Lo ! my dear children, what has, for a long
while, made rae so happy. I have sought every where else, bnt have found nothing but this, so
solid and so satisfying— and if you will give an hour every morning to such reading, and say
your prayers devoutly during the mass, you will perceive in this solitude those charms which
will attend you in every city. Indeed, whoever knows God, will find the most beautiful things
in Him ; but without Him what is there that will not become offensive and disagreeable ?
You must believe what I say, if you wish to have a safe and pleasant life."
Between the Courts of France and England there were several points of resemblance at this
period, so far as these two females were concerned, and in consequence of which, the Queen of
Navan-e must have felt deeply the death of one, whom she had known so well. Ever since the
infatuated alliance of Francis I., in 1533, with Bome, Queen Margaret had well known what
it was to be suspected, opposed, and hated, for her opinions. Montmorency, the Premier, had
told the King that if he wished to exterminate heresy, he must begin with his own Court, and,
especially, with his sister, the Queen of Navarre. Her table, however, was still thelresort of
those who loved the Scriptures, and there, in 1536, sat Lefevre, their translator into French, at
the advanced age of one hundred, who died next year. There, the last end of the murdered
Queen of England must have been canvassed, and duly appreciated. Indeed, it is rather a
singular coincidence, that for the earliest account, as well as many of the most important par
ticulars, we are indebted not to any English, but to two French authorities, who were in London
at the moment, and saw or heard what they described. The first of these, " Histoire de Anne
Boleyn, par un Contemporain," a meirical narrative, too, is dated at London so early as the
2d of June, or only fourteen days after her death, and a week before Latimer preached to the
Bishops. The other, by Crispin, Lord of Milherve, was preserved by Meterin, the Dutch Consul-
General, in his " Histoire de Pay* Baas, 1618." Burnet, and all subsequent historians, have

486 HER PROCEEDINGS AND [bOOK I.
that, as early as 1529, Anne had possessed at least one publication of
Tyndale — " The Obedience of a Christian man." It was a species of
writing for which her previous acquaintance with Margaret had fully
prepared her ; and had she proceeded no farther, the offence would have
been passed over. This, however, happened before she was Queen of
England. Afterwards she went much farther, and to such extent that
all she had said or done before was as nothing.
There were two men especially, who, through her influence, at last
became Bishops, and the unprecedented circumstances of their acces
sion, constituted mortal offence. Their appointments were already
noticed last year ; but, in justice to the Queen, they come before us
again. No other than two Italians, nay Roman Cardinals, were de
prived of both office and revenue, before these men could be so ad
vanced. At such a time, so far as money was concerned, it might have
been said, " Let them go, but woe to the men who shall be put in their
places." ^ This, however, was not all. These two successors had been long
peculiarly obnoxious to the gentlemen of " the old learning." The first
had been marked as a transgressor from the days of Wolsey ; and the
second, as early as 1530, had incurred the wrath of Nix, the old Bishop
of Norwich, to such a degree, that he said, in slaying Bilney, he was
" afraid that he had slain Abel and saved Cain alive." But far worse
than this, the first of these men had incurred the wrath of no less than
Stokesly, the reigning Bishop of London, and lay under his censure.
He had not only examined and molested him in 1532, but, by the 3d of
October 1533, inhibited him from preaching withiu the diocese of Lon
don. This, however, with all his quaintness, it will be now acknow
ledged, was the noblest character then living in all England, — the only
man who ever boldly, aud without evasion, spoke the truth to Henry
VIII., and was afterwards no less faithful to Anne Boleyn. We need
not name Hugh Latimer. But who could be expected now to inter
pose in his favour ? It was no other than the Queen ; and if her
achievement in rescuing him from the fangs of Stokesly and his fellows,
was to be followed by any farther mark of her personal regard, she could
not fail to incur most virulent hatred. Even thus far, however, she had
already made way for the cautious and timid Primate ; and this becomes
the more observable, as it is about the first time that we hear of Cran
mer doi7ig any thing in advance. He followed in the wake of Latimer

been indebted to it ; and it is from this source that we derive the final address of Anne to
Henry's " Lords triers." It is, finally, to a third native of France, and he a disciple of " the old
learning" still, we owe the following information. " Many English gentlemen have assured
me, that Henry VIII., on his deathbed, greatly repented of the offences he had committed,
and, among other things, of the injury and crime committed against Anne de Boleyn, falsely
overcome and accused by the charges against 'ntr."— Timet. Though too credulous as a bio
grapher, " the simplest mind," says Turner, " must have known, whether its ears did or did
not hear, what many had mentioned to them :" and, certainly, if Henry did repent of any thing
at all, such conduct could not fail to meet him on his death-bed.
" Cardinal Ghinucci, Bishop of Worcester, and Cardinal Campeggio, Bishop of Salisbury.

I53C.] CHARACTER AS QUEEN. 487
and the Queen. Accordingly, by the autumn of 1534, Cranmer had not
only befriended Latimer, but, in the face of Stokesly's ire, he had actu
ally " licensed divers to preach within the province of Canterbury, at
his instance and request" and this, of course, embraced London.^* Next
year, however, Anne proceeded much farther. By the 10th of Feb
ruary, the same man was preaching before the King and Queen, and
upon all the following Wednesdays in Lent ;^' till at last, through the
same influence, by September, Latimer, as Bishop of Worcester, occu
pied the place from which Cardinal Ghinucci had been expelled. Thus,
the last Italian non-resident Bishop over Tyndale's native soil, from
whence so many thousand pounds had been drained for half a century,
being gone ; it was altogether a deed so notable, that it must have been
resented not only in England, but especially at Rome ; and much more
so, if the second man to whom we have referred, was also to be so ad
vanced. This was Nicholas Shaxton, a most miserable contrast, indeed,
to Latimer, though not at present, nor for years after. Nix of Norwich,
his sworn enemy, was yet alive ; and yet this man, by May 1534, was
the Queen's almoner ; and in February following, he succeeded in the
See of Salisbury to Cardinal Campeggio.*^
The Queen's decided encouragement of Latimer, was, of itself, suffi
cient to have sealed her doom, with the opposite party. She had en
treated him to point out whatever was amiss in her conduct ; and not
withstanding all the calumny which has been heaped upon her, let that
conduct now be farther observed ; for there were other offences, so called,
of not less magnitude. By her letter to Crumwell, in May 1534, she had
openly and officially avowed her approbation of the Scriptures having
been imported into England ; which no official man had yet dared to do,
and against which Wolsey and the Bishops had been fighting all along.
In short, her approbation of the Scriptures having been circulated in
the vulgar tongue — her recent vindication of Mr. Harman, their zeal
ous importer — her pointed request that he should be restored to all his
forfeited privileges, as a merchant in Antwerp — her growing estimation
in the eyes of the people ; " for her ordinary,'' says one of the oldest

¦*4 Harleian Manuscript, No. 6148, fol. 41.
45 Cranmer, quite in character, cautioned him, to " be very circumspect, to overpass and
omit all manner of speech, either apertly or suspiciously sounding against any special man's
facts, acts, manners, or sayings"~and to " stand no longer in the pulpit than an hour, or an
hour and a half, at the most— lest the King and the Queen wax weary at the beginning," or have
" small delight to the end." It is not likely that Latimer could ever adjust himself so nicely
before any audience, or that he ever would. 'I'hese sermons must have been great literary
curiosities, at such a time ; but though we know nothing of them, we shall see whether Latim.er
remembered this trimming, when he came to preach before Cranmer himself, and his brethren
on the bench, in the memorable Convocation of this year, 1536.
46 In the preamble to the bill of deprivation, it is stated, that 3t'300O annually had gone
direct to Rome, from these two Sees. Worcester, however, as it included the whole of Glou
cestershire, must have been of most value, though we shall still rate it at only £1500. Since
the year 1484, as already explained, the district had been given up to Ualian absentee Prelates ;
so tiiat, in the fifty preceding years, here was £75,0(10, which had gone to Italy. It may be re
membered, that this was equal to more than a million sterling of the present day, and yet the
calculation, most probably, is far too moderate.

488 THE NEW, OR FIRST CONVOCATION. [^BOOK I.
biographers, " amounted to fifteen hundred pounds, at the least, yearly,
(equal to ^22,500 now,) to be bestowed on the poor — ^her provisions of
stock for them, in sundry needy parishes, were very great. Out of her
privy purse went not a little to like purposes ; to scholars in exhibition,
very much ; so as, in three quarters of a year, her abns and bounty were
summed to fourteen or fifteen thousands." And now at last, in the
Tower, after a review of her past life, we have seen this same person, on
her bended knees before Lady Kingston, imploring her, in the same
manner, to ask forgiveness of Princess Mary, for any wrongs she had
done her ; for to the King, her husband, it may now be granted, she
had done no wrong. Lady Kingston punctually fulfilled the commission.
All these were deeds which cannot be disputed ; and, when taken to
gether, they not only show that the Queen had been by far too good a
woman for such a being as Henry had discovered himself to be ; but
they prove, that she had proceeded much too far, in a certain course,
ever to escape the bitterest defamation from her enemies ; perhaps it
was thought too fast ; and hence the pusillanimity, if not the base deser
tion of her professed friends. As for death from her husband, it was
nothing more than one awful result, though probably the worst, of his
vile and variable passions. It is of him, and after a masterly review of
the entire proceedings, that Sir James Mackintosh has said — " Henry,
perhaps, approached as nearly to the ideal standard of perfect wicked
ness, as the infirmities of human nature would allow !"
But we now turn to a widely different scene ; and as Latimer had
now been Bishop of Worcester for nine months, in despite of the Bishop
of London or his party, the reader may be curious to hear what he had
got to say to the official leaders of " the old learning," only that day
three weeks after Anne Boleyn had been removed from the present life.
Henry having called a new Parliament, had resolved also
to have a new Convocation, and one differing in its character
from all that had preceded it on English ground, or, indeed,
any where else. Of the Parliament we can already judge.
" Henry's two divorces having created an uncertainty as to
the line of succession. Parliament had endeavoured to remove
this, not by such constitutional provisions in concurrence
with the crown, as might define the course of inheritance, but
by enabling the King, on failure of issue by Jane Seymour,
or any other lawful wife, to make over and bequeath the
kingdom to any person at his pleasure, not even reserving a
preference to the descendants of former sovereigns !'"^'' But
we have now to look into the Convocation.

47 Hallam's Constitntioiial History.

1536.] THE NEW, OR FIRST CONVOCATION. 4S9
The confusion and misrepresentation which reigns through
out almost all our general histories, respecting this Convoca
tion and its results, more especially with regard to the Eng
lish Bible, render it imperatively necessary for the reader to
observe what actually took place. Having already witnessed
the failure of these Prelates in 1534 and 1535, their procedure
in 1536 only invites the more careful inspection, if not the
deeper interest. A universal mistake has consisted in the
supposition that Gardiner, Bishop of Winchester, then am
bassador at Paris, was here present ; but there are many
others, especially in relation to the Scriptures in English.
Thus, for example, Hume, in his History of England, informs us, that " a
vote was passed for publishing a new translation of the Scriptures ; and in three
years' time the work was finished, and published at Paris!" Burnet re
presents certain " arguments" as so prevailing with both houses of Convocation,
that " they petitioned the King, that he would give order to some to set about
it." — " These arguments, joined with the power that the Queen had iu his
affections, were so much considered by the King, that he gave order for setting
about it immediately ! To whom that work was committed, or how they pro
ceeded in it, 1 know not. For the account of these things has not been pre
served, nor conveyed to us, with that care that the importance of the thing re
quired. Yet it appears that the work was carried on at a good rate : for three
years after this, it was printed at Paris, which shews they made all convenient
haste, in a thing that required so much deliberation !!"
Other historians being equally loose, and as far astray, one is the less sur
prised at egregiotia mistakes committed by the painter. Only the other day a
cartoon was exhibited iu Westminster Hall, entitled, " A Convocation held
in 1536, for a deliberation on a new translation of the Scriptures." Instead of
all the Prelates being seated before and below Crumwell, the Vicegerent and
Vicar-General, — " Cranmer,'' according to the description given, " is represented
as presiding over the Assembly. On his right hand are Crumwell ! Tunstal,
Gardiner, (though in France,) and others ; on his left are Latimer, Fox, Good
rich, and others." But we forbear. It will be seen, however', that there
actually were two or three scenes at this Convocation, inviting the pencil of our
highest artists : especially " Latimer preaching before the Convocation," or
even " Stokesly of London, at the height of his wrath ;" but they yet remain to
be laid on the canvass.
The friends of the " old learning" round the King, in
cluded two distinct parties^ the nobility and the clergy.
The present prospects of these two, were direct contrasts to
each other. The former were looking forward, with eager
ness, to the acquisition of property; the latter were trembling
in the apprehension of losing it. The nobility were happy to
aid the King in his late affair, and had borne him through it ;
but certainly not without full expectation of his recollecting

490 LATIMER PREACHING BEFORE [^BOOK I.
their services, for they had laid the King under a debt of
gratitude;''^ the clergy had also rejoiced in the death of the
Queen, and will immediately give their official sanction. But
then, it was not to follow as a matter of course, that because
this latter party had gone along with Henry in his bloody pro
gress, that he was to aid them, or even spare them, as a body,
in theirs. By no means. On the contrary, the clergy, at all
events, must prepare for farther inroads and fresh humiliation.
It will be remembered that Crumwell had, last year, been, very
conveniently, made " Vicegerent, Vicar- General, and Com
missary Special and Principal," involving vast powers ;
placing him, in fact, next to the royal family, for specific and
prospective purposes ; and we have now to see the height to
which he thought himself entitled to act.
The Convocation had met on the day after Parliament, or
the 9th of June. Cranmer had resolved to try what a sermon
could eff'ect at the opening. We have seen how eager he was
respecting Latimer preaching before the Court, and he ap
pointed him now to preach before the Convocation. His text
was appropriate enough. " The children of this world are wiser
in their generation, than the children of light," — and he did not
fail to speak as he thought. He delivered two sermons, on
the same day, from this text, and in the afternoon, especially,
came to the point. Perhaps nothing of the kind ever equalled
Latimer preaching before the Convocation.
" They that be secular and laymen, are not by aud bye children of the world ;
nor they children of light, that are called spiritual and of the clergy. No, no ;
as ye may find among the laity many children of light,^^ so among the clergy,
(how much soever we arrogate these holy titles to us, and think them only at-

^8 " The reproach of servility and patient acquiescence under usurped power, falls not on the
English people, but on its leaders. Henry's compliant nobility yielded to every mandate of his
imperious will ; they bent with every breath of his capricious humour ; they are responsible for
the illegal trial— for the iniquitous attainder— for the sanguinary statute— for the tyranny which
they sanctioned by law— and for that which they permitted to subsist without law. Nor was
this selfish and pusillanimous subserviency more characteristic of the minions of Henry's favour,
the Crumwells, the Riches, the Pagets, the Russels, and the Powletts, than of the representatives
of ancient and honourable houses, theNorfolks, the Arundels, and the Shrewsburies."— flaWam.
All this is correct, as far as it goes, and some other names might havo been specified ; but still
the " Lords servile" could never have succeeded, without the " Lord Bishops." They were not
only in the secret of every intrigue, but, as it has often appeared, were at the bottom of all mis
chief and cruelty. In the recent tragedy, indeed, the " Lords triers" stand conspicuous ; but
before the plot exploded, Gardiner had been whispering in the ear of his dear friend, the
Duke of Norfolk. See before, p. 459.
¦19 A most significant public testimony ! And, under Providence, may we not be permitted
nowtosay,—" Thanks to Tyndale, and the perusal of his translatione of the Divine Word'" for
what else had brought out these children of light ? There was no preaching of the truth. In the
almost solitary person of Latimer, this had been denounced.

1536.3 THK FIRST CONVOCATION. 4.91
tributed to us — ' Ye are the light of the world — the chosen people of Christ—
a kingly priesthood^an holy nation,' and such other,) ye shall find many
children of the world, because in all places the world getteth many children.
For I fear, lest in all orders of men, the better, I must say the greater part of
them, be out of order, and children of the world." — " But because I cannot
speak of all, when I say Prelates, I understand Bishops, Abbots, Priors, Arch
deacons, Deans, and other of such sort, as are now called to this Convocation,
as I see, to entreat here of nothing but of such matters, as both appertain to
the glory of Christ, and to the wealth of the people of England. Which thing
I pray God they may do, as earnestly as they ought to do. But it is to be
feared, lest as light hath many of her children here, so the world hath sent
some of his whelps hither ; amongst the which I know there can be no concord
nor unity, albeit they be in one place, in one congregation." — " But if the
children of this world be either more in uumber, or more prudent, than the
children of light, what then availeth this Convocation ? Had it not been better
we had not been called together.
" The end of your Convocation shall shew what ye have done ; the fruit that
shall come of your consultation, shall shew what generation ye be of. For what
have ye done hitherto, I pray you, these seven years and more ? What have
ye ingendered ? What have ye brought forth ? What fruit is come of jour
long and great assembly ?50 What one thing that the people of England hath
been better of, a hair ? Are you yourselves either more accepted before
God, or better discharged toward the people committed to your care ? For that
the people is better learned and taught now, than they were in time past, to
whether of these ought we to attribute it — to your industry, or to the providence
of God and the foreseeing of the King's Grace ? Is it unknown, think you,
how both ye, and your curates were in a manner by violence enforced, to let
(hinder) books to be made, not by you, but by profane and lay persons, to let
(hinder) them, I say to be sold abroad and read, for the instruction of the people ?
I am bold with you, but I speak Latin and not English, to the clergy, not to
tlie laity.si I speak to you being present, and not behind your backs. God is
my witness, I speak whatsoever is spokeu, of the good-will that I bear you.
God is my witness, which knoweth my heart, and compelleth me to say what
I say. " Now, I pray you, iu God's name, what did you, so great Fathers, so many,
so long a season, so oft assembled together 2 What went you about ? What
would you have brought to pass, two things taken away 1 The one, that ye,
(which I heard) burned a dead man : The other, that ye, (which I felt,) went
about to burn one being alive. Him, because he did, I cannot tell how, in his
testament withstand your profit ; in other points, as I have heard, a very good
man : reported to be of an honest life, whUe he lived, full of good works, good
both to the clergy, and also to the laity .52 This other, which truly never hurt
any of you, ye would have roasted in the coals, because he would not subscribe
to certaiu articles that took away the supremacy of the King.SS Take away
these two noble acts, and there is nothing else left, that ye went about, that I
know ; saving that I now remember, that something ye attempted against Eras-

30 With reference to which Latimer had written his noble letter to Henry VIII. of Dec. 1530.
&i Both these sermons were in Latin ; but the above is the faithful translation published next
year, " to the intent that things well said to a, few, may bo understood of many, and do good to
all them that desire to understand the truth."
fi2 Alluding to the body of Sir William Tracy, to which we have before referred. See anno 1532.
63 Referring to his own appearance before the Convocation, in 1532, for which see page 335.

492 LATIMER PREACHING BEFORE |]b00K I.
mus, albeit as yet nothing is come to light.54 Ye have oft sat in consultation,
but what have ye done ? Ye have had many things in deUberation, but what
one is put forth, whereby either Christ is more glorified, or else Christ's people
made more holy 1 I appeal to your own consciences ; how chanced this ? How
came it thus ? Because there was no children of light, no children of God
amongst you, which, setting the world at nought, would study to illustrate the
glory of God, and thereby show themselves children of light ? I think not so ;
certainly I think not so. God forbid, that all you, which were gathered together
under the pretence of light, should be children of the world ? Then why hap
pened this i Why, I pray you ? Perchance, either because the children of the
world were more in number, in this your congregation, as it oft happeneth, or at
the least of more policy than the children of light in their generation : whereby
it might very soon be brought to pass, that those were much more strong in
gendering the evil, than these in producing the good."
Then, after detailing, at length, the evils to be removed,
and urging them all to " do something whereby they might be
known to be the children of light," — as " all men know that
we be here gathered, and, with most fervent desire, breath
and gape for the fruit of our Convocation ;" and " as our acts
shall be, so shall they name us." After warning them by
that wicked professor who " beat his fellow servants, and did
eat and drink with the drunken," — he closes all by saying: —
" Come, go to, my brothers ; go to, I say again, and once again go to, leave
the love of your profit ; study for the glory and profit of Christ ; seek in your
consultations such things as pertain to Christ, and bring forth, at the last, some
thing that may please Christ. — Preach truly the Word of God. Love the light,
walk in the light, and so be ye the children of light, while ye are in this world,
that ye may shine in the world that is to come, bright as the sun, with the
Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, to whom be all honour, praise, and
glory — Amen."
This stringent and intrepid discourse must have been as
gall and worm-wood to many who were present ; but it
certainly was meet, that some such address should salute their
ears, and at such a time as this. It was fit that they should
be told, when thus all assembled to hear, that already there were
among the People '¦'¦many children of light;" while they had
not yet done one thing, whereby the inhabitants of England
had profited " one hair." It was fit that Tunstal should be
reminded, thus publicly, of his miserable injunction in 1 526,

6« " Henry Standish," says Bale, ¦¦ a Minorite, and Bishop of St. Asaph, in a daily Convocation,
uttered many idle invectives against Colet and Erasmus; and once fell on his knees before the
King and Queen (Catharine ;) when he exhorted and even conjured them, by every thing sacred,
to go on resembling their ancestors, otherwise the religion of Christ would be in deplorable state !
Standish had died on the 9th of July last year ; but Latimer, most probably, had some other
men now present, in his eye."

1536.] THE FIRST CONVOCATION. -J.93
and his torturing examinations in 1528, and his burning of
the Sacred Volume in 1530: nay, that in that very St. Paul's,
where, after his return from Spain, he had denounced the New
Testament, of which now so many editions had been sold and
circulated, he should have to sit still and listen to such har
rowing interrogations as these. And although some may
question the delicacy of Latimer introducing himself, more
especially as he was reverting to the most humiliating scene
in his past life, perhaps the solitary speck in his public
character ; *' still it was fit that the ears of Stokesly and his
fellows should be made to tingle, in remembrance of their
past cruelties. Stokesly had actually officiated, before the
sermons began !
In short, taking the discourse all in all, a more perfect dis
claimer of any thing having, as yet, been done, by these men in
England, could not have been given ; nor a higher attestation
to the powerful, though denounced, exertions of Tyndale, as
well as to their positive and extensive effects. It was only
in perfect keeping with all that has been recorded, that such
an eminent and distinct testimony should have been delivered
before an assembly of foes and friends, at St. Paul's in London,
three months before Tyndale received the crown of martyrdom,
— and that by Latimer, the man, among all present, best
qualified to judge.
It becomes of no little curious importance to observe who
were actually assembled to hear all this ; and the more so, that
the statements frequently given have been both defective and
erroneous. Of the twenty-one Bishops, sixteen were present at
the Convocation, and two voted by proxy. As for the other
three, not present ; Gardiner of Winchester was still in
France, where indeed he remained for above two years.
Athaqua or Attien, Bishop of Llandaff, if yet alive, being
a Spaniard, could not now vote ; and Kite of Carlisle, once
Archbishop of Armagh, an appointment which he had received
from Leo X. in 1513, and resigned for Carlisle in 1521, was
now in extreme old age, and died next year.^^

*s See, anno 1532, page 335. In his address, however, he gives a turn to the close of his ex
amination, which, as he does not explain, so of course it does not appear on the record.
56 Fuller, professing to give an account of this Convocation, has, here at least, led Burnet
and several other historians astray. Lord Herbert had given only the titles of fourteen of the
Sees, and Fuller would supply the names ; but for Norwich he inserted Nix, who died in January
preceding ; and for Chichester ho names Sherburne, now aged ^, who had resigned. He put

494 STATE OP PARTIES IN THE CONVOCATION. [bOOK I.
But besides the sixteen Bishops present, there were forty
mitred Abbots and Priors, or fifty-six in all. In the lower
house fifty members attended, namely, twenty-five Archdea
cons, seven Deans, seventeen Proctors, and one Master of a
College. Of the eighteen who voted from the Bench, those
who were with and against Cranmer, will show how equally
they were divided when discussion began. We give them
with the dates of their appointment. —
1531. Lee oi York. 1533. Oranme/- of Canterbury.
1530. Stokesly ot London. 1534. Goodrich ot Ely.
1530. Tunstal of Durham. 1S3S. Shaxton of Salisbury.
15"20. Longland of hinco\n. 1535. i^'oa; of Hereford.
1519. F«s«y of Exeter.67 1535. ia«M««)- of Worcester.
1533. Clerk ot Bath. 1535. Hilsey of Uochester.
1534. ie« of Litchfie.ld.57 1536. .Barfow of St. Davids.
1534. Salcot ot Sangor. 1536. T^arion of St. Asaph.
1536. B/agge of Norwich. 1536. Sampson ot Chichester.
Thus, although the reader will still recognise well known
enemies to the progress of Divine Truth, and to Tyndale
personally, he will observe that the coast is clear of the aged
and literally blind Nix of Norwich — of West of Ely, the
crafty foe of Latimer — of Standish, the slanderer of Colet
and Erasmus — of Fisher, the ablest opponent of the new
learning — and of Cardinal Campeggio of Salisbury, as well
as Grhinucci of Worcester, two Italians, ever ready to sup
port the old — besides five others. If death had not thinned
the ranks of these men, it is evident that Cranmer had been
left in a small minority ; but it now appears, that, since his
appointment, only three years ago, as many as eleven vacan
cies had occurred, and of these not fewer than eight voted
with him. So late as the 31st of May, the other party had
been strengthened by Rugge alias Repps, being elected for
Norwich ; ^ but it shows the keenness of Crumwell and Cran
mer, that on the very day hefore the Convocation, they got

in Gardiner of Winchester, not observing that he was abroad ; and Kite of Carlisle, who was
not present. Herbert, too, had added, " and the rest," but Fuller did not supply the deiiciency.
57 Voted by proxy.
M Nicholas' Synopsis. This may seem strange ; but the mystery is solved, by observing that
Henby was a party concerned. Norwich being vacant, he had taken into his own hands all
the lands and manors of the See, the old Bishop having at last fallen under a premunire ; and
giving several priories in exchange, the King recommended William Eugge or Eepps, Abbot of
St. Benedicts, in Hulme, who, of course, must be received. The old man, Richard Nix, upon
his submission, was pardoned and discharged from prison, but not without a fine ; with part of
which, it has been said, the glass windows of King's College, Cambridge, were purchased.

1536.] CRU.'aWELL AS VICAR-GENERAL. 495
Warton into St. Asaph, nay, on the day of opening, having
procured Sherburne's i-esignation, they put Eichard Sampson,
the King's great champion, in his place.^* Even then, how
ever, they divided, it appears, nine to nine. Fortunately for
Cranmer's peace, Gardiner was not there, and two disciples of
the old learning voted only by proxy, viz. Exeter and Litch
field, for whom Longland of Lincoln, acted.
Preliminaries being adjusted by Friday the 16th of June,
the old party in the lower house, had prevailed in securing
one of their number to be Prolocutor in the Convocation.
This was Richard Gwent, an Archdeacon of Stokesly's, now
presented and confirmed by the upper house. But, by way of
keeping the balance even, or rather of discovering how strong
was the rod of royal authority over them, there entered, on
the same day, not even Crumwell himself, for he was as yet too
busy with Parliamentary affairs, but Dr. William Petre, as
his deputy ! He claimed the precedency due to his immedi
ate master, and the commission he brought with him being
read, Cranmer assigned him his place, next to himself. Some
might well question, and probably did, as Fuller supposes,
whether " a deputy's deputy" might properly claim his place
who was principally represented. It has been said that it
was with difficulty that the clergy suppressed their murmurs
at Crumwell's appointment to his office — a man who had
never taken orders, nor graduated in any University ; but
their indignation increased, when they found that the same
pre-eminence was claimed by any of his clerks, whom he might
commission as his deputy at their meetings.^
On Wednesday next, however, the 21st, Crumwell entered,
and as Vicegerent and Vigar-General seated himself judici
ally above all.^' He then pi-esented them an instrument,
annulling the King's marriage with the late Queen. They
all signed it, and one party most willingly, though, as al-

5fl Nicholas' Synopsis, where the day of his consecration is stated the 9th qfjune.
CO Godwin, Collier, Lingard. As if to make the humiliation more perfect, who was this Dr.
Pbtbp. ? No other than one of the visitors of Monasteries, appointed in October last ! The
Doctor, however, afterwards Sir William Petre, who had been tutor to Lord Rochford, and
Latin Secretary in the Secretary of State's office, finally became Principal Secretary of State.
But what was more remarkable, he contrived so to remain, not only under Henry VIII., but
under Edward VI., Queen Mai^y, and Elizabeth. .4fter his visitations, he had obtained very
large grants of Abbey lands, and died, leaving estates in seven counties, to bis son, the first
Lord Petre.
61 It must be remembered, that this Vicegerent and Vicar-General, was still nothing more
than a Knight, or member of the Commons House, and not even Lord Privy Seal till next month.

496 INTERMINABLE STRIFE. [^BOOK I.
ready noticed, the measure did not pass the House of Lords
till the SOth.
On Friday, the 23d of June, Gwent brought up from the
lower house, a long list of what they styled mala dogmata,
or erroneous doctrines. The number amounted to not fewer
than sixty-s0een ; and it now remained for Cranmer, Latimer,
and others, to say, what was to be done with them ; for this
was no other than " The protestation of the Clergy of the
lower house, within the province of Canterbury." As a
picture of the men within these doors, and of the opinions
that were now travelling the country, the document is of
value. The puerility, it is granted, and the absurdity of
most of the items, strikingly evince the degraded state of the
human mind, in those who sanctioned the list ; while, on the
other hand, some of those very items prove, that, in the face
of their most furious opposition, Divine Truth had already
found its way into a thousand channels. A few only will
serve to show whether there were any of " the children of
this world" in this assembly, as Latimer had more than
suspected, and whether there were mxiny of " the children of
light" elsewhere, as he had affirmed.
" We think," say they, " in our consciences and opinion.?, these errors and
abuses following, to have been, and now to be, within this realm, causes of dis
sension, worthy special reformation. It is, to wit,
1 . " That it is commonly preached, taught, and spoken, to the slander of
this noble realm, disquietness of the people, damage of Christian souls, not
without fear of many other inconveniences and perils— that the sacrament of
the altar is not to be esteemed.
5. " Item. — That all ceremonies accustomed in the Church, which are not
clearly expressed in Scripture, must be taken away, because they are men's in
ventions. 8. " Item. — That it is preached and taught, that the Church that is commonly
taken for the Church, is the old synagogue ; and that the Chrn-oh is ' the congrega
tion of good men only.'
15. " Item. — That images of saints are not in any wise to be reverenced.
26. " Item. — That confession auricular, absolution, and penance, are neither
necessary nor profitable in the Church of God.
27. " Item. — That auricular confession is only invented and ordained to have
the secret knowledge of men's hearts, and to pull money out of their purse.
44. " Item.^ — That there is no mean place between Heaven and Hell, wherein
souls departed may be afflicted.
56. « Item.— That by preachmg, the people have been brought in opinion
and belief, that nothing is to be believed, except it can be proved expressly from
Scripture. 65. "Item. — That besides preaching, there are many slanderous and er
roneous books that have been made and suffered to go abroad indifferently.

1536.] INTERMINABLE STRIFE. 497
which books were the more gladly bought, because of these words, * cum privi
legio;' which the ignorant people took to have been an express approbation of
the King, where it was not so indeed.
66. " Item. — That where, heretofore, divers books liave been examined by
persons appointed in the Convocation, and the said books found faU of heresy and
erroneous opinions, and so declared; the said books are not yet by the Bishops
expressly condemned, but suffered to remain in the hands of unlearned people,
which ministereth to them matter of argument, and much unquietness within
the realm."62
Independently of Latimer's testimony, here was a second,
and from many individuals. If it be said that their alarm
may have led them to exaggerate the good that had been done,
it must be remembered that God had been carrying forward
his work with secret energy, and that they were not the men to
know all: but still they come forward in proof that the Bacred
Volume, so far from having been read in vain, had already
produced some of its finest effects, and, it may safely be pre
sumed, to a considerable extent, since they affirmed that these
truths were " commonly taught and spoken." It is true, that
all this had been accomplished in the face of opposition, and
certainly without the bold and public sanction of any pre
sent ; but, though it has been too little observed, the moment
was a crisis in the history of England, more important than
any one that has since occurred in her eventful history. As
far as the vital interests of Christianity itself are concerned,
who is there now, understanding these interests, who can for
bear to exclaim — " Oh! had they but let 'well' alone! and
left those cardinal principles, which the majority of these
men now branded as evil, to have found their way into every
city and hamlet, till they had leavened the community !"
But no ; the perfection, the all-sufficiency of the Sacred
Volume to accomplish all the purposes of the Divine will, was
a tenet held by no one there.
And now the war grew warm, the strife interminate, for
what else could be expected from an assemblage such as this ?
Cranmer alone, as yet possessed of no fixed principles, nor
any distinct conception of where he was going, though even
backed by Latimer, with all his wit and shrewdness, could
have done nothing. Even in the absence of Gardiner, they
would have been crushed or overruled. Queen Anne was
I 62 See the list entire in Collier.
VOL. I. 2 I

498 ALES OF EDINBURGH. LBOOK I.
gone, and the old party had determined to try their strength.
Oh ! exclaims old Fuller, " what tugging was here, betwixt
those opposite sides, (for I dare not take Bishop Latimer's
phrase, as he took it out of his text — betwixt the children of
this generation, and the children of light ^ whilst, with all
earnestness, they thought to advance their several designs."
The truth is, that the House of Lords itself was often inter
rupted in their business by these men; and in their " Journal,"
the reason recorded for many adjournments was this, that the
Lord Bishops " were busy in the Convocation."
It was while these discussions were proceeding, or rather
about their commencement, that a notable scene occurred, in
which Alexander Ales, the native of Edinburgh, already men
tioned, made a conspicuous appearance. One day, as Lord
Crumwell was proceeding to the house, he met Ales " by
chance on the street," and, as if determined on still farther
humiliation of the Bench, " he called him, and took him with
him to the Parliament house, to Westminster." Upon
entering, all the Bishops "rose and did obeisance to their
Vicar-General, and after he had saluted them, he sat him
down in the highest place." " Right against him sat Cranmer
and Lee as Archbishops ; and then Stokesly and Longland,
Shaxton and Clerk, Goodrich and Fox, Sampson and Rugge,
Latimer and certain others," adds Ales, "whose names I have
forgotten." "All these did sit at a table covered with a
carpet, with certain Priests standing about them."^
The " Viear-General of the realm" commenced — "The King's Majesty
giveth you high thanks that ye have so diligently, without any excuse, assembled
hither according to Ms commandment ; and ye be not ignorant that ye be called
hither to determine certain controversies, which at this time be moved, con
cerning the Christian religion and faith, not only in this realm, but also in all
nations throughout the world. For the King studieth day and night to set a
quietness in the Church ! And he cannot rest until all such controversies be
fully debated and ended through the determination of you, and his whole
Parliament ! For although his special desire is to set a steu (fix according to
rule) for the unlearned people, whose consciences are in doubt what they may
believe, and he, himself, by his excellent learning, knoweth these controversies
well enough ; yet he will suffer no common alteration, but by the consent of

03 The Convocation here seated before and below Crumweli,, as far as here named, presents
an equal division of opmion, as before stated. There were Cranmer. Shaxton, Goodrich Fox
and Sampson, on one side ; Lee, Stokesly, Longland, Clerk, and Rugge, on the other. The
names that Ales had forgotten were six in number, or, in all, nine on one side, and nine on tho
other, including the two votes by proxy.

1536.] CRANMER SPEAKS TO ORDER. 490
you and his whole Parliament. And he desireth now, for Christ's sake, that,
all manner of obstinacy and carnal respect set apart, ye will, friendly and lov
ingly, dispute among yourselves, of the controversies moved in the Church, and
that ye will conclude all things by the Wokd op Gon ; without all brawling or
scolding. Neither will his Majesty suffer the Scripture to be wrested or defaced
by any glosses, or by any authority of doctors or Councils ; and much less will
he admit any articles or doctrine not contained in the Scripture ; but approved
only by continuance of time and old custom, and by unwritten verities, as ye
were wont to do. Ye know well enough, that ye be bound to show this service
to Christ and to his Chm^ch ; and yet, notwithstanding, his Majesty will give
you high thanks, if ye will set and conclude a godly and a perfect unity —
whereunto this is the only way and mean, if ye will determine all things by
tho ScRiPiCBE, as God commandeth you in Deuteronomy — which thing his
Majesty exhorteth and desireth you."
However strange the former part of this address must ap
pear to every enlightened Christian now, toward the close
the trumpet gave a certain sound ; and, so far as words could
convey meaning, no man present could misunderstand the
message. But what followed ? " After this," says Alef,
" they began to dispute of the sacraments." First of all, the
Bishop of London, Stokesly, (whom, a little before, Crum
well had rebuked by name, for defending of unwritten veri
ties,) went about to defend that there were seven sacraments
of our Christian religion, which he would prove by certain
glosses and writers ; and he had upon his side the Arch
bishop of York, the Bishops of Lincoln, Bath, Chichester,
and Norwich. The Bishops of Salisbury, Ely, Hereford,
and Worcester, and certain others, with the Archbishop of
Canterbury, were against him. After they had made much
strife and contention about the sayings of the doctors, Cran
mer rose and said —
" It beseemeth not men of learning and gravity to make much babbling and
brawling about bare words, so that we agree in the very substance and effect
of the matter. For to brawl about words, is the property of sophisters, and
such as mean deceit and subtilty, which delight in the debate and dissension of
the world, and in the miserable state of the Church ; and not of them which
should seek the glory of Christ, and should study for the unity and quietness
of the Church.
" There be weighty controversies now moved and put forth, not of cere
monies and light things, but of the true understanding, and of the right diffe
rence of the Law and the Gospel — of the manner and way how sins be for
given — of comforting doubtful and wavering consciences, by what means they
may be certified that they please God, seeing they feel the strength of the law
accusing them of sin — of the true use of the sacraments, whether the outward
work of them doth justify man, or whether we I'eceive our justification
through faith.

500 CRANMER SPEAKS TO ORDER. [bOOK I.
« Item. — Which be the good works, and the true service and honour which
pleaseth God ; and whether the choice of meats, the difference of garments, the
vows of monks and priests, and other traditions, which have no Word of God
to confirm them ; whether these, I say, be right good works, and such as make
a perfect Christian man, or no.
" Item. — -Whether vain science and false honouring of God and man's tra
ditions, do bind men's consciences, or no. Finally, whether the ceremonies of
confirmation — of orders — and of anointing, and such other, (which cannot be
proved to be instituted of Christ, nor have any worth in them to certify us of
remission of sins,) ought to be called Sacraments, and to be compared with
Baptism and the Supper of the Lord, or no.
" These be no light matters, but even the principal points of our Christian
religion ; wherefore we contend not about words and trifles, but of high and ear
nest matters. Christ saith — ' blessed be the peace-makers, for they shall be
called the sons of God.' And Paul commandeth Bishops to avoid brawling and
contention about words, which be profitable to nothing, but unto the subversion
and destruction of the hearers : and he admonisheth especially that he should
resist with the Scriptures when any man disputeth with him of the faith, and
he addeth a cause, — ' doing this, thou shalt preserve both thyself and also them
which hear thee.' Now, if ye will follow these counsellors, Christ and Paul, all
contention and brawling about words must be set apart, and ye must stablish a
godly and a perfect unity and concord, out of the Scripture."
This assembly, to a man, had already acknowledged Henry
to be the Supreme Head of their Church, and now also had
made obeisance to his Vicegerent, their Vicar-General ; but
such was the catalogue of affairs brought forward, and as ex
plained by Cranmer himself. He did not stop to enquire
whether the men whom he urged to engage in discussion were
peace-makers, were the sons of God, were Bishops indeed, —
but, waving this, here was a field for strife and debate, confess
edly wide enough, if not boundless, and as now spread out,
it certainly exhibited a strange mixture of truth and error ;
where the mere acts of outward conformity were mingled with
the inward feelings of mental obedience ; and comparative
trifles were enumerated in company with matter of divine
authority. But still, should Cranmer commence yvith faith and
not with obedience, or with what he styled "the principal points
of our Christian religion," or "high and earnest matters," and
NOT with ceremonies, an effectual turn may yet be given to dis
cussion. Two steps were before him, the right and the wrong;
and as he had precedence, and was about to state the order of
debate, and now had this in his own hands, one naturally
waits with anxiety to hear his decision, — and here it was.
"Wherefore, in this disputation we must fibst agree of the number of the

1536.] ALES SPEAKS BY REQUEST. 501
Sackaments, and what a Sacrament doth signify in the holy Scripture ; and
when we call Baptism and the Supper of the Lord sacraments of the Gospel,
what we mean thereby !"
How much of mental misery, nay of bloodshed, has some
times depended upon only a few words, uttered by one man,
when in possession of what is called power — official power !
To such a momentous instant, Cranmer had now come. By
his ingenuous confession afterwards, he came to the knowledge
of divine things " but by slow degrees, or by little and little;"
but had he only known how much of his own future misery, as
well as that of many others, now hung as on a hair, depending
on his course of debate, or his decision as to the order to be
pursued, he must have paused, if not shrunk back. That the
example which he now first set and sanctioned, both as to
" Articles" and the order of discussion, was to form a precedent
down to the Act of Uniformity, and farther still, was far beyond
his foresight : though had he taken only one leaf out of the
masterly writings of the man, so denounced both by his royal
Master and his singular Vicar-General, he had never so decided.
For twelve long years Tyndale had been warring with the
darkness which brooded over his native country ; and although
perambulating the very field of battle on the Continent, with a
judgment and prudence peculiar to himself, he would on no ac
count first engage in the Bellum Sacramentarium ; but Cranmer
here plunges into it at once, and that too in discussion with men
who discerned not the things of the Spirit of God ; but who, to
this hour, had been the notorious persecutors of the truth, as
well as of every man who had imbibed the love of it. Cran
mer, however, was emphatically now, a man under authority.
But to proceed, — Lord Crumwell observing, by his counte
nance, that Ales was pleased with Cranmer's address, thought
it the proper moment to call upon him ; and having intro
duced him to all present, under the high appellation of " the
King's Scholar," he desired him now to say, what he thought
of this disputation.^ The exiled Scotsman complied, main
taining throughout, and for ihe first time upon English ground,
for many centuries, before any such audience, that there were
64 Inadvertently, Mr. Todd, in his life of Cranmer, has represented him as rising after Ales,
to defend the truth which he had spoken. The sentiments of Cranmer respecting the Lord's Sup
per have divided historians from his own time to the present ; but, at all events, they were not,
at this moment, equal to those of Ales. Cranmer was by no means prepared for his decisive
counsel, as the event will show.

502 MEMORABLE ADDRESS OF FOX. [bOOK 1.
only two Sacraments,-easy to be kept, and very excellent in
signification,— and that these were " Baptism and the Supper ot
the Lord." Stokesly sat with impatience, and at last fired,—
saying of what Ales had affirmed—" It is all false." To this
he answered, " I will prove all that I have said to be true, not
only by the Scripture, but by the old doctors, and by the
School writers also."
Upon this Edward Fox, Bishop of Hereford, interposed,
and in a noble address, well worthy of being recorded, spoke
as follows : —
" Brother Alexander, contend not much with him, about the minds and say
ings of the doctors and school writers ; for ye know that they, in many places,
do differ among themselves, and that they are contrary to themselves, also, al
most in every article. And there is no hope of any concord to be made, if we
must lean to their judgments, in these matters of controversy. And we be
commanded by the King's Grace to dispute by the Holy Scripture." Then
turning himself to the Bishops, he thus proceeded —
" Think ye not, that we can, by any sophistical subtilties, steal out of the
world again, the light which every man doth see. Christ hath so lightened the
world at this time, that the light of the Gospel hath put to flight all misty
darkness ; and it will, shortly, have the higher hand of all clouds, though we
resist in vain never so much. The lay people do now know the Holy Scrip
ture, BETTER than MANY OP cs. And the Germans have made the text of the
Bible so plain and easy, by the Hebrew and the Greek tongue, that now many
things may be better understood, without any glosses at all, than by all the com
mentaries of the doctors. And, moreover, they have so opened these contro
versies by their writings, that women and children may wonder at the blind
ness and falsehood that hath been hitherto.65 Wherefore, ye must consider
earnestly, what ye will determine of these controversies, that ye make not your
selves to be mocked, and laughed to scorn of all the world ; and that ye bring
them not to have this opinion of you, to think evermore hereafter, that ye have
not one spark of learning nor yet of godliness in you. And thus shall ye lose all
your estimation and authority with them which before took you for learned
men, and profitable members unto the commonwealth of Christendom. For
that which you do hope upon, that there waa never heresy in the Church so
great, but that process of time, with the power and authority of the Pope, hath
quenched it — it is nothing to the purpose. But ye must turn (change) your
opinion, and think this surely, that there is nothing so feeble and weak, so that
it be true, but it shall find place, and be able to stand against all falsehood.
" Truth is the daughter of time, and time is the mother of truth. And what
soever is besieged of truth, cannot long continue ; and upon whose side truth
doth stand, that ought not to be thought transitory, or that it will ever fall.
All things consist not in painted eloquence, aud strength, or authority. For

65 Of course, the lay people, to whom Fox first referred, could not read German, and but very
few of them Hebrew or Greek ; but he must touch but gently on the English Scriptures ; and
as for Tyndale's name, it must not here be whispered. It would have broken up the sitting ;
though we shall see, presently, that his translation, and in a variety of editions, was pouring
into the country at this very moment.

1536.] ALES AND STOKESLY. 503
the truth is of so great power, strength, and efficacity, that it can neither be de
fended with words, nor be overcome with any strength : but after she hath hid
den herself long, at length she putteth up her head, and aijpeareth."
Encouraged by this oration, and confining himself to the
Sacred Volume, Ales proceeded to ply the Bishop of London
with this argument — " Sacraments be signs or ceremonies,
which make us certain and sure of the will of God — but no
man's heart can be certain and sure of the will of God, with
out the Word of God. Wherefore, it followeth, that there be
no sacraments without the Word of God. And such as can
not be proved out of the Holy Scripture, ought not to be called
sacraments." " And so after this manner doth Paul speak unto the Ephesians, that Christ
doth sanctify his Church, through the bath of water in the word of life. And
for as much as he joineth the Word unto the ceremony, and declareth the
virtue and power of the Word of God, that it bringeth with him (it) life ; he
doth manifestly teach, that the Word of God is the principal thing, and eyen,
as it were, the very substance and body of the sacrament ; and the outward
ceremony nothing else than a token of that lively inflammation which we re
ceive, through faith in the Word and promise.
" St. Paul, also, in ministering the sacrament of the Lord's Supper, doth
manifestly add the words of Christ. ' He took bread,' saith he, ' and when he
had given thanks, he brake it and said, take ye this, and eat ye this, for it is
my body.' Item, ' do ye this in my remembrance.'
" Beside this, he teacheth evidently, that only Christ, and none but He, had
power to institute a sacrament : and that neither the Apostles, nor the Church,
hath any authority, to alter, or to add anything unto his ordinance. Whereas
he saith — ' For 1 received of the Lord, that which I delivered unto you,' &c. —
to what purpose should he go about to move the people to beUeve him, and to
win their hearts with his protestation, if it had been lawful for him to have
made any sacraments, or to have altered the form and manner of ministering
this sacrament % As some men, both wickedly and shamelessly do affirm, that
the Apostles did alter the form of baptism."
Stokesly, however, here again interrupted him and said —
" Let us grant that the sacraments may be gathered out of the
Word of God, yet are ye far deceived, if ye think that there
is none other Word of God, but tliat which every souter and
cobbler doth read in this mother tongue!"^ The Vicar-General
and others smiled when he had done ; but it was now twelve
o'clock, and time to disperse. Crumwell, therefore, desired
Ales to be " content for the time," on which he closed, by
saying to Stokesly, —
fifi Another significant testimony, though in wrath, aud from the lips of this Bishop of London,
to the wide extension of Tyndale's translation.

504 THE DAY FOLLOWING. [BOOK I.
" Right Reverend Master Bishop — ye deny that our Christian faith and re
ligion doth lean only upon the Word of God which is written in the Bible :
which thing if I can prove and declare, then ye will grant me, that there be no
sacraments but those that have the manifest Word of God to confirm them."
To this he consented, and the assembly for that day was dissolved.
The next day, however, when the Bishops were again met,
this dangerous man of Edinburgh must not be admitted. He
was punctually present with Lord Crumwell, and ready to
accompany him ; but poor Cranmer, ever in character, timid
and time-serving, became alarmed as to consequences, and
must try and prevent the appearance of Ales.
" The next day," says he, " when the Bishops were assembled again, and I
was present with the Lord Crumwell, there came unto me a certain Arch
deacon, In the name of the Archbishop of Canterbury, which told me that the
other Bishops were grievously offended with me — that I, being a stranger,
should be admitted unto their disputation.67 Which thing, when I had shewed
it to the Lord Crumwell, he thought it best to give place unto the Bishops,
specially because he would not procure me their hatred ; for he knew well,
that if they had once conceived in their hearts any malice against any man,
they would never cease till they had gotten him out of the way. They had
before brought to death diverse whom the King did highly favour, before the
King himself could perceive and spy out their craft and subtilty. But he bade
me give him the paper wherein I had written my disputation, that he might
shew it to the Bishop of London, and to the other Bishops in the Council."
The obvious purport of this dispute respecting the ordinances
of Christ, here styled sacraments, was, whether there were
seven, or only two; and Ales firmly maintained his ground,
but his arguments had no effect whatever in swaying such men.
In these circumstances, what was to be done ? To one of
the parties it seemed at last, that some expedient must be
devised, to enforce obedience or conformity, silent or quiet
submission. But where did the power reside ? Only in the
breast of a man, who had been washing his hands in blood,
and " following the sport" on the day of his Queen's execu
tion ! In the language of sacred writ, that he was also
" proud, knowing nothing, but doting about questions and
strifes of words," — " vainly puffed up by his fleshly mind,"
we have already had but too much evidence ; only he was now
about to proceed one step farther, and should he only fix
on more sacraments than two, all must yield, and at least
bow assent.

n This must have been Cranmer's own brother, Edmund, who was present at this Convoca
tion. He had become Archdeacon of Canterbury in 1634, in place of Wm. Warham, a nephew
of Cranmer's predecessor, who, having retired on a pension, was now on the Continent.

1536.] THE ROYAL COMMANDS. 505
Of course, neither Henry, nor any of his advisers, under
stood that Christianity, as revealed in the New Testament,
repudiated all constraint of receiving and holding opinions by
human authority ; or, to use a word often employed since,
all " imposition ;" that the nature of faith did not admit of
this — that God himself had appointed no such means to en
force belief, nor nominated any Vicegerent to attempt this —
that dominion over conscience is God's exclusive province,
within which, especially, his name is " Jealous" — that any
man, therefore, presuming to enter here, must needs be an
usurper, demanding blind submission, — so that whatever
means be adopted, they must be nefarious. But, apart from
all these vital considerations, so far as the present uproar was
concerned, both Crumwell and Cranmer well knew, that they
had only to repair to the royal presence, and describe this
scene of strife, — " the perverse disputings of men of corrupt
minds, and destitute of the truth, who supposed that gain
was godliness." They did so at last, when a message arrived
from Henry. He soon stilled the tumult, very much in the
manner of Sardanapalus of old — " Sicvolo, sicjubeo, and let my
will for reason stand." These men had been convoked, in fact,
not to discuss, but to " do the King's business."
The form in which this settler came, was in that of certain
" Articles," which all must subscribe. They were strangely
enough entitled — " Articles devised by the King's Highness'
Majesty, to stablish Christian quietness and unity among us,
and to avoid contentious opinions !"
These, the first articles propounded in England, though
not originally composed by Henry, were carefully revised by
him ; at least, in the preface, he speaks of having, in his own
person, many times, bestowed on them " great pain, study,
labour and travail !" No doubt, Cranmer and his coadjutors
had done their best before then ; and if, after passing through
such an ordeal, these articles are to be regarded as the amount
of their united wisdom, they only discover what darkness and
confusion still reigned in the minds of all men in power. It
is not only the substance, but the order in which they are
stated, which, at once, betrays this confusion. At the same
time, we now discover that Cranmer must have had his secret
reason for passing over every Christian doctrine, or mat
ter of belief, and giving it out as imperative, that they must

506 THE FIRST ARTICLES. [bOOK I.
begin with the sacraments ! So it was with the Articles :
for after simply allowing the particulars of the Christian faith
to be contained in the Scriptures, but joining with them the
Nicene and Athanasian creeds ; we have 1. Baptism. 2. Pen
ance. 3. Tlie Sacrament of the Altar, or the Mass. 4. Jus
tification. 6. Images. 6. Honouring of Saints. 7. Praying to
Saints. 8. Rites and Ceremonies. 9. Purgatory. They, in
fact, allowed the use of images, sanctioned prayers to the
Saints, defended purgatory, and recommended prayers for the
dead. Far from following the sentiments of Ales, not only
spoken, but more fully delivered in writing to Crumwell, and
meant to have been read before them — they assert three
sacraments; 1. Penance, 2. Baptism, 3. the Lord's Supper —
maintaining that infants, dying before the second, perish ever
lastingly ! and that the real body and blood of Christ are
present in the third ! No wonder than Cranmer trembled for
his Articles, or was afraid of the set speech of Ales, next day ;
for if it had been listened to by any, not to say all, it might
have at least retarded the attempt to " stablish Christian
quietness," after this fashion.
Nor had these miserable articles any such effect. On the
contrary, when once published, they occasioned, says Burnet,
" great variety of censures." Beyond the walls of their as
sembly, " quietness," of any kind, was not to be the order of
the day ; although, at this moment, all the men within must
acquiesce in the unbending will of their acknowledged Head.
At least one hundred and nine individuals subscribed ; in
cluding Crumwell and the two Archbishops, sixteen Bishops,
forty Abbots and Priors, and fifty Archdeacons and Proctors.^
Nothing can more forcibly illustrate the absurdity of this
blind consent to certain propositions, professedly religious,
than that this assembly had never yet been able to agree
upon any translation of the Sacred Volume itself ; nor, upon
this subject, according to Cranmer's strongly expressed opinion
next year, if left to themselves, would they ever have agreed,
to the end of their days. But after thus subscribing, it would
have been more inconsistent still, had they now departed.

68 Among these signatures, those of fftnchester, Carlisle aud Llandaff, of course, do not appear,
for the reasons already specified. The vantage ground, however, thus given to Gardinbb, by
meddling with articles, was immense, and this will appear in due season. Neither Cranmer nor
Crumwell foresaw this ; but we have only to wait for Gardiner's return.

1536.] THE FRUITLESS PETITION. 507
without any reference to the subject. They had, to a man,
professedly recognised the Scriptures as containing the essen
tials of the Christian faith, but could not agree on a transla
tion into their own language ; neither could they, as a body,
approve of that translation, through which many of the people
were already so far before them in acquaintance with Divine
Truth. They agreed, however, upon the form of a petition,
to be presented to the King, that he would graciously indulge
unto his subjects of the laity, the reading of the Bible in the
English tongue, (which so many had already read without
his indulgence,) and that a new translation of it might be
forthwith made for that end and purpose.^ This was a con
venient method for postponing the subject; but, providentially,
their dissension or agreement was of no earthly moment, since
neither the petitioners, nor the King they addressed, were to
be allowed to furnish that translation of the Bible for England,
which was, ultimately, to become her own.
With regard to the other doings of this Convocation, his
Majesty had determined to reduce the prodigious number of
holidays. All feasts or holidays during harvest time, or from
the 1st of July to the 29th of September, were therefore at
once abolished, as well as those which fell during term time at
Westminster ; the number throughout the year being greatly
curtailed. And as a General Council had been summoned by
the Pontiff, to assemble at Mantua, Fox of Hereford submit
ted to both houses the King's reasons for declining to take
any part in its proceedings, he being resolved to hold no in
tercourse with that man ; for such was the phrase. To this
document all present subscribed. This was on the 20th of
July, or the last day of that Convocation, to which Latimer,
at the beginning, had preached in vain.^"
Thus, Parliament having risen, and the Convocation being
dissolved, after having shewn nothing save profound subser
viency to the wishes and the vices of the Sovereign, both
69 Heylin. Lewis. Whether copies of Coverdale's Bible had come to England by this time
or not, signified nothing to them ; but the bearing of this petition on that version will come be
fore us next year.
10 Had Gardiner been at home, and Tunstal not heen furnished with other business by the
King, this Convocation, even such as it was, had been still more disturbed, and certainly less
compliant. But while the former remained in France, the latter had, by his Majesty's com
mand, been reading the vexatious book of Cardinal Pole, and framing an answer. Tunstal, who
professedly had renounced the Pontiff, but ever hugged the popedom, read the whole with
amazement, and his full reply was written while this Convocation was sitting. It is dated on
the 13th of July.— Sec Cutton MS. Chop., E. vi., fol. 375.

508 CRUMWELL'S FIRST INJUNCTIONS. QbOOK I.
Crumwell and Cranmer will contrive to save themselves the
trouble of consulting either of these bodies, for some time to
come ; for it must be borne in mind that there was neither
Parliament nor Convocation held till the year 1539.
Immediately after this, the first act of Crumwell, as Viceger
ent, was to issue certain injunctions, and, upon one account at
least, they demand notice. Since the days of John Foxe to
the present, they have been generally misunderstood, and with
respect to the Scriptures especially, have led all subsequent
historians wrong. These injunctions of 1536, differ materially
from those to be issued in 1538. The latter, in 1 538, were
addressed to the Bishops, but not the former ; the latter em
braced the Scriptures, which these now issued, did not, and
could not.
With regard to these now put forth, they were merely fol
lowing up the doings of the Convocation just dissolved. The
act, abolishing the holidays in harvest, though intended to help
it forward, rather inflamed than satisfied many ; and Orum-
welFs present injunctions, therefore, embraced the holidays,
and the articles recently subscribed, but nothing more. The
remarks of Burnet and Collier are, on this account, equally
inapplicable. The former describes these injunctions as
" the first act of pure supremacy done by the King ; for in
all that went before, he had the concurrence of the two Con
vocations." But in these, the King and Vicegerent had such
concurrence. The holidays, it is expressly stated, were abo
lished " with the common assent and consent of the prelates
and clergy, in Convocation lawfully assembled :" and as for
the articles, all present had subscribed them, in conjunction
with Crumwell himself. " These injunctions," says Collier,
" we may observe, were only directed to the Deans and down
wards. Thus the Lord Crumwell had something of modesty
in his wonderful office, and forbore the brandishing his vice-
gerency over the Bishops." But the fact was, that the
" brandishing," as we have seen already, had taken place be
fore many witnesses, anterior to this, in the Convocation ;
when the King, through Crumwell, had awed them into silence
and unanimous acquiescence. Hence his injunctions were ad
dressed only to the Deans, and all below them.
Among these injunctions, however, by whatever means, there
has crept into the pages of several historians, the following :

1536.] NO BIBLE MENTIONED. 509
" Item. — That every parson or proprietary of any Church within this realm,
shall, on this side of the feast of St. Peter ad vincula, next coming, provide a
book of the whole Bible, both in Latin, and also m English, and lay the same
in the choir, for every man that will, to look and read thereon, and shall dis
courage no man from the reading of any part of the Bible, either in Latin
or English." 71
There is no necessity for estimating whether there were in existence,
any where in England, as many Bibles in Latin, much less in English, as
is here supposed ; nor for reminding the reader that the Convocation had
advanced only so far as to petition for a translation to be forthwith made ;
as a little reflection might long ago have led to the suspicion, that there
must be some palpable interpolation, or blunder here.
In these injunctions, let it be observed that the harvest holidays were
pointedly embraced, as having already, during the Convocation, been
abrogated by the King. In his injunctions he had branded them as
" prejudicial to the common weal," as " the very nurse of thieves and
vagabonds, and pernicious to the souls of men as leading to excess and
riot." These, as well as the additional injunctions, Crumwell now
ordered to be universally observed. They were to be read by all parsons
and curates to the people, under the penalties of suspension and seques
tration. Now, was it at all likely that the Vicegerent, in the very same
document, should fix on one of these denounced holidays, by name, and in
the middle of harvest, for enforcing obedience to any of these items ?
But, moreover, the thing enjoined was impossible, as the feast referred
to, " St. Peter ad vincula," was just at hand. The Convocation rose on
the 20th of July, the day referred to was the first of August ! 72
These considerations might suffice for rejecting the clause now quoted ;
but the fact is, that, though so often taken for correct, by former writers,
and moralised over by Lewis, who has led others astray ; the paragraph
is not to be found in the official copy in Cranmer's Register, not in WU-
kins' Concilia, not in the folio editions of Burnet, nor, it might be added,
in the text of any subsequent edition. It is only in the appendix of
later editions, that the erroneous statement of Foxe has been substituted
for what was before the correct one, though transcribed by Burnet himself
from the Register. It is curious enough that such a mistake should
never have been distinctly pointed out till the year 1835, by Mr. Jenkyns

71 This, by the way, had the thing been practicable, would have conveyed a very high eulo
gium indeed, on the people of England, at this early period ; as it took for granted, that if the
book were only open to inspection, whether in English or even Latin, there would be no lack
of people able to read either, and thus compare them, if so disposed. Two years hence we shall
find such a privilege actually proposed, (a mere proposal) within the diocese of Hereford, though
not by Crumwell as to the kingdom at large. He then alludes only to the English Bible.
72 These absurd feast-days were absolutely appointed with the view of superseding the Pagan
revelries. Thus, the feast of St. Peter ad vincula was instituted, to supersede a splendid pagan
festival, celebrated annually on the 1st of August, to commemorate the victory of Augustus
over Antony at Actium !

510 BETRAYERS OF TYNDALE. [bOOK I.
in his Remains of Cranmer. " It would appear then," says he, "that no
order was issued for placing the English Bible in Churches before Crum
weU's second set of injunctions, which were issued in September 1538." 73
Not one, certainly, in reference to the kingdom at large ; though Cran
mer, indirectly through the Chancellor in the summer of that year, issued
such injunctions within the diocese of Hereford. That there were no
other such, till then, will become increasingly evident, as we proceed.
Meanwhile, neither the King, Crwmwell, nor Cranmer had yet spoken one
word officially respecting any Bible, or New Testament separately.
Turning away, therefore, from the Convocation of 1536,
which, with reference to the Sacred Volume, was equally
fruitless of any benefit to the kingdom with that of 1534,
no sooner do we come to the actual history of the English
Bible, than it turns out to have been by far the most remark
able year of all that had preceded it ! Nay, to those who
have never looked narrowly into the subject, it may seem
next to incredible, that there should have been of Tyndale's
New Testament, as many editions as in most of the preceding
years when put together ! Such, however, will turn out to
have been the fact, and of this state of things let us hope that
our Translator could not have been kept altogether in igno
rance, more especially as the jailor and his family will appear
to have been won to his principles. So far as he did know,
after such a passage through life, this must have cheered him
in his entrance to the haven of eternal rest, as a finer sun,
which was to shine for ages upon his native land. He had
corrected his New Testament in 1534, and these were re
prints of that edition ; but we must refrain from any farther
account at this moment, reserving this for the close, as the
appropriate and the only refreshing intelligence throughout
the whole year. Besides, the absorbing question, at present,
must be — " What has become of those guilty men who had
ensnared our Translator? and, above all, of Tyndale himself?"
Upon once more looking abroad, and before we approach
the castle of Vilvorde, or the martyr's stake, it is of im
portance to record whatever can be certainly ascertained,
not only respecting the betrayers of Tyndale, after that Mr.
Poyntz had so providentially escaped ; but the agitation of

73 See vol. i., p. 200, note. " Wilkins, it may bo observed, has placed CrumweU's second set of
injunctions in 1538, under the s.iine year as the first, namely 1536."— Conc«. iii., p. 815.

3 536.] COLD INDIFFERENCE. 511
Henry VIII. himself in connexion with one of them, in his
assumed character of the gentleman. Since not only Halle
and Foxe, but all other historians fail us here, these particulars,
now read for the first time, will, it is presumed, prove the
more interesting.
It will be remembered that Theobald, the man whom Crum
well and Cranmer had sent to the Continent last year, felt no
scruple whatever in imposing upon Phillips, in order to
extract from him the precise circumstances respecting Tyn
dale's apprehension ; and these he had duly communicated
both to the Primate, and the Vicegerent. He told Phillips
that he had come to remain, and had seemed to comply with the
entreaty, that he would abide in the same house. The
natural consequence of this dissimulation soon followed.
Theobald departed, and Phillips then saw that he had been
deceived. He soon learnt that he belonged to the Archbishop
of Canterbury, and immediately reported him to be, what he
really was, a spy ; though evidently not commissioned by
either of his employers to resort to Louvain, or there interest
himself on behalf of the illustrious exile and prisoner at Vil
vorde. Theobald himself repeats all this, and more, two years
later, in 1538.
" After," says he, " when I was gone into High Almaine, and Phillips learn
ing that I was belonging unto my Lord of Canterbury, he accused me to be
a spy, and a messenger sent into Germany about some practices ; causing
watch to be laid for me, betwixt Antwerp and Cologne, by the space of three
or four months, thinking that I would have returned upon some message." 74
Phillips himself, however, as we have seen, remained about
Brussels and Louvain, all the time that Mr. Poyntz was held
in prison; but after his escape into England, the abandoned
youth fled, leaving Tyndale to the tender mercies of the
wicked. The probability is, that Mr. Poyntz, immediately
after his arrival in London, had succeeded so far as to excite
alarm respecting this man ; and this he could easily do, by
communicating, through his brother, with the King direct.
But probability approaches to certainty, when it is observed,
that by the month of March, soon after Mr. Poyntz had got
to England, the conduct of Phillips had effectually roused the
indignation of the English Monarch. This young man had
li Cotton MS., Nero, B, vi., fol. I.'i2, dated Padua, 1st October [16.'!8.] This letter will pre
sent itself to our notice once more.

512 TYNDALE'S LATTER DAYS. [^BOOK I.
not only been pursuing Mr. Poyntz and Tyndale himself, unto
death, but " raging against Henry," as Theobald had stated
long ago ; though no notice had been taken of the warning.
For eight months, from July last year, to March in this,
there is no evidence to be found that either Crumwell or
Cranmer had moved one step, and even now the apparent
apathy of both seems to force itself on our notice. The
Vicar- General was busy in chiming in with the King's odious
purposes and plan against his Queen : the Primate was look
ing after the worldly interests of a brother-in-law .7^ But it
will be abundantly more awkward, or rather humiliating, for
both, if, after the letters from Theobald, one of the betrayers
of Tyndale had actually been permitted to sit down in the
Convocation in June, and there listen to Latimer, when he
lectured so roundly the whole fraternity ! We shall see.
Already we have had sufficient evidence that the mind
of Henry, at this juncture, was like " the troubled sea," as
it continued to be, throughout the whole of this year. His
" secret commission" upon Anne Boleyn was already at work,
and it was while they were so engaged, that we find two
letters of the incensed monarch, dated from his palace near
London. Both manuscripts (in Latin, and bearing the same
date) are very imperfect ; but there is enough remaining to
answer our enquiry. The King, it will be evident, was en
raged at least, if not alarmed; but it was only because of the
language and conduct of Phillips, with reference to his own
beloved self. For Tyndale, or in regard to his seizure and
imprisonment, we look in vain for one word of sympathy;
though his condition by this time, could not fail to have been
fully known to his Majesty .7^
75 He is writing to Crumwell — " And as one that is bold many times to trouble you with
suits, both for myself and my friends, which naturally, yea, and by tlie law of God, I am bound to
do— in my right heartiest wise, desire you to be good master unto this bearer, my brother- in-law ;
(who is clerk of my kitchen, and for whom I spoke to you yesterday at the Court ;) as to get him
the farm or lease of the Priory of Shelforde, or of ' some other house of religion' in Nottingham
shire, where his native country is ; which now are, by the Act of Parliament, suppressed. At
Lambeth, the 25th day of March 1536." — MS. Chapter- House, Westminster, or Cranmer's B«m.
by Jenkyns, i., p. 161. The bearer may have been Harold Boselle of lUidcIiife, married to
Cranmer's sister.
7fi This becomes much more observable, from there being close by, in the same vol. of
manuscript, a letter written on\yfour days before those about to be quoted, and from Henry to
the Archbishop and Lords of Bremen, on behalf of " our servant George Wollwever ;"— " inter
cepted by guileful arts, and most unjusUy detained a prisoner, and every day more harshly and
cruelly treated." This letter is at once peremptory and indignant, though it related merely to
commerce. It is dated from our palace near London, 17th March 1535, i. e. 1536.— Vitellius, B. xxi.,
fol. 102: Now, the situation of Tyndale was precisely similar, or rather far worse, but no such
remonstrance followed, as to the translator of the Sacred Volume !

1536.] PHILLIPS ONCE MORE. 513
The first letter is addressed by the King, as " Defender of
the Faith, Lord of Ireland, and Supreme Head, immediately
under Christ ! in the territories of the Church of England,
to the Consuls and Senators of the city of Nuremberg."
" Out of this our kingdom there have escaped two of our subjects; of whom
the one is James Gryifeth Apwell, (ap-Howell,) but the other is Henry Phillips
 most perfidious men, and some time since guilty of the most heinous
crime of {Icesce Mayestatis) treason — ^polluted also with detestable sacrilege, and
every kind of base action, by guile and evil-speaking covering such impious
crimes. Seeking a place in your territory, we have heard that they will take
their journey  So, for our authority over them, we pursue them, for the pur
pose of exacting the punishment long ago due to their wickedness ; and we shall
not be at rest in our zeal, except they are brought agaui into our power. There
fore, you, whom we know to be upright and just, we earnestly entreat, that
upon our high favour, if at any time, with your knowledge, they take their
journey through your territory, or that of your allies, ye will by all means take
care that they be apprehended and safely sent over to us, who shall most liber
ally repay the expenses and trouble for this business. And in a like matter,
or more important, if at any time [we can be of service,] we shall always be
greatly mindful of your benevolence towards us. So farewell. From our
Palace near Loudon, 23d March, 1535, i. e. 1536.""
The second letter is addressed to a man of considerable
influence, an old correspondent of Henry's, Laurence Stayber,
residing in Nuremberg. Commencing with all his titles, and
on the same day, he proceeds —
" As we have now, by long experience, proved your fideUty, dihgence, and
perseverance, we always confidently employ your assistance. It happened, in
a former year, that because [James Gryffith] had committed against us the
crime of treason, and to whom, of our clemency, we forgave what deserved any
kind of punishment, hoping he would change for the better  Having abused
this our clemency, and turning his mind to the most wicked and impious crimes,
restraining no wickedness, but committing such, publicly and privately ; at
length, terrified by the consciousness of such grievous offences, and fearing
what was long ago due to his treasons and guilt, after he had privately tra
versed difi'erent countries, in conclusion conveyed himself to Flanders, some great
rebels and traitors being disguised along with him. There, for some time carry
ing on the most grievous course, they proved the most wretched and unworthy
men that any land could endure, and whom, above all things, we desire should
come into our will and power, him especially. Whom now we hear, have de
parted to Italy through Germany ; (together with one Henry Phillips, descended
from obscure parents, our most perfidious rebel,) that from change of place in
unknown countries, they may escape the justice of the laws. Therefore we
earnestly entreat that you will use such care, by spies, both of the pubUc and
private roads," &c.''
These letters furnish one proof, among others, of that wide-

77 Vitellius, B, xxi.. No. 39. 78 idem, fol. 103.
VOL. I. 2 K

514 PHILLIPS AND GRIFFITH DENOUNCED. [bOOK I.
spread discontent which now prevailed against the King.
dryffith and Phillips were not precisely of the same party
before this ; but there was an evident sympathy between all
these malecontents, wherever they dwelt, and whenever they
met ; and they were all, more or less, acting in concert,
either against his Majesty's proceedings, or "the new learning."
As for this man, with whom Phillips is now classed, James
Gryffith or James G-reffeth ap-Howell, as he is sometimes
called, he was not a common individual, or, like Phillips, of
low parentage, but the son of a gentleman in Wales, and a
nephew of Sir Rice ap-Thomas, the well-known military com
mander, under both Henry VIII. and his father. Gryffith
had been imprisoned in London ; but, according to this letter,
pardoned. This was in 1533, on which he fled, in June of
that year, into Scotland ; where Lord Dacre and T. Wharton,
the ambassadors, were ordered to watch him. He went not
alone ; on the 2d of July, Dacre informs Henry direct, that
he had come to St. Ninian's, near Stirling, having his wife
and eight persons with him,7^ and that he named himself uncle
to (Sir G-riffith) Rice of Wales, the son of Sir Rice already
mentioned.'" From thence he soon proceeded to Edinburgh,
with his train, " well favoured and appointed ;" where, though
not received by the King, he frequently " resorted to the
Lords of the Council." So long as Scotland was at war with
England, he wished to remain, and was permitted to do so for
some time ; but by the month of December we find him in
Antwerp, where he had been evidently desirous of stirring
up war with England, and proffering aid from Wales, if
Queen Mary and the Emperor's Council would only send
ships across the sea. Carondelet, the Archbishop of Palermo,
declined, saying, that the King of England, the Emperor, and
that country were friends. In May 1534, Gryffith was at
Lubeck, and had gone from place to place, as he was doing
still.'' The truth is, that both of these men, whether separ
ately or in company, were now on their way towards Cardinal

79 More correctly, his wifo and daughter, with seven servants, one of whom was named
Henry Ellington.
80 Tho mother of Sir Rice, was also named Griffith, a lineal descendant from Howell ap-Grif-
flth. By inter-marriage, the two families were interwoven for ages. Sir Rice may.be ranked
among the progenitors of the present Lord Dynevor.
81 Sec Government State Papers, vol. iv., pp. 647, 6,11, 652, compared with a letter from John
Coke, to Crumwell, dated Antwei-p December 9.— Cotton MS., Galba, B. x., fol. 72.

1536.] INDIFFERENCE OP ENGLAND. 515
Pole. He became the nucleus of all the disaffected. Every
one that was discontented, in distress, or in debt, gathered
round him, or at least applied to him ; and although neither
Phillips nor Gryffith received encouragement, in two years
after this, we shall find the former, unwittingly, excite in
Pole the utmost fear and apprehension.
It cannot be forgotten, that Phillips had, within the court
of Queen Mary, denounced Henry as " a tyrant and a robber
of the commonwealth." The " first-fruits," no doubt, had
already been consigned to the King, and he was, at the
moment, in the act of receiving the spoils of the monasteries ;
but this man had been permitted to remain unreproved by
the court of Brussels ; while Gryffith, for a longer period, had
been allowed to harbour in Flanders. This, for political
reasons, had been hitherto endured ; but, as the Emperor and
Francis were, though known to few, actually preparing for
war, and Henry had resolved to remain neutral, hence we
account for the English envoy, Mr. Vaughan, being now
withdrawn. There is a letter from him, dated in May, or
only two months after those just quoted.
" The 27th day of this month," says he, " came a post from the Emperor to the
Court, who brought such uneasy news from his army, as hath made them some
what sad in the Court. These news are kept so secret yet, that they come to
the knowledge of few or none. If they had been good, they had been out or
their letters had been half read.
" As I was writing that goeth before, came my servant out of England with
your letter, by the which ye write me, that the King's pleasure is, that I shall
take my leave of the Queen, and other the King's friends here, and so make
my return into England, which I shall gladly do, with mine humble thanks for
the same. — From Brussels, the 29th day of May 1536 — Your old servant —
S. Vaughan." 82
Here, then, was the same man who, in other days, had
spoken so boldly respecting Tyndale ; but in favour of his
very life, to the everlasting disgrace of the King of England,
as well as some others, Vaughan is not commissioned, before
he leaves, to say one word !
Nine months ago, or in August last year, both Crumwell
and Cranmer had been very pointedly informed, by their com

as Cotton MS., Galba, B. x., fol. 68. This letter must have been in reply to Crumwell.
Vaughan was sent again, as King's ambassador, to Flanders, in 1538, and he remained abroad,
much employed in pecuniary and mercantile negociations, down to 1546, or the close of Henry's
reign, and longer still. He was twice married, and died in London early in 1650.

51C COURT OF BRUSSELS. QbOOK I.
mon agent, of Tyndale's situation, as well as of the myrmi
dons who had betrayed him ; the first generous visit of Mr.
Poyntz, post haste, after this, had confirmed the whole;
when at last, in October, Crumwell sent one solitary letter.
Since then, here was Mr. Poyntz, escaped to England only
with his life, and now comes Stephen Vaughan, who once
pled so powerfully against persecution for opinions. But no ;
nothing was done !
It has now, therefore, become but too apparent, that neither
Henry, nor his Ministers, were free from the blood of William
Tyndale. Had he, or they, exerted their official power to the
last, the guilt might have fallen not so heavy upon them ; but
instead of this, they had all, as we have seen, only ten days
before Vaughan's letter, stepped into blood at home; and what
sympathy or generous feeling could be expected from them l^
His own country having thus left him to perish, the only
remaining quarter to which we can turn, is to the Govern
ment of Flanders itself. Curiosity must be awake to know
the character of the parties into whose hands Tyndale had
fallen. The reigning Princess, Mary, was merely a vassal of
the priests. With the chief man, still in power, Carondelet,
the Archbishop of Palermo, we have been long familiar, and
to him the character of Tyndale must have been well known
for nine years past, at least ; but he was a mere courtier,
without heart ; and from the days in which Cornelius Graph-
eus, the learned Secretary of Antwerp, had, under his eye,
suffered so severely, for publishing a book on " the liberty of
the Christian Religion," he had been familiar with cruelty.
No mercy was therefore to be expected from him."* JErardus
a Marchia, the Cardinal and Bishop of Liege, the man to
whom Reginald Pole fled next year for protection, was, of
course, a determined opponent of the Scriptures ; and Mon-
tigni lived under the sovereign power of the monks. Such
were the men of influence and authority. It was only three
years since Erasmus himself, that eminent reviver of litera-
83 The 17th and 19th of May were indeed days of blood in London. See pages 474-476.
m It was Hulst, the Inquisitor, who, as early as 1522, first threw Graphcus, alias Schryver,
into a dungeon, and then sought out matter of accusation against him ; when he appealed lo
the Archbishop of Palermo, describing the deplorable condition to which he was reduced, but
in vain. The book published was by .Tohn Van Gooch, and Grapheus had written a preface,
" blaming those who laid a needless yoke upon Christians." After great and tedious suffering,
this learned man at last escaped, and lived till 1558, aged 76. See Brandt's History; and his
fine countenance in Foppen's Bibl. Belg., i., p. 201.

1536.] HOME AND ABROAD IMPLICATED. 517
ture, was invited to this Court. But he was then, and ever
afterwards, afraid to venture near it, even though the Em
peror himself had invited him, and money had been remitted
to defray his travelling charges."' Sometime after this invita
tion, his picture of the Government was sufficiently graphical,
and it serves our present purpose. Having referred to the
monks, in a letter to Cholerus, in 1534, he says — " These
animals are omnipotent at the Emperor's Court," in the Low
Countries. " Mary is a mere puppet, maintained by our
nation ; Montigni, a man of authority, is a tool of the Fran
ciscans ; the Cardinal of Liege is an ambitious friend, and
when he takes offence, a violent enemy ; the Archbishop of
Palermo is a giver of good words, and nothing else.""^
And thus it is at last, that the history of the times, and
of the men of the times, whether in England or Brabant,
but too well prepare us for anticipating the martyrdom at
Vilvorde. After the escape of Mr. Poyntz, " Tyndale," we are in
formed by Foxe, " was proffered an advocate and a procurer;
for in any crime there, it shall be permitted to counsel to
make answer in the law ; but he refused to have any, say
ing, that he would make answer fm- himself; and so he did."
But at last, after much reasoning, when no reason would
serve, although he deserved no death, he was condemned, by
virtue of the Emperor's decree at Augsburg. Such had been
" the power of his doctrine, and the sincerity of his life, that
during the time of his imprisonment, which endured about
one whole year and a-half, (or rather a year and three-
quarters,) it is said he converted his keeper, the keeper's
daughter, and others of his household. The rest that were
in the Castle, and conversant with Tyndale, reported of him,
that if he were not a good Christian man, they could not tell
whom to trust : and the Procurator-General, the Emperor's
attorney, being there, left this testimony of him, that he

85 He waa now on his death-bed, at Fribourg. He expired on the 12th of July, in the 69th
year of his age, and was buried at Basil.
86 Jortin's Life, 8vo, vol. ii., pp. 44, 51. Jjean db Charon, now in his 68th year, was the son
of a chancellor of Burgundy, who, on account of his diminutive stature, was named Carondele-
tus. Since 1520, he had been Chancellor of Flanders ; on the resignation of Cardinal T. Cajetan,
he was, in 1523, appointed Archbishop of Palermo, and Primate of Sicily; and since 1531, he
had been President in the Privy Council of the Low Countries. He died at Mechlin, 8th Feb.
1545, aged 75, and lies interred at Bruges, in the church of St. Donatian. Moreri. Foppen, ii.,
p. 605, where, if the impression he good, there is an excellent likeness of the little man.

518 MARTYRDOM OF TYNDALE. [[bOOK I.
was ' Homo docius, pius, et bonus'' — a learned, pious, and
good man."
The decree issued at Augsburg, on the 19 th of November
1530, was still in full force, after which, no man was admit
ted into the judicature of the Imperial Chamber, unless he
approved of it ; and the Privy Council of Brussels, of which
Carondelet was President, enjoyed ample authority in all
matters, religious as well as political. The persecutors of
Tyndale, therefore, knew full well, since his own King and
Council had left him to perish, how they could, at any time,
close the controversy, and slay him. That detestable decree
had not only enjoined the continuance of all the former cere
monies, rites, and superstitions, — but particularly rejected the
doctrine oi justification by faith alone. The doctors of Louvain
must have discussed many subjects with their prisoner : His
translation of the Scriptures, of course, he would defend to
the last ; but here was one point, on which Tyndale would
remain firm as a rock. There was no man in Germany, to
say nothing of England, who had written with greater dis
tinctness on the subject of justification ; no man who had
discovered a more profound esteem for this sacred and precious
truth. This was one of those " high matters," on which he
had so warmly pressed his dearest earthly friend, Fryth, to
remain immovable in London ; and it is not a little remark
able, that, at this moment, besides his New Testament in
folio, Tyndale's first publication was either printing or finished,
and in London, too, under this very title — " A treatise of
justification by faith only."^
From the past history frequently showing how early, and
with what accuracy, Tyndale was in possession of intelligence
from England, we have already supposed it to be quite
possible, that, though in prison, he may have heard of many
things that had occurred there, during the last nine months ;
and, more especially, that his New Testament, as corrected in
1534, was so pouring into his native land, by repeated
editions, from Antwerp. This is the more probable, from his
having been made useful to the keeper of the Castle and his

87 Herbert's Ames, iii., pp. 1646. 1832.— The full title—" A Treatyse of Justiflcacyon by faith
only, otherwise called, The Parable of tho Wicked Mammon, by William Tindale. Imprinted
in Southwark for J. Nycholson." This boldness in printing cannot be accounted for, without
referring to the influence of Queen Anne.

1536.] MARTYRDOM OF TYNDALE. 519
family, having thus gained their favour. But, besides this,
all that he had translated, was now actually proceeding to
the press, in folio, and under the eye of a competent friend and
great admirer, John Rogers. This was more than Crumwell,
or Cranmer, or the King, yet knew ; although the volume
was to prove absolutely the first Bible, the reading of which
throughout England, they were to enjoin ! But now, and
after such years of persecution, the end was come ! !
It appears to have been at some hour on Friday, the 6th of
October 1536, that Tyndale was led forth to be put to death.
Before leaving the Castle, he delivered a letter to the keeper,
addressed either to Mr. or Mrs. Poyntz of Antwerp ; but no
copy of it remains.^8 Having reached the fatal spot, the
noble martyr was fastened to the stake — upon which, " crying
with a fervent zeal, and a loud voice — " Loed ! open the eyes
OP THE King op England" — he was first strangled, and then
his body was consumed to ashes ! Though, strange to say, even
up to this hour, " no marble tells us where !" For, surely,
if ever the lines of England's choicest Christian poet were
strictly applicable to any single man, every word, by way of
eminence, belongs to the Memory of William Tyndale, —
 " His blood was shed
In confirmation of the noblest claim,
Our claim to feed upon immortal truth,
To walk with God, to be divinely free,
To soar, and to anticipate the skies.
Yet few remember him. He lived unknown
Till persecution dragg'd him into fame,
And chased him up to Heaven. His ashes flew —
No marble tells us whither. With his name
No bard embalms and sanctifies his song ;
And history, so warm on meaner themes,
Is cold on this."89
88 Shortly after the martyrdom, the keeper himself carried this letter to the house from
whence Phillips had betrayed him. Mrs. Poyntz, a German lady, had probably not as yet
followed her husband to England, if she did at all now ; for Mr. Poyntz afterwards returned to
the Continent.
89 Cowper. Will the censure here conveyed, be suffered to continue much longer? It would
be strange if some British emigrant or American, now carried off the palm, before any English
man proper ; but certainly there are but few histories, in which so many points occur, fitted to
kindle the poeVs fire, or excite the painter's genius. Had Milton, or Cowper himself, only been
aware of the heart-stirring incidents, probably we should not have had it in our option so to
quote these lines. As for Monuments, among all that have ever been erected, to evince the
gratitude and veneration of posterity, one at least is still wanting— but no common one— to the
memory of Willtam Tvndale. Let the proposal commence^ where it will, it may go bound
THE lUNGDOM, and prove what it ought to be— a National Monument.

520 HIS WONTED BENEVOLENCE. [bOOK I.
Tyndale's dying invocation, most emphatically expressed his
opinion of Henry VIII. ; and uttered, as it was, with a loud
voice, though in a foreign land, was meant to be heard, if not
also carried to England. The precise meaning of the speaker,
in these dying words, it may be difficult to divine ; but if
Cranmer could go so far as to grossly flatter his Majesty, even
on the third of May ; Tyndale told him the truth with his
last breath, from the stake, on the sixth of October. He re
garded all that Henry had yet done, as the work of a blind
man, and certainly this was the most charitable of all construc
tions. Though to us now, who view the royal progress entire,
and such as it was, that blindness, even by this time, was no
longer a mere misfortune, but his crime. The King had
already, and but too manifestly, closed his eyes, and hardened
his heart, of which his future life will afford the saddest
evidence. As for the Martyr himself, since no good man was ever
cut off in the midst of his usefulness, so neither was Tyndale.
His work was done, and by an invincible providence, he had
been singularly preserved to the last. In the councils of
heaven, he had accomplished, as a faithful servant, his day,
and evening's welcome hour had come. Occupying a place in
the history of his country, which no other man could ever
occupy after him, he was now called off from his labour, and
with a character unspotted. That character has been drawn
long ago, and with so much of simple beauty, that we must
give it entire. Oh, what a contrast does it exhibit to almost
all those men around him, whether at home or abroad, to whom
his life and labours have constrained us to allude !
" First, he was a man very frugal, and spax'e of body, a great student, and
earnest labourer in the setting forth of the Scriptm-es of God. He reserved or
hallowed to himself two days in the week, which he named his pastime, Mon
day and Saturday. On Monday he visited all such poor men and women as
were fled out of England, by reason of persecution, into Antwerp, and these,
once well understanding their good exercises and quaUties, he did very liberally
comfort and relieve ; and in like manner provided for the sick and diseased
persons. On the Saturday, he walked round about the town, seeking every
comer and hole, where he suspected any poor person to dwell ; and where he
found any to be well occupied, and yet over-burdened with children, or else
were aged and weak, those also he plentifully relieved. And thus he spent his
two days of pastime, as he called them. And truly his alms were very large,
and so they might well be ; for his exhibition that he had yearly, of the English
merchants at Antwerp, when living there, was considerable, and that for the
most part he bestowed upon the poor. The rest of the days of the week, he

1536'.] HIS AMPLE REWARD. 521
gave wholly to hia book, wherein he most diligently travailed. When the Sunday
came, then went he to some one merchant's chamber, or other, whither came
many other merchants, and unto them would he read some one parcel of Scrip
ture ; the which proceeded so fruitfully, sweetly and gently from him, much like
to the writing of John the Evangelist, that it was a heavenly comfort and joy
to the audience, to hear him read the Scriptures : likewise, after dinner, he
spent an hour in the same manner. He was a man without any spot or blemish
of rancour or malice, full of mercy and compassion, so that no man living was
able to reprove him of any sin or crime ; although his righteousness and justi
fication depended not thereupon before God ; but only upon the blood of Christ
and his faith upon the same. In this faith he died, with constancy, at Vilvorde,
and now resteth with the glorious company of Christ's martyrs, blessedly in the
Lord. — And thus much of the hfe and story of the true servant and martyr
pf God, William TrNDALE, who for his notable pains and travail, may well be
called the Apostle of England, in this our latter age."
Such was the estimate of old John Foxe in his day ; and
though, in various instances, he stands chargeable with indis
criminate praise, in the present, he has not exceeded ; nay,
living so early, he could not be expected to distinguish the
relative greatness, and peculiar distinction of Tyndale's cha
racter. Standing above all his contemporaries, with only one
man by his side, his companion Fryth, he had never temporised,
never courted human favour, never compromised or sacrificed
one iota of Divine truth ; but with his face to the foe, and
dying on the shield of faith, he was called to quit the well-
fought field, for his mansion near the throne ; to refresh him-
-self, after the dust and turmoil and heat of the day, in the
paradise of Grod. Having once exchanged contention with
the votaries of darkness and superstition, for the harmony and
the light of heaven ; the solitude of his dungeon, for the pre
sence of his Redeemer, in the city of the living God; his
faithful and intrepid spirit, as Milton would have said of him,
" had entered that region, where they, undoubtedly, that by
their labours, counsels, and prayers, have been earnest for the
common good of religion and their country, shall receive above
the inferior orders of the blessed ; and in super-eminence of
beatific vision shall clasp inseparable hands with joy and bliss
in over measure for ever."
But the influence and usefulness of such a man, could not
possibly die with him. If he had now rested from all his la
bour, we shall find his works following him. The light he had
kindled, was to prove " the joy of many generations." Hence
the force of individual consistent Christian character — the im
portance of individual exertion.

522 THE FRIEND OF TYNDALE. [^BOOK I.
At the place of honour, or as it were close by the martyr's
stake, we must not omit to notice his kind and generous friend,
Thomas Poyntz ; and the more so, since it has never been
before observed who he was. It is well that we have one
Englishman, who boldly stood by our illustrious countryman
to the last, and only left him at the risk of his own life, when
he could do no more. He is entitled to the grateful remem
brance of posterity.
The Poyntz family, descended from Drago FitzPons, who
accompanied William the Conqueror into England, is well
known to have been one of the most ancient in England.
One branch settling in Grloucestershire, and another in Essex ;
it is singular enough, that Tyndale commenced his career with
the one, and closed it with the other. The Lady of Sir John
Walsh, where he had been tutor, was the daughter of Sir
Robert Poyntz of Iron Acton, Grloucestershire ; and Mr.
Poyntz, with whom he last lived at Antwerp, was the second
son, and finally the heir of the Essex family.
When Tyndale was seized, it lends additional interest to
the zeal of this gentleman at the moment, when it is observed
that he had been but recently married, and to a German
Lady, Ann, the daughter of John Oalva, Esq. To her, after
the confusion had subsided, and notwithstanding the state of
the Continent, or the risk he had run, he returned ; and be
came the father of three sons, Gabriel, Ferdinand, and Robert,
and of one daughter, Susanna.
The Manor-house of North Okendon, in Essex, eighteen
miles from London, to which he addressed his letters, and to
which, of course, he fled from Brussels, had been in possession
of his ancestors from the days of Edward III. ; and his elder
brother, John, to whom he wrote with such generous warmth
and so earnestly, having, by the death of his father, come to
the estate in the year 1500, died in the first of King Edward's
reign, without issue.^ Thomas, who survived him fifteen

so The admirer of ancient English poetry may be pleased to linow that this was no other
than the friend of Sir Thomas Wyatt, whom he addresses as " Myne own John Poyns," when
celebrating the happiness of a country life, recounting the miseries of public service, and lashing
the vices of a Court, if not the Court. Mr. Poyntz had been in the service of Queen Catherine,
and, as mentioned by Halle, had accompanied Henry and his Queen to the Camp of the cloth qf
gold in 1520, but had afterwards retired. His remarkably intelligent and expressive counte-
nance may be seen among his Majesty's collection of Holbein's Heads, by Chamberlain ; and it
is one of the finest heads in that splendid volume. Mr. C. adds, " John Poyntz probably first
employed HoLBBrN, and afterwards recommended the artist to his relations, for we shall find

1536.] THE FRIEND OF TYNDALE. 523
years, but remained some time abroad, of course succeeded ;
and dying also at North Okendon, in 1 562, lies there interred.^'
His eldest son, born about two years after Tyndale's death,
in 1588, Sir Gabriel Poyntz, High Sheriff of Essex, was in
terred by his father's side in 1 607 ; and the only daughter,
Susanna, married to the Mayor of London, Sir Richard
Saltonstall, lies by a mural monument in the adjoining parish
of South Okendon.
Although acquainted with the history of this ancient and
retired parish church, the writer could not be satisfied with
out visiting the burial-place of Mr. Poyntz, and examining
for himself the memorials of his family. He was chiefly de
sirous of ascertaining, not only what vestiges remained, but
whether there was any expression still legible, in regard to by
far the most memorable event in the life of Tyndale's friend ;
and more especially because the interpretation intended to be
conveyed by the lines on his tomb, had never been adverted
to by any author. Most probably they have never before been
understood, except by relatives at the time of his decease.
It was in the month of September 1837, or precisely three
hundred years after the English Bible at which Tyndale
laboured, the basis of all following editions, had reached this
country. He found the little church, with its flint stone
embattled tower covered with ivy, in a condition distinguished
for its cleanliness ; and the monuments of different families,
some of them in elegant marble, in perfect preservation ; but
the humbler tablets excited the deepest interest.
In a horizontal line, in the wall of the Chancel, are the
monuments of the Poyntz family, in regular succession from
about the middle of the fourteenth century ; while that of
Tyndale's devoted friend remains, easily to be distinguished
no less than three portraits of gentlemen of this family." Be this as it may, with regard to his
recommending Holbein, but the other two seera to be portraits of Sir Nicholas, of Iron Acton,
the Sheriff of Gloucestershire, the nephew of Lady Walsh of Little Sodbury, where Tyndale
once lived as tutor. From the letter of Thomas Poyntz, already given, it is evident tliat he
addressed his brother as a man who might have infiuence at Court. He had known it well, and
many years before Crumwell himself did.
91 At his decease he held this Manor, with above 1300 acres of land in North and South Oken
don, Alveley, Upminster, South Wield, Brendwood, Warley, Childerdich, Dunton, East Horn-
dean, Grays-Thurrock, and Bulvan ; with the presentation to the Church of North Okendon, of
the Queen, in free soccage, by fealty. Inquis. 4 Eliz. Pipe-roll in the Tower. The occasion
of this inquisition must have been Mr. Poyntz' absence on the Continent, where he remained
till 1556 ; at least that is the date of hia first presentation to the Church, the widow of his
brother having done this in 1554 ; but tho presentations for above three hundred years, by this
family, may he seen in Newcourt's Rcpertorium, the last of which was by Lord Thomas Poyntz
Littleton, in 1697, the incumbent living in 1700.— Sec the followirig note 93.

524, THE FRIEND OF TYNDALE. [BOOK I.
from the others, by its still conveying to the reader, what
had been his own impressions, in reference to the scene
through which he had passed at Brussels.
" This gentleman, for his most faithful service to his Prince,
and his most ardent profession of the truth of the gospel, was
in bonds, and suffered imprisonment in countries beyond seas,
so that he was, at this time, evidently destined to death ; but
forecasting with himself, relying on Divine providence, he
wonderfully escaped out of prison. In this little chapel, he
now peacefully sleeps in the Lord. Anno 1562, or the 5th of
Queen Elizabeth." The following is the epitaph, as copied
from the tablet in the wall.
" Thomas Poyntz Armiger [filius Gulielmi] Pointz, ad quem post mortem
fratris, Joannis, Dominu[m hujus villse] et patronatus Ecclesise pervenit ; qui
duxit in matrimonium Annam van Calva, Filiam et unam cohseredam Joannis
Calvse Armigeri nationeq. Germani, ex qva genvit Gabrielem, Ferdinandum ae
Bobertum iilios, iilianq. unam Susanam.
" Hie pro fidelissimo Principis svi servitio, ac ardentissimo euangelicse
veritatis professione uincvla, et incaroerationes in transmarinis regionibvs
passus est, adeo ut Csedi jam plane destinatus esset, nisi divina fretus provi-
dentia euasione 6 carcere mirifice sibi prospexisset : in hoc sacello jam placide
obdormit in Domino, anno 1562. R. Reg. Eliz. quinto."92
At that early period, there may have been some prudential
reason for the immortal name of Tyndale not being mentioned.
But now, after the lapse of three centuries, without this ex
pressive key to the inscription being known to many genera
tions, to the audience assembling there every week, or, per
haps, to any other persons ; till this be hinted, the lines them
selves convey but feeble meaning. To this name alone, the
epitaph owes all its emphasis, and to it, the humble tablet
may, perhaps, now owe a more frequent inspection. Passed
over hitherto, without marked observation, if we once except
the Manor-house of Little Sodbury, it is the solitary relict
left upon English ground, pointing to perhaps the greatest
benefactor that our native country ever enjoyed.
As for the excellent man himself, this unpretending me
morial has, all along, conveyed his ou^n testimony to sur
vivors ; but a far more conspicuous token of respect for his

02 Tho decease of Mr. Poyntz, h.-i8 been ascribed to the 5th of May 1562 ; but this must be a
mistake. Thefifth of Elizabeth began on the 17th ot November, which fi.\es his death to the
close of the year 1562.

1536.] THE FRIEND OF TYNDALE. 525
memory, may now well be erected ; and the people should
know how much they stand indebted to a man " sleeping
peacefully in the Lord," in the vault below.
Long before this late period, the deeply interesting history
of our Translator ought to have been familiar to every one,
and then a marble tablet might, at least, have told that —
POYNTZ, THE FEIEND— THE LAST AND ARDENT FRIEND OF TYNDALE
LIES HERE— THE BEST at.t. ENGLAND KN0WS.U3
Vilvorde, (Vilvorden, or Villefort,) is situate at the confluence of the
Senne and Woluwe^ half way between Mechlin and Brussels, or about
eight miles from the former, and seven from the latter. The large and
strong castle, to which they had conveyed Tyndale from Antwerp, and

P3 'I'he genealogy of this family has been often given, we presume, inaccurately. To say no
thing of Atkyns, Morant, or Nott, in his Life of Sir T. Wyatt; even in Burke's History of the
Commoners, recently published, v. 3, p. 538, the ancestor is stated to have been Henry, second
son of Sir Nicholas Poyntz of Iron Acton, who died in 1449 ; and after the death of Henry, we
have then four generations in succession before the century expires, in the brief space of fifty
years ! This is thrown into a note attached to the Gloucestershire family ; but there is some
good reason to believe that the Essex branch must have been the more ancient of the two. The
two families, indeed, appear to have sprung from the same parent stem-~Lord Nicholas Poyntz
of Cary Mallet, and Tockington, the second Baron, who was twice married— Poyntz of Oken
don, from a second son of the girst marriage, and Poyntz of Iron Acton, from a son by the
second, or Sir John Poyntz of Iron Acton, in right of his mother; he was Sheriff of Gloucestershire
in 13fi3. But besides Hugh, the eldest son of Nicholas, and the third Baron, there were other
children, at least one son, Poyntz, and one daughter, Alice; " and Lord Nicholas dying," says
Rudder, " seized of Tocfcington in the 5th of Edward II., or 1311, this estate was carried, by the
marriage of Alice, into the Berkeley family. Now, btfore this marriage, it will be evident, that
the Essex family had its rise. The Latin inscriptions in North Okendon Church, are distinctly
legible, and from the monuments themselves, we now take the pedigree, adding a few other
particulars. I. Poyntz Fitzpoiniz, son of Lord Nicholas Poyntz of Tockington, in the county of Gloucester.
He became patron of North Okendon, and Lord of this manor, by marriage with Eleanor, heiress
of William Bawden ; and dying in the time of Edward III., the estate came to his son and
successor, II. John Poyntz, married to Eleanor, daughter of Sir John Dancote. He died under
Henry IV., or before 1413, and was succeeded by his son. III. John Poyntz, He married Ma
tilda, daughter of William Perte, Esq., and dying in the reign of Henry VL, or before 1461, left
the estate to his son, IV. JVilliam, who married Elizabeth, sister of Sir John Shaa, Lord Mayor
of London, by whom he had three sons, John, Thomas, Henry, and at least one daughter,
Juliana. William died under Henry VII., in the year 1500, when the property came to his
eldest son, V. Juhn Poyntz, who married Anne, daughter and heir of Isaac Sibley, Esq. of
Bucks, and died in the first of Edward VI. His death, said to he at the end of Queen Mary's
reign, 16th July 1558, is an unaccountable, though frequent mistake. His tombstone restricts
his life to Edward's reign ; and as if there had been something of eminence about JVyatVs friend,
there ia a second stone on the floor of the chancel— " Here lieth the bodie of John Poyntz, late
son and heir of W™ Poyntz, &c., which deceased the 13th day of June, in the year of our Lord
God 1547." Dying without issue, VL Thomas, his brother, and the friend of Tyndale, suc
ceeded ; and dying in the 5th of Elizabeth, VIL Sir Gabriel, his son, left an only daughter, who
by her marriage, conveyed the estate to Sir John Morrice of Chipping Ongar. The name of
Poyntz was, however, adopted, and the property remained with their male descendants till the
death of Eichard Poyntz, alias Morrice, in 1643, when it passed into the Lyttleton family. All
these monumental inscriptions are printed literally in Salmon's History of Essex, pp. 276, 277,
taken from the collections of Thomas Jekyll, Esq. The Essex estate belongs at present to Sir
Charles Hulse, Bart. The male representative of the Gloucestershire family was William
Stephen Poyntz, Esq. of Cowdray Park and Midgham House, lately deceased, his two sons
having died before him. His three daughters, as already stated, are married into the Clinton,
Spencer, and Exeter families.

526 VISIT TO VILVORDE. [bOOK I.
where he remained to the hour of his death, was originally built by Duke
Wenceslaus, in the year 1375. It was afterwards employed as a place
of safe keeping for the archives and charters of Brabant, as well as of
state prisoners. But the castle has now given place to a prison and
house of correction upon a very large scale.
And here, if the present writer may be permitted to mention his own
approach to Vilvorde, and to the site of its ancient castle — for though
at a moment when he had no idea of ever being engaged in tracing the
footsteps of our Translator, it was a visit which he can never forget ; —
not merely from its being in the year 1826, or exactly three hundred
years from the first introduction of the English New Testament into
Britain, but because of the long endeared friend whom he accom
panied, now gone to his reward. Another Englishman, and born within
thirty miles of Tyndale's own birth-place, he was also another Transla
tor of the Sacred Volume, and that into the language of a country which
he in like manner was never destined or permitted to enter. The lan
guage, too, being that of the largest associated population in the world,
I need scarcely add the Chinese, or the name of Joshua Mabshman.
Standing, with such a man, on the spot where Tyndale had fought his
final battle with the votaries of " the old learning," defending his trans
lation unto the death — on the very ground of his imprisonment and
martyrdom ; this had become more deeply interesting from immediately
preceding events : having only returned, by way of Antwerp, from present
ing to the late King of Deimiark, a copy of that Bible which had been
translated and printed on the banks of the Ganges, within the Danish
settlement of Serampore ; and our happening, but a few days before, to be
the last persons engaged in commending to the Divine protection, before
his embarking from Europe, a native of Prussia, so well known since —
Charles Outdaff, now of Pou-tcheou, in the province of Fo-kien, Ohina.^
" Tyndale," said the Belgian traveller's guide to us then, '' Tyndale,
who first translated the New Testament into English, sufiered martyr
dom here in 1536 ;" but the reader is now better able to estimate what
had been the amount of his exertions and example ; and next year, we
shall witness how much more of the Sacred Volume was conveyed to
England, as the richest legacy she had ever received. Meanwhile, we
are obliged to turn to a very different subject, and present a melancholy,
though instructive view, in the dark side of this entire picture.
These two unhappy men, the agents of their party, Henry
Phillips, the reputed gentleman, and Gabriel Donne, the ser-

9« " If spared in life," said tlie Doctor, " that young man will be a second Carey ;" thouRh
little did he imagine, at the moment, that he would prove tho instrument of conyeying his own
translation so far and so eifectually into China itself

1536.] THE MISERABLE BETRAYERS. 527
vant in disguise, who had been hired to apprehend our Trans
lator, and who entered so heartily into the design, now pre
sent a contrast of the blackest hue. No particulars respect
ing them have ever before been recorded ; but they must not
now be so consigned to oblivion. The former will lead us in
to some curious, if not unknown particulars, respecting Car
dinal Pole abroad, whose motions it seems as if he had been
eager to observe ; and the latter, into certain appointments,
unaccountable or passing strange, respecting himself, at home.
Both together will involve a few anticipations of our narra
tive, but it is better to dismiss these men at once. It is only
because of their sad connexion with Tyndale, that they are
here noticed at all.
As to Phillips, we stUl stand mainly indebted to Theobald, in his
official correspondence, as a spy, employed alike by Crumwell and Cran
mer. In the year 1535, Phillips, as we have seen, had been watching
Theobald for months after his departure from Louvain ; but the latter
had proceeded on his way, stopping only for a short time at Cologne,
Frankfort, and Heidelberg. He then visited Nuremberg, Wittenberg,
Augsburg, Ulm, and Tubingen. He had been supplied with money on
his journey ; and now, in the spring of 1536, or before war had broken
out between the Emperor and Francis, we quote one of his replies to
Crumwell, reporting progress ; — •
" This money came to me very happily for two causes. One is, because I
fear wa/r; the second Is, I have been at great cost riding to Nuremberg, Wit
tenberg, Augsburg, Ulm. From all these places I sent you letters at large,
for I had to all these places letters of commendations to the learned men.
Also in Tubingen, it is costly unto me ; for your Lordship willed me to resort
and haunt the acquaintance of the best, as I do ; for I am in familiar acquaint
ance with the Bishop of the town, and likewise with the Bishop and reformator
of the whole country ; with the Governor of the town, and most part of the
professors — being a great deal better esteemed of them, than, peradventure, I
am worthy, and of more credit than it becometh me to rehearse !
" Here (in Germany) is a mad foolish fellow, and unlearned, called Coch
laeus, which hath madly and railingly written against our King's Highness, /or
Mr. More's death, and my Lord of Rochester's, and of other matters ; which
book your Lordship shall receive of Reynard Wolfe. His book doth, and will
do, hurt. I marvel that no answer is made to Erasmus' epistle (^carmen) for
Mr. More and my Lord of Rochester. I send your Lordship herewith an
epistle of Clement Marot, an excellent poet, in the French tongue, who is fled
France, and in exilement for the Gospel." 9S

95 Cotton MS., Vitell., B. xxi., fol. 141. The Car-men Erasmi was spurious. " No such
poem, I dare say, was ever composed by him. He was not in aversifying humour at this time."
Jortin, anno 1535. Marot had fled in 1534. See M'Crie's Italy, p. 69.

528 PHILLIPS AND GRYFFITH [boOK I.
In explanation it is now necessary to state, that on the 22d December
1536, Pole was made a Cardinal, the red hat, contrary to custom, being
forced upon him, says Turner, " as the helmet of rebellious battle ;" and
early in 1537, he was sent into Prance as a legate, though in reality to
fan the flame of rebellion in England. His King proclaimed him a traitor,
offering a reward of fifty thousand scudi for his head ; having also re
monstrated with the Courts of Prance and Flanders against receiving
him. To the Emperor, it has been said, Henry off'ered for the person of
his cousin, an auxiliary force of 4000 men, during his campaign against
Francis. On his arrival in Paris, when referring to Francis, the King,
he says himself, — " When I came to the door of his hall, before I could
knock, I was excluded ;" and thus mortified, the legate bent his way
towards Cambray. Influenced by political motives, the Princess or
Queen-Regent of Flanders was not less inflexible ; but the Cardinal of
Liege, of whom we have heard, invited him to his palace, where he
remained three months. His host went so far as to advise him to
proceed to England in disguise ; (dissimulate vestitu ;) but this was too
hazardous a project, for a man so well known in England. While he
lay here, persons, in the pay of Henry, were watching his motions ; and,
in particular, John Hutton was despatched with fresh remonstrances to
the Queen-Regent in May 1537.^ Hutton there insinuated himself
into acquaintance with Michael Throgmorton, a confidential agent of
Pole's, and, as he supposed, gained him over to CrumweU's side and ser
vice. Though, therefore, his master would not venture into England,
Throgmorton actually did; and used to boast of it, as one of the most
dexterous exploits of his life, that he had deceived even Crumwell, and
returned to the Continent with his head on his shoulders ! This fact
Theobald will confirm to us presently ; but, in the meanwhile, he had
returned to London about the month of June. By the next month,
being ready to embark again for the Continent, there is a curious letter
from Cranmer to Lord Crumwell, respecting his journey.
« After hearty commendations unto your Lordship, this is to advertise the
same, that the bearer hereof, Mr. Tybald, one that hath exercised his study
in Almayne these two or three years past, brought from Capito (Wolfgang
Fabricius) and Monsterus, (Sebastian Munster,) both letters and books to the
King's Highness ; and if his Grace's pleasure be to reward them for their pains,
aud good hearts, which they bear unto his said Grace ; this man that brought
the said letters, shall very conveniently do the King good service in that be
half : for he is going thitherward now again, and is a very honest man, and both
loved and trusted of the learned men in these parts ; with whom, if it please
your Lordship to commune, he can well inform you of the state of that country.
Wherefore, not only in this, but also for his passport, I beseech you to be his
good lord, so that he may have your favourable letters unto the ports, for his pas-

»« Galba, B. jt., fol. 333. Herbert's Henry VIII.

1536.] ONCE MORE. 529
sage and safe conduct. Thus our Lord have your Lordsliip in his tuition. At
Lambeth, the 22d day of July 1537."97
Cranmer here assumes to himself all the credit, or the discredit, of
employing this man, whereas Crumwell knew Theobald ais well as he did.
The letter at first sight, must therefore seem strange ; but the mystery
is solved, as soon as it is observed, that this was simply a formal com
munication, addressed to Crumwell as Lord Privy Seal, and intended for
the royal eye, to meet more purposes than one. It would bring Theo
bald to the notice of his Majesty ; it might secure some present for the
Continent ; and it would insure suitable passports.
After this, Theobald took his departure, carrying with him a letter,
from Cranmer to Capito, in which he informs him, that he now sends a
present of one hundred crowns from the King for his book — On Divorce,
Matrimony, and the power of the CivU Magistrate in religion. There
may have been a simUar communication to Sebastian Munster, though
we have no evidence ; but there was another letter of Cranmer's,
addressed to Joachim Vadian. He acknowledges the receipt of his
work on the Lord's Supper, but remains in favour of the old doctrine,
and deprecates the revival of so bloody a controversy .^8
When this agent, aUke of Crumwell and Cranmer, was at home,
among other things, he had been fully informed of the chase after both
Phillips and Gryffith; and, therefore, upon a Sunday, 24th March 1538,
he writes to Cranmer from Augsburg, particularly respecting the latter.
Had the Lord Privy Seal only given him a commission, he says that he
could have apprehended him ; and he blames Laurence Stayber of Nurem
berg, to whom Henry had written, who might have done so, " if he had
would." He informs the Archbishop of his honourable treatment by the
chief citizens of Tubingen and Augsburg — that he intended to proceed
through Innspruck and Trent to Venice ; and then this " very honest
man," tells him that he has found out " a way to go to Bome, and not to be
known for an Englishman I" — " I beseech your Grace to move my friends
to send my bank to Venice with all speed. I would God it would please
your Grace to receive (some) money of my father, and to cause it to be
sent by your hands." ^
The war which Theobald dreaded in 1536, between Francis and the
Emperor, it is well known, burst out ; but whUe he was writing his last
letter, there had been a suspension of arms, which was succeeded by a
truce in July. By this time, and before it, both these monarchs had
shewn great courtesy to Cardinal Pole, who was now at Venice. His
steward, Throgmorton, pretending to serve two masters, had written a
long and artful letter to Crumwell last year.'oo Theobald was not yet
97 MS. Chapter-house.— J enkyn's Kemaius of Cranmer, i., p. 191.
98 Zurich MS. in Cranmer's Eemains, i., pp. 192-193. M Vitell. B. xxi., fol. l.TO.
100 Cleop. E. vi., fol. 372. Dated from Liege, 20th Aug. 1537.— Its design, no doubt, was to
VOL I. 2 L

.530

MISERY OF PHILLIPS |^BOOK I.

aware of his character ; but having reached Caldiero, nine mUes from
Verona, where he had stopt to drink the mineral waters, he addresses
Cranmer from thence on the 16th of August.
He mentions that Throgmorton, within the last week, had been at
Padua, procuring certain necessaries for his Master's household, and
that he would remain at Venice most of the winter.
" Also he related how greatly and lovingly the French King did entertain his
master," — " And of truth I hear of divers and many, that he alone was more
conversant with them, and better entertained, than all the rest," i. e. than the
Pontiff and his Cardinals. ". Also, he was with the French Queen, (when at
Nice,) and communed long with her, and after with the Queen of Navarre,
whom he (Cardinal Pole) liked not so exceedingly."
A few days before writing this letter, Theobald had passed through
Vicenza itself, where a Council had been attempted, as yet in vain, being
deferred tUl Easter, or AprU 1539, — he had dined with the physician
and secretary of Cardinal Brundusium, (Alexander,) on whose character
he dUates. He tells Cranmer that Friar Peyto, by the influence of
Pole, was Uving among the Observant Friars at Venice ;^*'i and then begs
the Archbishop to obtain, before-hand, half-a-year's rent of Chedingstone
farm from the Earl of Wiltshire, that he may be able to perform his jour
ney in disguise " to Rome this winter season.""'^
Next month our spy had reached Padua itself, and from that city he
sends two long and curious letters, dated the first and second of October,
one addressed to Lord Crumwell, the other to Cranmer.^''^ He repeats
the same story to both ; but as the letter to Crumwell is most minute,
at once exposing the true character of Throgmorton, and the miserable
condition of Phillips, the betrayer of Tyndale, we prefer it.
" Since the writing of ray last letter, pleaseth it your Lordship to understand,
that I have twice spoken with Michael Throgmorton.
" The iirst time, he was merrily disposed, and all in rehearsing his policy
and wisdom, how he deceived, in his opinion, your Lordship and Master Moryn-
son, (Sir Richard Moryson,) when he was in England, in message from his
master ; thinking that but for his crafty and subtle conveyance, ye would have
beheaded him : not considering that he is a person whose life can neither hinder
nor farther the King his most gracious Highness, or your Lordship ; or that
deceive and intimidate. Most of the letter is given by Strype, who also supposed that Throg
morton " being now gained, was to be employed by the Lord Privy Seal, to learn as much of
Pole's designs and affairs as might be." Turner merely says that he became a correspondent of
the Lord Privy Seal ; but we shall see what Theobald says, and it will remain for the reader to
judge, whether it be not the same Thr()gmorton who will come before him at the downfall of
Crumwell himself in 1540.
101 Friar Peyto or Peto was the preacher at (yreenwich. See anno 153.3, p. 367.
102 Nero, B. vi., fol. 148. — The contents of this letter prove it to have been written in 1538.
It is marked by mistake in the catalogue 1536. Mr. Turner, therefore, generally so accurate,
probably thus misled, has quoted this letter as a proof of " tlie interest which Heni-y took in
Pole's concerns, though abroad." But long before this epistle, Henry bad put a price upon
his head, and Theobald, now at Chaldere, as it is spelt, was there with no friendly intentions to
the Cardinal, or any of his party. The conccnt.rse al Nice will be specially noticed under 1538.
108 Nero, B. vi., fol. 1.32, to Crumwell, 1st Oct. Idem, to Cranmer, fol. 120, 2d Oct.

1536.] THE BEl'RAYER OF TYNDALE. 531
his Grace or yom" Lordship would violate the security of a messenger for any
thing. But herein, and in passing the limits of modesty, he doth so much,
so often, and continually rehearse this, as with his own high commendations
always ; thinking no act ever to have passed this his fantasy. I find him much
simpler, and of less discretion, than he supposeth himself to be ; and, as I can
perceive, he is in more credence and trust, than in authority about his master.>04
"The second time was the 1 8th day of August, rather in a morning, clothed i n a
coat of wolf skins, and a cap of mail, as pale as ashes ; blowing and puffing like
unto a raging lion. Wherefore, I asked him what the matter was, that he was
thus moved and disguised. At last he answered — matters of great importance,
for all that night past he had not slept, with many circumstances.
" The matter was, that one Hairry Phillips, which sometime was student in
Louvain, at what time he betrayed good Tyndale, came, at this present, out of
Flanders unto Master Pole, as I can find by all circumstances and conjectm'es,
for succour ; compelled, by poverty or some evil behaviour, to forsake these
parts. But by reason that he was arrayed like a Switzer, or a ruffling man of
war, having on a pair of Alinayn boots ; saying that he came on foot, and three
weeks afore, he was in Flanders, — and to this they imagined that they did per
ceive that he had worn spurs, and of such other suspicions gathered incontinent,
that he came for some treason, sent by youe Lordship, giving him pardon for
his trespasses, passed by on condition that he would destroy blaster Pole; or
else to be a spy, to see what he dotli, or goeth about.
" Then I reasoned with him, how that were likely, that one could or durst ad
venture alone, on such an act, in a strange country. He answered, when his
Master, as he custometh daily, rode abroad of pleasure, with five or six horses,
unarmed.. — He (Phillips) then to have three or four hardy fellows, set in a
privy place, with whose help, at opportune time to have destroyed him ; and in
continently, within the space of four hours, with post horses provided afore, they
might have fled to the mountains, where they were in safeguard, — for this is
the Italian practice, or poison, with their enemies. Aud inasmuch as I could
perceive, a certain gentleman of Venice, which at that present was with his
master, was chief author of this suspicion, judging after the custom and manner
that is in use among them.
" The cause why he should be a Spy, he said was this ; whereas they were
satisfied that his Master's younger brother was in the Tower, (which I feigned
not to have Icnown afore,y>^ the King his Highness should think his master
therewith to be so moved, that incontinent he would, with writing and publish
ing books, revenge himself against his Grace ; which his Highness (they reckon)
hath and doth /«ar, more than all the world besides : Sayuig also that his mas
ter hath both old and newly written books lying by him, which, if they come
forth, they will cause heaven and earth to quake ! He shewed me also that
herefore they avoided this Phillips incontinent ; and Master Pole himself, in a
great fury, defended (forbade) him the whole dominions of the Venetians.
" After he (Phillips) was departed, being in desperation of all succour in

104 Here was the exposure; and sentence soon followed. On the 4th of December 1538,
Throgmorton and Peyto, with Hilyard and Goldwell, two friars, were attainted in absence, for
writing treasonable letters, and sending them into England, &c.
105 This shows that Pole had anticipated what was coming on his family ; and if Theobald did
know any thing by this time, 1st October, it could only be the intentions of Crumwell. The
Marquis of Exeter, Henry Pole or Lord Montacute, and Sir Edward Nevil, were arrested on the
3d of November. But Sir Geoffrey Pole, the elder, not younger, brother of the Cardinal, lead been
ill the Tower hefore this. See Ellis' Letters, ii., 96, 97. Titus, B. i., fol. 140.

532 CRUMWELL AND CRANMER [bOOK T.
these parts, he wrote a letter to Mr. Pole, to require him, to give him somewhat
toward his costs to return ; and that he would write a letter of commendation
for him unto the Bishop of Leuke ? requiring also, in a letter to Throgmorton,
to make him hereof at least an answer. For this policy, Throgmorton said,
they suspected him, to have by craft gone about to have gotten a letter of their
hands, whereby he might have had testimony at his return to England, that he
had been here.
" At his departure from thence, (Venice) they counselled him to come hither,
(Padua) advertising him of an EngUsh student to be here, which was his coun
tryman, and it was truth, of whom peradventure he might have some comfort ;
and so indeed he came hither. Throgmorton howevei-, was I reckon, within
little, as soon here as he, riding the most part of the night to dog him ; and he
had, before his meeting with me, found out where he was lodged, and had beset
all the gates in Padua to know which way, or with what company, he did depart ;
for all their suspicion was, that his adherents would either be here in Padua or
in Venice, — desiring me to be a mean, to know of this his countryman here, —
whether he (Phillips) came to him or no, and whether he told him where he
would go to ; thinking verily that if he went thither, (to Venice,) that there he
would have, privily, his helpers, and means to accomplish this, their foresaid
imaginations and dreams.
" Now, indeed, a little before I met with Tlirogmorton, this Englishman had
been with me, and shewed me how this Harry Phillips had been with him, aud
required help and friendship of him. But he rejected him, saying, that although
for love of the country and his friends, he would gladly do for him, yet by reason
he had misordered himself, that he neither durst, nor would, in any cause,
meddle with him, or help him. Then he desired of him to know what other
Englishmen were here. Then he named me, which when he heard, he desired
him, that, in no wise, he should let me know that he was here.
" I reckon he suspected I would have procured him some displeasure, the
cause whereof riseth hereof. Above three years before, I, passing tlirough Lou
vain toward high Almayne, did there visit my old friends and acquaintance,
and so by occasion did insinuate myself to familiar acquaintance with him, to
know what practice lie went about with Tyndale," &c.
Here reminding Cbumweli, of intelUgence to which he had paid no
regard. Theobald then states that Phillips, after aU, went to Venice —
wished, but in vain, to speak with Mr. Harvel, the resident there — '"^
returned to Padua, and having also applied, without success, to Mr.
Bokeler, the student already mentioned, at last he ventured to come to
Theobald himself. Hence the two men had met once more, after three
years and three months' separation.
" He came to me, pretending great repentance of his behaviour in times past,
desiring me to pardon him, if he had offended me heretofore, &c. I shewed
him, all private matters I could be content, and were aheady remitted from my
remembrance ; but his public offences to God, to his most gracious Prince, and
natural country, I could not dissemble shewing myself to be sorry that he had
so misordered himself: Counselling him to return, and sue for pai-don, and

100 Edmund Harvel, the coiTespondent of Starkey in USS.— Ellis, u., p. 70. And since then
witli Crumwell. — Nero, B. vii., 117, &:c.

1536.;] REMINDED OF TYNDALE. 533
shew himself, by repentance and amendment, worthy thereof; wliich he said he
he would do, imputing all that is past to the lightness of his youth, and evil
COUNSEL. In conclusion, he said he would return towards Flanders, to make
means to yom' Lordship for remission."
In writing to Cbanmbr next day, or " the Tuesday after St. Michael's,"
he reminds him also, of what he had written respecting Tyndale in 1535.
" As soon as Mr. Bokeler made mention of my being in Padua, and that he
might speak with me, he desired him, for God's sake, that he would not let me
know of his being here, for he feareth lest I would do him displeasure : for
he had a belief before three years, when I passed through Louvain toward
Almayne, that I had then gone about to have taken him, as I then wrote to your
Grace, and of his enterprises for Tyndale at large ; of the which Mr. Bokeler in
continent came and shewed me, afore Mr. Michael Throgmorton came." — " Now,
this Harry Phillips, after he came to me, desiring me to be good unto him, pre
tending great repentance of his faults," — that is, merely against Henry, " I comi-
selled, and to sue for pardon and grace ; and so, he shewed me, he would return
to Flanders and submit himself ; but, I reckon, being in this necessity, heis rather
gone to the wars. Or ever he departed, he had sold his doublet and his cloak."
Thus sunk into obUvion one of the betrayers of our Translator. He
might descend into battle and perish, or die in misery before long ; but
not so the other man, the Monk, the eldest of the two, and, therefore,
not improbably, by far the most guUty. At that time, said PhiUips,
" there was wo man of my counsel, but a Monk of Stratford Abbey, be
sides London, caUed Gabriel Donne.^W
G-ABBiEL Donne or Dunne, the Monk of Stratford Abbey,
107 As for Theobald, he was disappointed in accomplishing his journey to Kome in disguise.
In ahout two months after these letters, he was recalled ; and though he had got sadly entangled
by his equivocations, he went on with them to the end. On the 12th of November, he informs
Lord Crumwell, from Padua, that he had been dining with "an earnest enemy," Carolus
Capellius, a Venetian, who had been ambassador in England, France, and Hungary. A " fa
miliar " of this nobleman, an opponent, ad insaniam, had invited him ; which, says Theobald,
" doth judge me also to be of Aw error, or else hOjWould not have brought me there, for in this
doing he thought to gratify him : a.s, indeed, he did entertain me with all gentleness, requiring
me, in any VTise, when I come to Venice, to resort to his palace, familiarly to him. He is great
ly, and out of measure, superstitious."
His next, and last letter to Crumwell, is dated also from Padua, on the 12th of December.
" Pleaseth it your Lordship to understand that I being at this present advertised by my brother-
in-law's letters, that it is your Lordship's pleasure and commandment, that, with all haste, I
do repair myself to England ; shall herein, as in all other matters, most gladly satisfy your
Lordship's mind. If it might have been with your Lordship's favourable license, and security
here, I would gladly have tarried a year longer in these parts, at least to have seen more of
Italy. And in hope that I may, with your leave, return again, so that I may be here in safe
guard, I intend so to depart hence, that no man doth or shall know, by me, that I come to
England ; but do persuade unto all my familiars here, that I ride to Cologne, to commune and
agree with Mr. fViUiam Warham, sometime Archdeacon of Canterbury, for the permutation of
a prebend ! !" and this was chiefly to escape the suspicions of Friar Peyto, " which hath shewed
me much of his secrets."— (7r)MoM MS., Nero, B. vi., fol. 54 and 128.
On the part of the letter writer, all this is sufficiently melancholy ; but what can be said for
those to whom he addressed his letters ? The truth of history must not be sacrificed, in deference
to any individual ; but the crooked policy of this man, reaching down to the end of 1538, bears
but too evidently on the characters of those who supported him. To posterity, he has been of
service as to facts reported, when there was clearly no temptation to deceive ; but if Cranmer
thought him " a very honest man," he can only be left alone in his opinion.

534 DONNE, THE ACCOMPLICE WITH PHILLIPS. [^BOOK I.
has hitherto remained unobserved or unknown, at least as the
crafty assistant of Phillips ; and for three hundred years his
name has escaped that disgrace, -which, it is to be feared, must
now ever rest upon it. In extenuation of himself, Phillips not
only pled his youth, but complained of his having been the
victim of '¦'¦ evil counsel ;" and a shrewd Cistertian monk, so
much older than himself, would not be slow to tender it, on
such an occasion ; while the money, with which Phillips was
so plentifully furnished, and of which he boasted, proves that
there were other powerful prompters to the heinous deed.
The history of Donne is far more remarkable than that of his pre
tended Master at Antwerp, as well as, in every sense, more melancholy :
and when it is once known that this very man afterwards, for a season,
exercised all manner of episcopal jurisdiction, even in the diocese of Lon
don ; or, in other words, that, by Cranmer's appointment, he filled up the
space between the deprivation of Bonner, and the appointment of Rid
ley, and was at last buried honourably in St. Paul's ; it must appear
passing strange that he should have escaped the searching inquiries not
only of Foxe aud Strype, but of all later historians ; as the most notable
person engaged in seizing, though no doubt hired to seize, the long-per
secuted Translator of the Scriptures. It is only in this degraded charac
ter, and as the tool of a well-kno-wn party, that he demands any atten
tion ; but as such, the foUo-wing particulars ought not to be withheld.
Presently, the reader will presume that Donne must have been a stu
dent of Trinity Hall, Cambridge ; but the earUest distinct notice which
we have found of him, is in connexion with his Convent. The transac
tion occurred under Fitzjames, Bishop pf London, though it be recorded
in the register of Tunstal, his successor. The Abbey of Stratford, to
which Phillips so distinctly referred, within the parish of Westham, in
the vicinity of London, and of which Donne was a conspicuous inmate,
had been founded in the year 1135, for Benedictine or Cistertian Monks.
The Abbot and Convent being proprietors of the Rectory, and patrons of
the Vicarage of Westham, a tedious suit arose, in 1514, between them
and WUliam Shragger, then Vicar ; which, after discussion in the Arch
bishop's Court, had been removed by appeal to Rome.^™ At last, on the
7th of February 1517, a "composition real" between the said Abbot and
Vicar was executed ; and on this occasion " the provident and religious
man, Gabriel Bonne, Monk of the blessed Mary of Stratford, of the order
of Cistertians," appeared and stood proctor for his brethren in the con-

ion And to Rome itself, Shragger repaired ; for from therce he corresponded with Wolsey.
Vitell. B. ii., fnl. 112, ll.-), dated 2d December 1514. In prawc of the Bishop of Worcester ! Sec
before p. 1.3.

1536.] DONNE, BECOME AN ABBOT. 535
vent.ioi* Something must have occurred, which occasioned Tunstal to
revise this proceeding, just before he retired from the diocese of London
to that of Durham, in 1530, and hence its insertion in his register.^'"
From this period we hear nothing more of the monk tiU he appears
as the companion of Phillips. After their success at Antwerp, Donne
resided for six months longer with his pretended master at Louvain, and
lent his aid in the persecution of Tyndale ; being, no doubt, by far the
most able of those two Englishmen, to whom Mr. Poyntz referred ; as
" applying it sore, taking great pains to translate out of English into
Latin, those things which might make against him, so that the clergy
there might understand and condemn him."i'' The monk, in short,
had fulfilled his commission, when, we have been told by PhUlips him
self, through Theobald, he returned to England in June 1535, and to
an Abbey in the west of England. The information was perfectly cor
rect, both as to place and time. The Abbey to which Donne returned
was that of Buchfaster, or Buckfastleigh in Devonshire.^'^ The Abbot,
John Rede, was then within a few months of his death ; and who should
step into his place, but this very monk ? That a man who was abroad,
should at this time return from Louvain, and almost immediately suc
ceed to such an appointment, certainly carries all the appearance of a
reward for service done. His friends at home must have interested
themselves on his behalf, and Secretary Crumwell, if he was consulted,
may have acceded to the appointment ; but, at all events, Donne be
came the Abbot of Buckfaster, with ten Cistertian monks under him, and
at this very period ; so that when the Convocatioit came to be summoned
to meet in June, 1536, or about four months before Tyndale's martyr
dom, there he was actually present in St. Paul's I But, what of necessity,
must have been the feelings of this man, if he had any feeling, when

109 See Tunstal's Register, p. 145. The substance of this composition, which was confirmed
by Leu X., 12lh June 1519, just before Shragger's death, is correctly given in Newcourt's Reper-
torium, ii., 303-4.
no This is an insertion analogous to that of Leo's Bull of 1520, under 1530. See the explana
tion already given in note 26, page 263. The probable reason for Tunstal examining the transac
tion was this. The former appointments to the Vicarage of Westham h.id been generally en
tered in the London Register ; but that of Rohert Paynter, the Vicar of 1530, had not ; as he had
been inducted during a vacancy by Warham, five days hefore Tunstal's own appointment. But
be this as it may, by this " composition" the Abbot and Monks had set aside the endowment of
the Vicarage, and in lieu of it settled £39, 13s. 8d. on the Vicar and his successors, which, after
the surrender of the Abbey, was paid by the Crown till 1638. "Abbots," said old Fuller, "robbed
Parish Vicars, by appropriations, by decrying their performances, and magnifying their own
merits." " What was the devotion of a silly priest, in comparison of a corporation of prayers
from a whole monastery ?" But if thus they acted, Henry will before long make a clean sweep
of them all. The annual rental of the Abbey of Stratford, when surrendered in March 1538, by
William Huddlestone the last Abbot, was £652, or £9000 of the present day. Next year the
Convent Church and site of the Monastery were given by Henry to Sir Peter Mewtas, who had
been Ambassador in France '.—Lyson's Environs of London, iv., p. 264.
1 1 1 It is, however, extremely probable that the other Englishman, was not Phillips, but Friar
Buckenham from Edinburgh, Latimer's old acquaintance, whom he had ousted from Cambridge.
We know now for certain, that Buckenham was there, and the conviction of Theobald was that
Friar Buckenham was maintained at the expense of Phillips. Sec page 424 and 428.
112 See nngdale's Monast, vol. v., pp. .¦iB4 .18.i.

536 PRESENT IN THE CONVOCATION. [BOOK I.
listening to the bold and noble discourse of Latimer ? For that he sat
there, and heard it all, there can now be no doubt ; since his name ap
pears subscribed to the articles then issued — Gabkiel, Abbas de Buck-
fastria}^'^ He was the last Abbot, and surrendered his monastery to
the King on the 25th of February 1639, when he received a pension of
^120 annually .^'^ Upon this sum, as it was equal to .£1800 in our day,
he might have Hved comfortably enough ; but farther promotion soon
awaited him. A congenial spirit, Edmund Bonner, had come to the
diocese of London, and on the 16th of March 1541, Donne became no less
than a Prebendary of St. Paul's ;"* and, again, in 1544, on the 25th
of October, he obtained, very near to his old abode, the Rectory of Step
ney " sine cura," by the death of Richard Layton, one of the men who
had visited the monasteries.^^®
Five years after this, or in September 1549, Bonner was deprived of
his place as Bishop of London, upon which Cranmer officially interposed.
" The Archbishop" says Strype, " constituted Gabriel Donne, Residentiary
of St. Paul's, to be his offi^iod, and keeper of the spiritualities, to exercise
all manner of Episcopal jurisdiction in the said city and diocese !" — so
that all this he continued to do, tUl the appointment of Nicholas Ridley
in AprU 1550."''
The Prebendary then remained in his stall, of course ; and now, for
nearly three years, he came under the influence of one of the finest
characters of the age ; but there was no change upon him ! On the
contrary, Donne was one of those very men, so pointedly referred to by
Ridley, amongst his expressive and touching parewells, -written before
his martyrdom in 1555. These were his words, — "Oh ! London, London,
to whom now may I speak in thee, or whom shall I bid farewell ? Shall
I speak to the Prebendaries of Paulas ? Alas ! all that loved God's
Word, and were the true setters forth thereof, are now, as I hear say,
some burnt and slain, some exUed and banished, and some holden in
hard prison, and appointed daily to be put to most cruel death, for
Christ's Gospel's sake. As for the rest of them, I know they could never
brook me well, nor could I ever delight in them."
113 A fac-simile of his signature may be seen in the first volume of Dodd's Church History,
now republishing. It is the 44th name, and, curiously enough, stands next to that of Huddle-
ston, the last Abbot of Stratford, of which Donne had been a conspicuous inmate.
114 Dugdale.— These pensions granted for Ufe, were very unequal; and as the revenue of
Buckfaster was surrendered at £466, lis. 2d., (or £7000 of the present day,) the sum granted to
Donne was very large. He must have had friends in the Augmentation Court, where Rich, the
Chancellor, was a notorious enemy of the new learning. The ruins of this abbey, supplied
materials for many of the houses in the existing village of Buckfastleigh, three miles from
Ashburton. 116 Occupying Mapesbury, parish of Wilsdon, Middlesex, or the twelfth stall on the right of
the choir. — Newcourt's Repert., vol. i., p. 175.
lis Newoourt, p. 739; Wood's Fasti by Bliss, p. 18.— The patron was Richard Williams, alias
Crumwell, pi'O hac vice.
117 Strype's Annals.— The letter of Theobald to the Archbishop himself in July 1635, p. 425,
reads very awkwardly afterthis appointment. For whatever may be said of Cranmer himself, he
certainly was Jissociated with a miserable class of men, whether relating to character or conduct.

1536.] FINALLY BURIED IN ST. PAUL'S. 537
Such, then, was the judgment of Ridley, little more than three years
before Donne expired, on the 5th of December 1558. His executors
laid his body close by the high altar of St. Paul's ; and told posterity
that his spirit was gone to the regions of happiness and peace, by en
graving on his tombstone that posthumous righteousness, so often, and
so falsely imputed by the living to the dead.^'^ gtrype has said that he
was " buried honourably in St. PaiU's, on the 9th of December 1558."
It was only the day before Reginald Pole, the last English Cardinal, was
carried to Canterbury for interment, and only four days before Queen
Mary was laid in her grave at Westminster. They were all three
noted opponents, and went to render their several accounts about the
same time.
We now suppose that this monk had been partly educated at Trinity
Hall, Cambridge. The presumption is founded upon his will; for, after
the payment of his debts and other legacies, the surplusage of his
estate was mainly devoted to that College. The Master and Fellows
of Trinity Hall receiving .£120, (equal to i£l800 now ;) with this sum a
scholarship was founded, well known ever since, the student being
distinguished as " Mr. Gabriel Donne's scholar." If any one, therefore,
when visiting the beautiful little chapel of Trinity Hall, will look up to
the roof, there among fifteen coats of arms, he wUl find " the fourth on
the north side is B, for the residentiary prebend of St. Paul's, a bene
factor ;" and on the shield itself he -will see an emblem, the significancy
of which has never before been known ; for it is no other than that of
a Wolf rampant. "Azure, a wolf rampant, and a chief Argent, for
Gabriel Donne ! ""9
Now, it is not unworthy of notice, that Trinity Hall was quite a pet
of Stephen Gardiner's. His appointment as the Warden or Master of it,
he held, excepting only a few years, from the year 1525, throughout his
varied life ; and so for ten years before Donne's appearance at Antwerp.
Is it now, therefore, likely, that our Cistertian monk was unknown to
Tunstal in 1530, or to Gardiner, both before and after ? Certainly not.
And since Gardiner by his will left .£100 to Trinity Hall, and Richard
Nix, the old Bishop of Norwich, of whom we have heard so much, founded
three fellowships and two scholarships in the same ; as we have already
fixed on the accomplice, so there can be little doubt, that we have here
also two, if not three, of that guilty band or faction, who were deeply
implicated in the seizure of Tyndale.
Such, at all events, was the end of the companion of Phillips ; and

118 This epitaph, with all others, was destroyed in the great fire of 1666; but such as it was,
it may bo found in Dugdale's St. Paul's. See ed. of 1821, p. 45.
1 18 Or see Coles' MS. in the British Museum, under Trinity Hall, where the shield is copied.
As prebendiiry, Donne w.as succeeded by the well-known John Harpsfield, on the 10th Decem
ber. Wood's Athena; by Bliss, i., 441.

538 DIED THE SAME MAN. [^BOOK I.
since he did return to England, it is perfectly consistent with the whole
story, that he should have been advanced into notice and power, by such
a monster of cruelty as Edmund Bonner. Permitted by the long-sufier-
ing of God, to exist for twenty-three years after his sad exploit at Ant
werp, he seems to have died without any remorse. Living as he did,
and for some time in such favourable circumstances, under Ridley, nay,
tUl above thirty editions of the entire Scriptures, and about seventy of
the New Testament, had issued from the press ; all was in vain !
Such were the two men who had been richly hired to en
snare and seize Tyndale. In the one accomplice, there is
to be seen nothing but a fugitive and a vagabond to his dying
day ; in the other, a man who had time given him for reflec
tion, and space for repentance ; but we search in vain for
either the one or the other. So true it is, in many instances,
that though " favour be shown to the wicked, yet will he not
learn righteousness ; he will not behold the majesty of the
Lord." It is not for us to draw rash conclusions as to the
state of the dead, and far from our province, to pronounce
judgment ; while no man can say, with impunity, that the
ways of -Jehovah are not equal. The awful consequences of
cruelty and sin are certain, though not immediate; and
" though a sinner do evil an hundred times," said the wisest
of men, " and his days be prolonged ; yet surely I know that
it shall be well with them that fear God," with them only
" who fear before him."

Having thus attended Tyndale to the stake, and followed
his devoted friend Poyntz to an honourable tomb ; as well as
seen the grave close on the hirelings who apprehended our
Translator; it is time to enquire into other events at the
moment of his martyrdom, and immediately succeeding it,
both on the Continent and at home.
To those who have never before been aware of the fact, it
must appear extraordinary, that the Martyrdom of Tyndale,
the first translator of our Bible into English, should stand so
emphatically by itself. There was no other, with which the
Councils of England, and of a Continental kingdom, were both
concerned ; no other, in the guilt of which, both our own country,
and a foreign power, were alike involved. The eyes of Henry
the Eighth, and those of his Ministers, were wide open, when
the martyr fell under a decree of the Emperor Charles V.

153C.] STATE OP THE CONTINENT. 539
Considered as an event, amidst all the wide-spread and long-
continued violence of the times, his martyrdom rises up to
view, and appears like a conspicuous solitary column. If
there be any memento inscribed, it is a double one — German
on one side, but English on the other. In the history of
such a martyrdom, we should be liable to the charge of omis
sion, or injustice, were we to pass on without observing con
temporary events, whether relating to the Emperor abroad,
or to the King at home.
The time of Tyndale's death, and the months following it, will now
reward notice. He had been slain on the 6th of October, and the events
in England have, in part, been traced up nearly to that month ; but
those of the Continent as well as England, afterwards, now require to be
glanced at : in other words, the situation of the Emperor, under whose
authority he was sacrificed, and that of Henry and his Council, who, to
say the least, had so heartlessly left him to perish. In the scale of
creation, the death of Tyndale was nothing more than that of any other
human being, and, therefore, in itself, an every-day occurrence ; though
after all that we have read, it will be conceded that he was no common
character. He had engaged attention not only abroad, but especially at
home, and that of public men, both dead and still alive. But then, be
sides, he was not merely the only conspicuous EngUshman thus slain, with
the full cognition of this country and the Continent ; but the only
translator of the Sabred Volume in Europe, so put to death. The moral
crime attached itself, at once, to home and foreign authorities.
It is true, that although the hand of God ought to be acknowledged in
all human affairs, hasty conclusions respecting cause and efiect, or sin
and punishment, during the present life, are ever to be avoided : but
still, coincidences in point of time, ought never to pass unheeded. If
there be a God that judgeth in the earth, let Him be acknowledged as
much as may be ; and if there be storms in Providence, when they are
once fully exhausted, or have drifted to leeward, it is no more than
what is due, to mark simultaneous effects. In the natural world, this
is never omitted ; and why should it ever be in the moral 1
To Charles V. it so happened, that this was the season of his greatest
personal mortification. Last year, he could express himself, with
marked severity, on the death of Sir Thomas More by Henry VIII. — a
piece of cruelty for which he has been justly reprobated, from that day
to the present ; but of Tyndale's martyrdom, we hear not a single word,
either from the Emperor, or any of his Council, though it was such
a conspicuous consequence of his own cruel and blasphemous decree.
Composed, it has been said, and regular in his deportment, strictly
attentive to decorum, and therefore conspicuous for concealing his pas-

540 CONDITION OF THE EMPEROR. [[boOK I.
sions, Charles was at last intoxicated by success ; so in April, at Rome,
this year, he let himself down, by proposing to settle all quarrels with
Francis in single combat, on an island or a bridge, or on board a galley.
And though apparently soon sensible of the impropriety of his bravado, in
a haughty spirit he immediately prepared for war. He put himself at
the head of his forces on the 6th of May, and in July he was reviewing
his army on the plain of Coni, in Piedmont. His officers warned him of
the dangers connected with thus invading France, and entreated him to
pause and consider ; but he adhered obstinately to his plan, and ad
vanced. Before firing a shot, he began to divide his future conquests,
promising to his generals, lands, honours, and offices in France. " San
guine in extreme belief of great success," he led his army forward. He
had with him, as on other occasions, the active and celebrated Antony
de Leyva, who had been his main stay for many years — who had raised
himself from the ranks, to be General of the imperial forces in Italy,
Austria, and Africa — who had so defended Pavia against the King of
France himself, and who had now even urged the present expedition.
The Emperor attempted to surprise Marseilles, and laid siege to
Aries, but failed in both. The Imperial army in the Low Countries,
also engaged under Henry of Nassau, was attacking the north of
France, and had sat down before Peronne, the virgin fortress, only
about 120 miles distant from Vilvorde. " While the Emperor remained
in France," says Turner, " a great scandal fastened upon his name, by
the Dauphin dying when coming to act against him. The unjust
charge, that he had poisoned the French prince, grievously wounded
his feelings, by its defaming imputation."
But now the month of September came. On the 10th, the troops of
Flanders were compelled to raise the siege of Peronne.'^ Sickness had
seized the Imperial army in France, of which about 30,000 died ; but,
above all, de Leyva himself, and, according to Herbert, on the 15th of
September. The Emperor, " ordering his soldiers to pro-vide themselves
with food for several days, suddenly decamped from Aix to Frejus, and
so precipitately, that the line of his retreat was strewed with dead, sick,
arms, and horses, while he marched painfully to Nice." Bellay, an eye
witness, compares their miseries to those which the Jews suff'ered from
the victorious and destructive arms of the Romans. Having got to
Genoa, as Charles could not bear to expose himself to the scorn of the
Italians, he embarked for Spain in November.
" As this humbled the Emperor's arrogance, no less than it checked
his power, he was mortified more sensibly, on this occasion, than on any
other, during the course of the long contests between him and the

ISO Often styled Pucelle, because it had never been taken ; and never was, till a few days after
the battle of -W-aterloo, in 1815, by the British.

1536.3 STATE OF ENGLAND. 541
French monarch." ^^i No man, ever afterwards, required to remind him
of the autumn, or of the months of September and October 1536.
Upon returning into England, from VUvorde ; whether Henry VIII.
was ever before in such perturbation as to his own personal safety, or
the security of his crown, may be left to the reader's judgment. The
King shall, presently, speak for himself, and through the medium of his
Secretary, to whom he dictated the expressions.'^^
The dissolution of the lesser Monasteries had begun to be severely felt
long before the present moment, and had been operating powerfully for
months, throughout the kingdom, in fomenting discontent ; while the
attention of the government and of the metropolis had been suddenly
absorpt by the King's inexorable haste to get rid of his Queen, as well
as to call a new Parliament, and an unprecedented Convocation, with
Crumwell for its presiding Head.
By the first measure, thousands of persons were sent abroad to seek
their living as they might, with little more than forty shUlings to meet
the change in their circumstances. Rents to the amount of thirty-two
thousand pounds were coming in to the Crown, besides one hundred
thousand pounds in moveables ; and the Commissioners were, of course,
not forgetful of themselves, at the moment they were also filling the
coffers of his Majesty. By way of a peace-offering, on the I7th of
August, Henry, by his letters patent, had given back, in perpetuam
eleerriosynam, first five Abbeys, and then ten, besides sixteen Nunneries,
or thirty-one houses in aU : but this was merely a blind for the moment,
as they were swept away, with all others, in two years afterwards.
StUl the people were discontented — and then came " the Aeticies
devised to stablish Christian quietness, and to banish aU contentious
opinions." But though the friends of " the old learning" and the olden
time, might be reduced to silence, nay, by their signatures individually,
to apparent acquiescence within the Convocation, it by no means foUowed
that they and their coadjutors were to be " quiet" afterwards.
Then came the "injunctions" of the New Vicar-General and Vice
gerent. These affected the pockets of many, by bereaving them of
profits derived from images, and relics, and pilgrimages. Thus the se
cular and regular clergy were cemented into one, while the mitred Ab
bots, the magnates of the kingdom, in alarm at coming events, which
ah-eady cast their shadows before, were secretly cherishing the spirit of
resistance. The time for its display seemed to be suspended for a little season ; but
this may be accounted for. There was a harvest on the ground, and

121 Robertson. Turner.
132 By far the most graphical account of Henry's agitation was never published till within
these few years, in the Government State Papers ; and as they have yet been seen only by a few
persons, we may he excused for introducing the reader so fully to his Majesty.

542 PERTURBATION []b00K I. «•
the people were engaged till they had reaped it ; but no sooner was this
accomplished, than they were ready for action.
If we now return to the King ; in the month of July he had met with
a severe blow by the death of the Duke of Richmond in his eighteenth
year, a natural child of his own, on whom he doated, and on whom it
is thought, in the defect of male issue, he had fixed his eye as successor
to the throne. After this, consoling himself ia the company of his new
Queen, he was looking forward to her coronation. But September came,
and the prospect was never realised. Queen Anne was the last of his
Queens ever crowned.
During this month, disease in London had been gathering strength.
It was the plague ! And at Westminster seems to have been specially
virulent. Sir Ralph Sadler is writing to Crumwell from Windsor, on
Thursday the 27th of September. "After supper," says he, " his Grace re
turned into his chamber, and immediately called me to him, saying, that
he had digested and resolved the contents of your letters, and perceiving
how the plague had reigned in Westminster, and in the Abbey itself,
his Grace said that he stood in a suspense, whether it were best to put
off the time of the coronation, for a season. Wherefore it were good
that all my counsel were assembled here, that we might consult and de
termine upon every thing touching the same accordingly. And so, quod
he, -write to my Lord Privy Seal, and send him word that my Lord Ad
miral (FitzwilUam) is here, Mr. Controller (Poulet) and the Bishop of
Hereford (Fox) be here, and pray him also to come hither undelay-
edly, and then we shall soon be at a point."'^^
Crumwell, however, had other business to engross him, and in four days
after this, Henry also will have other points to settle ; widely different
from any connected with the pomp or paraphernalia of a Queen's corona
tion. Next Monday morning, the 2d of October, an insurrection broke
out at Louth in Lincolnshire. The fury of the populace was directed
against the proceedings of the Ecclesiastical Commissioners, about to hold
their visitation that day. The King, it must be remembered, had no
standing army, so that the consternation at Court was extreme. The
exciter of the people, was the Prior of Barlings, one of the suppressed
monasteries. Dr. Matthew Makerel ; and their leader, not the Doctor in
disguise, as different historians have affirmed, but one Melton, under the
appeUation of Captain Cobler. The insurgents showed some tact in send
ing up an address, respectful in language, explaining the reasons for
their resistance, and their fears, that the system of spoliation now going
on, would extend even to the parish Churches. The reply of his Ma
jesty was accompanied with substantial proof, that he was determined to
crush the parties ; as the Duke of Suffolk, the Earls of Shrewsbury, Rut-
128 Gov. State Papers, vol. i., p. 460.

1536.] OF THE KING. 543
* land, and Huntingdon were at the same moment despatched, with all
the force they could collect. The style in which Henry addressed his
subjects was sufficiently plain, quite characteristic of the man, though
not over--wi3e.
" How presumptuous are ye, the rude commons of one shire, and that
one of the most brute and beastly of the whole realm, and of least experi
ence, to find fault with your Prince for the electing of his Counsellors
and Prelates !" Nor were any of the demands or complaints treated
with less haughtiness ; but after ordering instant submission, one hun
dred victims, including their leaders, were demanded for punishment !'^
Such language, as might have been anticipated, only produced greater
irritation, of which the Duke of Suffolk having informed the Court, on
the 12th of October, a very different style was adopted ; and having at
last succeeded in persuading the people to disperse, they generally re
turned home the next day.
This good news arrived at Windsor on Sunday the 15th ; but that
very day, tidings far more formidable than those of the last fortnight,
also reached the castle. The more daring of the Lincolnshire men had
shaped their course northward towards Yorkshire, and there " the heath
was on fire." This was called " the Pilgrimage of Grace," under a man
of some property in that county, Robert Aske. Lord Shrewsbury, and
after him the Duke of Norfolk himself, the Marquis of Exeter, Sir
Anthony Brown, and Sir Anthony Kingstone, were sent with a strong
mUitary force. '^^
But from this day, and so forward, the agitation of the King became
evident to all. That same Sunday, Wriothsley, his secretary, must -write
twice to Crumwell —
" Since the writing of my last letters," says he, " arrived here a post from
ray Lord Darcy, declaring a great part of Yorkshire to be up, and the whole
country to favour their opinions ; being the very same that were reported in
Lincolnshire, by the rebels there." — " The letter containeth no certainty in
number, nor any thing else, but such general words, as though all the world
went upon wheels ! The matter hangeth yet like a, fever — one day good,
another bad. The King's Highness will, in all haste possible, send forth the
letters to my Lord Steward ; for so it is thought necessary, ' in omnem
erentum.' " 120
Crumwell, aware of the state of the country, had been preparing the
sinews of war ; and this day also Henry had been informed, so that im
mediately Wriothsley must -write once more —
" His Grace," said he, " took the towardness of your preparation very well,
and heartily thanketh you for your pain and diligence ; but his Grace said sun
dry times — ' I would I knew how much he hath done, that I might be satisfied

124 Gov. state Papers, i., p. 463. 125 Idem, p. 462. 126 Idem, p. 468.

544 REBELLION IN YORKSHIRE. [|bOOK I.
with the speciality.' And when I had taken my leave, called me again, and
willed me to require you to taste the fat priests thereabouts ; naming Doctor
Wolman, Doctor Bell, Doctor Knight, and others about Paul's, or elsewhere.127
His Grace told me tliat Doctor Chambre had, of his owa motion, without de
sire, presented unto him 200 merks, and Doctor Lupton one hundred ; 128
which his Highness also requireth you to lay to them for a precedent ; and
fm-ther to declare, that being of such sort, as they cannot help in persons,
they must shew their good wills, if they have any, otherwise ; and so, of that
sort, to get all that you can." 129
Next day, particular instructions for the officers of the army going to
the north, had to be drawn out ; and on Tuesday, we have two other
letters to Crumwell, in reply to his of Monday —
" His Highness' pleasure is, that, with all possible diligence, you shall send
all the money you have gotten into your hands, by John Freeman, to Master
Gostyk, being appointed treasurer, with my Lord Steward ; who, as the Kmg's
Highness is advertised, doth this day march with all his force against those
traitors iu Yorlcshire. His Grace told me, to be written unto you, that he
would sell all the plate lie hath ; but he will subdue these traitors, iu such sort,
that all others shall beware by their example. And therefore his Highness
requu'eth you to do all that ever your Lordship can, to borrow yet as much
more money as you can devise to get into your hands, to the intent that he
may be, for this matter, thoroughly furnished." 130
For one day, this might seem sufficient ; but no, the secretary must
again take up his pen.
" The King's Higlmess taketh this rebellion of Yorkshire so much to heart,
that though it should fortmie to be appeased, before my Lord Steward should
in manner set forth ; yet his Highness hath resolved, that he shall resort to the
very places where the said insurrection began, and as well punish the begin
ners, as those that gave any aid, counsel, or special favour to the rebels, though
they never stirred." — " When I had written this letter hitherto, arrived here
a new post ; upon the knowledge whereof, I went up to the King's chamber to
learn the news. And there the King's Highness told me, that the letters ar
rived by the said post, contained matter much variable from the other. The
particularity he declared not, but said, in general words, they wrote, now, of
ma/rvellous numbers of men ; and thereupon willed me, iu any wise, to despatch
a post unto you, and to desire your Lordship, on his behalf, to be here with his
Grace to-morrow, as soon as you could ; so that I perceived he would have
you here, at the farthest, by 8 or 9 of the clock. His Grace requireth you,
also, to bring with you the letters, sent unto yom- Lordship last, from Maister
Gostyk, which I sent unto you this day, writing upon them, ' in haste, haste,
post.' I doubt not but they be come to your Lordship's hands. — From Wind
sor, this Tuesday night at ten of the clock." 131
Next day, Wednesday the 18th, Wriothsley began to think, as well

127 Wolman, the Dean of Wells ; Bell, one of the King's Chaplains, and Bishop of Worcester
in 1539; and Knight, afterwards Bishop of Bath and Wells.
128 The Dean of St. Stephen's, and Lupton, Provost of Eton and Canon of Windsor.
129 Gov. State Piipers, i., p. 472. 130 Idem, p. 478. 131 Idem, p. 480.

1536.] HENRY'S AGITATION. 545
he might, that all this turmoil was bordering upon the ludicrous — but
there was to be no smile on Henry's countenance for some time to come,
nor any ease for my Lord Privy Seal. This was a holiday — that of Luke
the Evangelist — and Crumwell was bent on keeping it in his own way.
He therefore sent Gostyk's letters, and one from himself, to be at Wind
sor by the hour he was expected. The King was not disappointed, but
it was because of the way the holiday was to be employed ; for it cer
tainly was a busy day to his Majesty, as well as his Minister ; and
Wriothsley must send off" three different letters into town.
" Having this morning received your letters, immediately I went to the
King's chamber, and because his Grace was not ready, sent in the very letters
unto him. His Grace giveth unto you most hearty thanks, but also that your
considerations, for your ' demore' at home, this holy day, be so necessary, that
his Highness is well contented, and thinketh it very necessary you should so
do, specially for the getting in as much money as could be gotten, and the sending
forth of the same — requiring you, nevertheless, to be here with his Grace to
morrow, in the morning. And, I assure you, I see not here any such cause, as
should make this great hobleshof." So at least he thought at the moment, but
after another half page, he changes his tone. — " After the -writing hereof,
arrived letters from my Lord of Suffolk, &c., declaring this matter of York
shire to be marvellous ; all the shire in manner up, as they write, and messages
from them of Lincolnshire to the other, so that the sequel is much feared.
Whereupon his Majesty called me alone to him, and commanded me, with all
possible speed, to advertise your Lordship, that he doth most instantly desire
you, with all speed possible, to despatch, at the least, to Master Gostyk, 20,000
merks ; which for my Lord Steward, &c., will serve but for one month's wages ; an d
his Grace also desireth you to despatch a convenient sum to my Lord of Suffolk.
" His Highness desireth you now, to assay what may be borrowed in his
name, and with all men to shift to all your possible power ; so that he might,
besides these sums, have a convenient furniture, whatsoever shall happen.
And rather than to want, his Grace's pleasure is, you shall go to the jewel-house
in the Tower, and there take as much plate, as you shall think his Grace shall not
necessarily occupy, and put it straight to coining. His Majesty appeareth to
fear much this matter, specially if he should want money ; for in the Lord
Darcy, his Grace told me, he had no great trust, — and his Grace would have
this matter for money well followed, for there resteth, with you, all our liope."'3i
To this letter of the morning, CrumweU replies immediately, that he
had got together £10,000 ; and Wriothsley answers that .£3000 must be
sent to Suffolk, and £7000 to the Lord Steward Shrewsbury ; but such
was now the emotion of Henry, that he must pen and despatch another
letter, ordering the money to be sent off that night. These letters, too,
were superscribed by the Secretary — "in haste, haste, post, for thy life !"
Next day, the Lord Privy Seal got out to Windsor, but he could
remain with the King only a very short time ; for Wriothsley, the Secre
tary is writing to him in the same strain, on Sunday and Monday fol-
132 Gov. state Papers, pp. 481, 482.
VOL. I. 2 M

546 THE ONLY PROSPEROUS CAUSE. [^BOOK I.
lowing ; and money still continues to be the burden of the song. Crum
well had written on Monday, and Wriothsley says that same day, in reply —
"And, first, for your proceedings, his Grace took them in most thankful
part, and willed me to signify, that he liketh both the order thereof, and the
thing's self exceeding well. Second, his Grace, likewise, thanketh 'you for
your remembrance touching the Priests : (for money) I perceive well he would
not have them forgotten. Thirdly, for my Lord of Wiltshire, he is very glad
you remembered him, and also that yon wrote for so good a sum !"133
Henry had now, in some degree, recovered from his severe panic,
though he continued but ill at ease tUl the rebellion was crushed. The
rising in Lincolnshire had amounted to about twenty thousand ; but
this, in the north, extended to more than double that number in the field,
besides many others equally disaffected, whUe the Lord Steward had only
about five thousand troops. But by the intrepidity of Shrewsbury, the
vigilance of Norfolk, and sagacity of Suffolk, the King's forces stood their
ground. They avoided any general engagement, and, by skilful delays,
bringing the enemy into distress for supplies, they at last prevailed.
The country was quieted by the month of January. Lords Darcy and
Hussey, Robert Aske, and a number of others, were executed ; and this
commotion will not fail to be improved for the farther demolition of Ab
beys. After a year which had commenced and concluded without leaving
one subject for pleasing reflection ; if there be another department of Eng
lish history worthy of recollection, how much more so, when now reviewed.

The confusion and the cruelty which had prevailed through
out the King's own aifairs, followed by the dissensions in his
kingdom to the end of the year, have now passed before us.
And when it is remembered that, as yet, not even one official
man had openly pronounced the name of Tyndale, but with
disapprobation, if not contempt; nay, that in the hatred so long
cherished and expressed by these officials we discover no abate
ment ; it must now certainly appear the more striking, that
the cause for which he lived, and had now been put to death,
had never before exhibited a year so prosperous. Our Trans
lator, whom we have followed from his cradle to the fiery
stake, has been taken to a better world ; and it was only in
appropriate harmony with all the past, that the year in which

183 We have already alluded to this mean transaction, (see page 482,1 in Crumwell, bor
rowing money from his predecessor, the Earl of Wiltshire, and Henry's repartee, on being
informed; the man who had, only five months before, put his son and daughter to death. By
his reply, Wiltshire might have struck the King dumb, as the Earl of Bedford once did James
II.—" Please your Majesty, I am an old man, and can do but little ; I had once a son, that
could now have been very serviceable to your Majesty." But neither the King nor CrumweU
would have so excused him. His money now, was but tho prelude to his castle afterwards !

1536.] THE ONLY PROSPEROUS CAUSE. 547
he sealed his testimony with his blood, should stand distin
guished above all that had preceded. Events of but inferior
importance to us now, though all-engrossing at the moment,
have first been glanced at ; but mainly for the sake of placing
them in contrast with the only department worthy of special
remembrance. While men of name and office, or authority,
in England, and throughout the whole twelve months, were
only groping their way out of darkness ; one division driven
to desperation, and the other bound by the miserable doctrine
of expediency, or abject submission to their Eoyal master's
will ; no sooner do we turn to that separate or providential
undertaking, which has been ever on the advance, than it
seems as if there had been actually no turmoil, no interrup
tion of tranquillity whatever. The storm has changed into
a calm ; and we are now left as calmly to survey what had
been accomplished.
It was the year of the Translator's martyrdom, but was
there to be no demand for the work of his hands ? Was truth
to be silent or suppressed, because folly frowned ? So far
from this, though the two last years had been more highly
distinguished than ever, for the number of editions, the pre
sent year exceeded them both put together. Or, to speak
more generally and from the beginning: from the year 1525
to ] 530 there had been at least six impressions, which, on an
average, was more than one edition annually ; since then there
had been seven if not eight editions, which was equal to two
every year ; but in this one year, or the last of the Transla
tor's life, there were nine if not ten editions from the press.
One gentleman, deeply conversant with the subject, does not
despair of his being able to make out the round dozen.
Once more, therefore, and for the third time, these volumes
come before us in contrast to all the mere confabulations of
the Convocation men. They had met again, as if resolved to
force themselves upon the notice of every future historian,
and we have already seen them striving to settle matters of
high behest ; but to the highest of all, or the Sacred Volume
itself, we are here confined ; and, now that Tyndale is gone, it
seems to be due to his proceedings, to glance at what these
men had as yet said ; for there had been nothing done, as
Latimer, with such pungent or galling frequency, had thun
dered in their ear.

548 THE IMBECILITY OF OPPOSITION. [bOOK I.
In the close of 1534, or eighteen months ago, these men had petitioned
in the foUovring terms, — " That his Majesty would vouchsafe to decree 1
that the Scriptures should be translated into the vulgar tongue by some
honest and learned men to be nominated by the King ;" and now, once
more, after having completely failed among themselves, nay fighting
with each other over the Sacred Record, here they are, professedly, a
second time petitioning the King. And what is the language they now
employ ? They petition, " That the King would graciously indulge unto
his subjects of the laity the reading of the Bible in the English tongue ;"
though, as yet, according to their own showing, there was no Bible to
read ; and the Bishop of London has not only returned the portion of
Scripture, with contempt, which has been assigned to him for Revision,
but he has declared that he will be no party in leading the people into
error by giving them the Scriptures ! StUl, however, and as a Convoca
tion, they go on, and now petition, " That a new translation might be
forthwith made for that end and purpose ;" that is, that the laity, under
the gracious indulgence of Henry the Eighth, might read the Bible ! But
a new translation of it ! Had these terms escaped from them unwittingly ?
Were they a tacit admission, or confession, that one had been made al
ready ? Were they now saying that the New Testament, which was to
be England's and Scotland's own book, long after they were in their
graves, was of no esteem in their eyes ? Or that the volume, they had
openly denounced and burnt so long, was now to be consigned to obUvion ?
Was this a frown upon Coverdale's new-bom attempt, of which they may
have only just heard ? But especially, and certainly, upon Tyndale's nu
merous editions, which had now driven them to such perplexity ? So it
seemed to Lewis, above a century ago. " By this," said he, " it appears
that the clergy did not approve of the translation already made by Tyn
dale and (or) Coverdale, and that their attempt which they made two
years (eighteen months) ago, to have the royal permission to make a
new one, did not succeed." True, and we have read the history of its
failure ; but certainly if Cranmer had been a tool as deep and dexterous
as any one man within the Convocation, he could not have contrived to
place himself and his brethren before posterity, in a light or posture so
little to be envied.
All this, however, only lends additional interest to the vo
lumes, which, throughout the whole year, had been issuing
from the press, and coming into England, " thick and three
fold," without the " gracious indulgence" of his Majesty
being either asked or granted. Of these New Testaments
three separate and entirely distinct editions were in quarto.
Of the duodecimo or small octavo size we know of five editions;
and though in these pages we adhere to those books only which

1536.] FOLIO NEW TESTAMENT. 54.9
have been verified, we may add that another edition, if not two,
may yet be ascertained to exist. All these editions, with the
exception of one, had been printed abroad in Antwerp; but that
one, in several respects, may be considered as equal in import
ance to all the others. The size of the book, in folio ; the
season of its publication, the present year ; but above all, the
printer and the place, his Majesty'' s own patent printer, in Lon
don ; all conspire to render the volume even still a mystery.
It comes before us, unaccountabl}', as the top-stone of this
hazardous but successful enterprise ; brought into view, also,
about -the ver}"- time when our Translator was breathing his
last, or consuming to ashes at Vilvorde. Some account of it,
in particular, must not be withheld.
" The Newe testament yet ones agayue corrected by W. Tyndale : Aud in
many places ameded, where it scaped before by neglygenoe of the printer.
Also a Kalender, and a necessary table, wherin easely and hghtly may be
founde any story coteyned in ye foure Euangelystes, and in the Actes of j"
apostels. Also before every pystel of S. Paul, is a prologue, very frutefuU to
ye reder. And after ye newe testament, foloweth the Epistels of ye olde
testament. Newly printed (by Tho. Berthelet) iu the yere of our lorde
MDXXXVi." — in the compartment of the boys in triumph, and with a small
medallion of a head laureated, supported by sphynxes ; peculiar to tliis print
ing press.
Collation. Prefixes, viz. Almanake for 23 years — Kalender — W. T. to the
Christen Reder — a prologue into the four Euangelystes — the Offyce of all
Estates, and the Bokes conteyned in the Newe Testament : 14 leaves. The
Newe Testament contains folio cxcvii., but the folios run on to ccv. ; then the
table of the Epistles and the Gospels, in double columns, &c. But at the end
we have the following distinguishing mark — " Gon saue the Kynge, and all his
WELL-WYLLEBS." Words which may have been actually printing, and iu Lon
don too, not far from the hour when the Translator himself, the most eminent
well-wilier the King ever had, was praying for him, and passing into heaven.
Of this rare volume, a copy now lies before the writer.
Very correctly printed, it is, perhaps, the first to be distin
guished throughout for one peculiarity in its orthography,
viz. the Anglo-saxon particle of negation, nat for not, and
waiwithstanding ; which was occasionally adopted after this,
as in the Latin and English edition of Eedinan, 1538, and of
Powell, in 1547 and 1549. In all other respects, the book
is an exact reprint of Tyndale's corrected edition in 1534,
having his name on the title page, and his long prologue to
the Eomans, which, by itself, had been so often and so long
condemned !
The name of Thomas Berthelet as printer, it is true, is not

550 FIRST TESTAMENT PRINTED IN ENGLAND. QbOOK I.
mentioned, whether out of delicacy to the Bishops and their
adherents, we cannot tell ; but Ames, Herbert, and Dibdin,
agree in ascribing the book to his press. It is known, indeed,
by the type, and the ornamental title of the boys in tri
umph. ^^ In the Harleian Library there were two copies of
this edition, one of them bound in red morocco, finely orna
mented with gold.^^ It is probably one of these which is
now in the Bodleian at Oxford. But at such a season as this,
in this style, and by the King^s printer, the book, we repeat,
is a mystery still. Must it not have been got up under favour
of the late Queen ? Such a supposition is only in harmony
with her letter to Crumwell, on behalf of Mr, Harman, and with
Henry''s printer being the man employed. But, at all events,
such was the first Sacred Volume printed on English ground}^
We, of course, cannot be supposed to have attached any
134 111 Herbert's Ames, this notable book, by Berthelet, stands in strange juxta- position with
two previous articles, printed by the same man. " A proclamation to avoid and abolish such
English, books as contain pernicious and detestable errors and heresies,- made the 8th day of
July, 28 of Henry VIII.," or I53fi. And a Proclamation for calling in diverse books, and
especially one, comprising a Sermon made by John Fishei', late Bishop of Rochester, &c. T.
Berthelet excudchat
By some writers this Berthelet has been mentioned as having been Cranmer's Secretary ; but
this is certainly a mistake. Berthelet was Wxoi first who sustained the office of King's printer,
as appointed by Henry VIII., and the second mau in England having this title. His predeces
sor, Richard Pynsoii, appointed by Henry VII., seems not to have had any patent ; but
Berthelet's, the first in existence, is dated 22d Feb. 1530, and the Statutes, his first publication
with a date, being finished before the 25th of March, bears the year 1529, He had been printing
before this, and continued to do so till his death in 1555. It was not that he cared for the
ScRiPTUHES ; so that he must have printed the New Testament at the instigation of others, who
had employed him ; and his daring to do so, we can ascribe to no other or inferior influence
than that of the Queen. In 1530 he had printed, officially, the proclamation prohibiting the
having of Holy Scripture tramlated into the vulgar tongues of English, French and Butch,"
that is the German. Aud in 1546, ten years after this, he printed the proclamation which
denounced " the Testament of Tyndale, and all his writings !" Proclamations, however, which
were all in vain ; though these circumstances only render this folio New Testament the
more remarkable.
Thomas Berthelet, who, from 1533 to 1535, was Secretary to Cranmer, might be a son or rela
tive, but not the printer, as appears from Cranmer's letter to Crumwell, 1st March 1535. — " For
the honesty and service of my servant, Thomas Barthelct, I do tender his preferment, and can
not as I would gladly do for him, unless he were disposed to be a secular, which, as 1 perceive,
he intcndeth not. I therefore commend and present him unto you, with no less good heart
and mind than ye presented him to me, and for my sake to set him to such beneficial exercise,
as ye shall think meet for him."— //ari. MS., 6148, fol. 49. Accordingly, as a public notary,
he was employed by Crumwell in 1536, with Layton, Bedel, and others, in visiting monasteries.
There was a John Barthlet also so engaged.
135 Harl. Cat., vol. i., Nos. 156, 157.
136 A Manuel of Devotions is said to have been presented by Anne Boleyn to her maids of
honour. If so, then this folio New Testament gives the surest ground for the notable expressions
contained in it. " Grant us, most merciful Father, this one of the greatest gifts that ever thou
gavest to mankind, the knowledge of thy holy will and glad tidings of our salvation ; this great
while oppressed with the tyranny of thy adversary of Rome, and his fautors, and kept close
under his Latin letters ; and now at length promulgate, puUisked, and set at liberty, by the
grace poured into the heart of tliy supreme power, our Prince, as all King's hearts be in thy
hand." Lewis has quoted this in connexion with Coverdale's Bible ; but that book could not
have been presented to Henry before tlie inliuence of Queen Anne was entirely gone. The
Testament, on the other hand, as printed in London, may have commenced at press in the close
*i( 1535, while all the while, in 1536, Berthelet went on !

1537.] THE YEAR OF TRIUMPH. ,5.51
essential influence to the late Queen. But, in conclusion of
this year, it ought to be remembered, that as she was now
gone, and her influence at Court, whatever was its amount,
had died with her ; this will now render the future overrul
ing of the King and his adherents, or of all surviving parties,
only the more obvious and distinct.
In Bunyan's immortal story of " the Holy War " when
ear-gate was once broken up, and its bolts and bars shivered
into a thousand pieces, Emmanuel himself came forward, and
set his throne in it ; the weapons of war were then carried
within the walls, to be employed on the citadel of the heart.
So, in this long and arduous contest, Wolsey and Warham,
Fisher and More, with many other opponents, were now gone;
but if printers within the shores of England, and near to
Henry's own person, have begun thus to act, what will sig
nify all his proclamations, or the wrath of all his official men ?
In truth, the day was nearly won. The printing press abroad
was now busy, in a style quite unprecedented ; and next year,
though quite unforeseen by the King, or Crumwell, or Cran
mer, the victory will be complete ! They had no idea what
ever, of what was awaiting them, only eight months hence.

SECTION XIV.
MEMOKABLE INTRODUCTION OP THE BNTIBE SACRED VOLUME  MYLES
COVERDALE — HIS OIKCUMSTANCES COMPARED WITH TYNDALe'S  COVER-
DALe's TEMPORARY SUCCESS  THE REMARKABLY SUDDEN CHANGE  TYN
DALE'S BIBLE— STATE OP ENGLAND BEFORE ITS INTRODUCTION  ORAN-
MEr's previous ENaAOEMEJfTS — TYNDALE's BIBLE ARRIVED  IMMEDI
ATELY RECEIVED  MUST BE BOUGHT AND READ — THE KING AGREES — THIS
AT EIBST SEEMS TO BE INCREDIBLE — GRAETON THE PROPRIETOR  ALL
PARTIES OVERRULED  DISTINCTION BETWEEN THE BIBLE REJECTED AND
THE BIBLE RECEIVED  CONCLUSION OP THE EIRST YEAR OP TRIUMPH.
With regard to the highest favour ever bestowed upon this
kingdom, there are no years so marked and memorable as
those of 1626 and 1537. The former, distinguished by the
arrival and introduction of the New Testament Scriptures,
printed in the native tongue ; the latter, by that of the entire

,552 ENTIRE SACRED VOLUME. [BOOK I.
Sacred Volume. The former, in defiance of all the authori
ties ; the latter, with the immediate concurrence of the King
and his best advisers. The former came as Tyndale's first
effort ; the latter arrived as the distinct and appropriate tri
bute to his memory ; both alike being foreign printed books.
It was now above fourteen years since the design had been
first formed. Up to this period, there had been more than
ten years of hard fighting, in single combat, with the nation
entire, from its monarch downwards ; but more than twenty
editions of Tyndale's translation of the New Testament had
passed through the press. They had gone into a thousand
unknown channels ; deep, nay, indelible was the impression
already made upon many minds. Latimer has informed the
Convocation of his brethren, that among the people there were
" many children of light ;" and Fox has told them, that " the
lay people knew the Holy Scriptures better than many of
themselves ;" but it was time that the King and all around
him should be overruled. The day drew near, though they
knew not of it. The Translator was gone, it is true, but his
translations were safe ; and not only in safe keeping, but in
the press. The volume must have been preparing before he
was consumed to ashes. But, at all events, the Scriptures
entire, from Genesis to Eevelation, will now be introduced ;
and his Majesty, however incensed before, or armed with
power and pride still, must at once bow in assent, and all
other men proceed, as it had been appointed they should.
The opposition hitherto had been both loud and long ; but
when once the day for the arrival of the Scriptures comes, not
a man must move his tongue against them.
We have heard already of one translation of the Bible by
Coverdale ; but the death of Queen Anne had retarded its ap
pearance in England. Henry had married Jane Seymour,
after which the name of her predecessor here inserted, was no
passport to royal favour. Some time, however, having once
elapsed, although there be no positive proof of this book hav
ing ever been laid before the King, what is curious enough,
a reprint of it had obtained favour in his eye ; so that we are
now prepared for a comparison of Coverdale's Bible, with that
of Tyndale, edited by his surviving devoted friend John
Rogers, under the name of Thomas Matthew, and imported
this year.

1537.] MYLES COVERDALE. 5,53
It is remarkable that such obscurity should have rested
on the origin of our two first Translators of the Scriptures ;
though that which still prevails over the very name and
parentage of Coverdale, be by far the greatest. No such sur
name being certainly known to exist, in the person of any
other man, it has been supposed to have been taken or given,
as in foreign countries, from the district in Yorkshire where
he was born. The parish or township of Coverham, near
Middleham, in the North Riding of that county, claims him
for a native. Burnet strangely imagined him to be a foreigner,
and native of Denmark. Into this mistake he may have been
led, from Coverdale having afterwards married abroad, though
this was to a lady of Scotch extraction, Elizabeth Macheson ;
a circumstance which we shall find proved of great value to
him, in the reign of Queen Mary. The surname itself being
so unknown, if Lewis be correct in saying that one of this
name took the degree of Bachelor of Canon Law at Cam
bridge, A.D. 1531, it could scarcely apply to any other than
the future Translator ; and it seems no unsuitable introduc
tion to his engagements from that very time. According to
Godwin, he received a doctor's degree from Tubingen, and,
though late in life, was admitted ad eundem at Cambridge,
but no dates are mentioned.
The origin and progress of Coverdale's translation have re
mained in equal obscurity ; and hence the extremely differ
ent opinions which have been hazarded as to the length of
time he occupied in preparing for the press, or in printing it
after it was ready.
Upon a marble tablet erected to his memory in 1537, by the parishioners of
St. Magnus iu London, where, in the close of his long career, he used to preach,
they have engraved, that he " spent many years of his life in preparing a
translation of the Scriptures ;" and they add — " On the 4th of October mdxxxv.
the first complete English printed version of the Bible was published under his
direction." With regard to its appearance in England, however, the reader is
already able to judge more correctly ; for it does not follow, because the last
sheet was committed to the press, in a foreign land, on the day mentioned,
that the book was then published.
On the other hand, more recently, in " a historical account of the English ver
sions of the Scriptures," we have been told that instead of " many years," this
translation of the entire Bible " could not have commenced before November
1S34, and, probably, it was not until the following month ! Thus, the longest
time that Coverdale could have had for the completion, both of the translation
and of the printing, was eleren months ; and if this work did, in any way, result
from the resolutions of the Convocation, 19th December 1534, then the

554 MYLES COVERDALE. [bOOK I.
whole was executed iu the short space of nine months and a half! The time
when he began was certainly not previous to November 1534."'
If Coverdale had overtaken a translation of the entire
Sacred Volume in the space of two years, or even three, and
employed nearly another in printing it, when the time in
which he lived is considered, it will be allowed by all who are
competent to judge, that he must have been very busily
occupied. And if it shall turn out that he was not only un
molested, but fostered in his undertaking, this he may have
accomplished. Extreme opinions, so wild or wide of the
truth, whether on marble or in print, need not be refuted ;
though they show the necessity for some more feasible and
distinct account, if any evidence can be found.
We have heard of Coverdale before, again and again ;
though to those who have ever paid any attention to the
subject, by this time it may have appeared extraordinary,
that we should seem to have either forgotten him, or omitted
frequent mention of his name. But the truth is, that we
have searched for him all along, and yet, upon the broad sur
face of all these manuscripts, with the exception of one signi
ficant letter, we have not found a single intelligible allusion,
since after meeting with him in Hamburgh, according to
Foxe.^ We supposed that he had then returned again into
England. This he certainly did, granting our old historian
to be correct in thus sending him abroad ; for the whole story
rests upon his sole authority. But this was above six years
ago. Amidst this unbroken silence, however, we have this
epistle from Coverdale himself, and but one, which has effec
tually prevented him from being forgotten. It would scarcely
have been intelligible much before the present year, when,
wherever he had been, we find him, for the first time, and
then certainly upon English ground.
Before giving this letter, however, there is one notable cir
cumstance, connected with Coverdale's name, which has never
been pointed out, not the least curious in the history of these
stormy times. The reader need not here be told, that a
searching controversial war had been going on in England for
years, or that the man who enjoyed the melancholy eminence
of being the grand opponent to the new learning, was Sir
' The italics an; not ours. 2 In Hit uiid of 152!), and beginning of 1530. See page 240.

1537.] MYLES COVERDALE. 555
Thomas More. But it so happened, that in opposing the
translation of the Scriptures, and their introduction into his
native land, it was a main point with the Lord Chancellor to
report names ; and this he did, not only with accuracy, but
emphasis. Hence, not only is Tyndale named, times out of
number, and Fryth very frequently; but we have " Friar
Barnes, sometime doctor in Cambridge ;" " Friar Soye, the
apostate ;" " George Constantyne ,•" " George Joye, otherwise
called Clarke ;" " Richard Bayfield, both a priest and a
monk ;" " Thomas Bilney ,•" " John Tewksbury ,¦" " Thomas
Hytton ;" " John Byrte, otherwise calling himself Adrian,
otherwise John Bookbinder, and yet otherwise I cannot tell
what." In short, names were, in the Chancellor's esteem, of
first-rate importance in the controversy ; and, therefore, not
only the Translator himself, by way of eminence, but all the
subordinate agents, who, in the humblest manner, aided in
the importation of his translation, or even read it, were held
up to reprobation, or to the terror of all England. What,
then, had become of Coverdale ? Why was he not treated
with derision as well as Tyndale ? How is it, that in the
wide compass of More's voluminous controversy, the name of
Coverdale is not exposed as that of a delinquent, nay, never
once mentioned 2 Was he not engaged ; must he not have
been busily at work somewhere, at the same time that Sir
Thomas More was so busy in ferreting out, and naming,
every suspected individual I We have seen Coverdale make
one narrow escape. His name, in 1528, when so many men
were punished, had been very distinctly held up before Tun
stal, as a noted delinquent. He had been preaching ; he, as
well as Barnes, had approved of Tyndale's New Testament, and
of its dispersion ; but we then quoted his own letter to Crum
well, in August 1527, as accounting fully for his safety, and
his being then passed over in silence. But if since that period,
and more especially at the very season when Sir Thomas was
continuing to write so furiously against Tyndale's version,
and all who dared to read it, Coverdale has been engaged in
translating; and if by the close of 1535, he has finished at
press an impression of the English Bible, he must have been
employed upon it for a considerable time. There can be now
no doubt that he was, and as little, that Sir Thomas More
had been perfectly aware of his occupation ; though his sin-

556 MYLES COVERDALE. [bOOK I.
gular silence, maintained throughout, must have always re
mained a riddle, not to be solved, but for this one solitary
letter from Coverdale's own pen, which has never been printed
till within these few years. It is addressed to Crumwell —
" Most singular good Master— With due humility, 1 beseech unto your
Mastership all godly comfort, grace, and prosperous health. For so much as
your goodness is so great toward me, your poor ehild,3 only through the plen
teousness of your favour and benevolence, I am the bolder of your goodness, in
this my rude style, if it like your favour, to revocate to your memory the godly
communication which your Mastership had with me, your orator, in Master
Moor's house in Easter Eve, amongst many and divers fruitful exhortations,
specially of your singular favour, and by your most comfortable words, I per
ceive your gracious mind towards me.
" Wherefore, most honourable Master, for the tender love of God, and for the
fervent zeal that you have to virtue and godly study, cordis genibus promlutus,
T. humbly desire and beseech your goodness, of your gracious help. Now I be
gin to taste of Holy Scriptures ; now, honour be to God, I am set to the most
sweet smell of holy letters, with the godly savour of holy and ancient doctors,
unto whose knowledge I cannot attain, without diversity of books, as is not un
known to your most excellent wisdom. Nothing iu the world I desire, but
books as concerning my learning. They once had, I do not doubt but Almighty
God shall perform that in me, which He, of his most plentiful favour and grace,
hath begun. Moreover, as touching my behaviour, your Mastership's mind
once known, with all lowliness I oifer myself, not only to be ordered in all things,
as shall please your wisdom, but also as concerning the education and instruction
of others, alonly to ensue your prudent counsel ; ' nam,' &c. ;4 for whatever of
counsel is in thee, there is nothing which is not politic, nothing not divine ;
verily, whatever you do, you do nothing unadvisedly, never vaunting yourself
the first philosopher : but of the dew of heaven, (in the manner of Jacob,) you
have stolen away the chief blessing. Out of that mighty stream of yours, I
greatly desire to drink, because, in your presence, I wish to speak not after
an ordinary manner. Farewell, thou ornament of learning, of councils, and, in
fine, of every virtue ! — From the Augustine's, this May-day — Your child and
beedman in Jesu Christ, Fkeee Myles Cov'dale.
" Unto the right worshipful, and his most singular good Master, Master Crum
well, this be delirered with due manner."^
This document is important in several respects ; and though
the year in which it was written be not marked, the style
proves that Crumwell had already much in his power, and
3 Tlio term child., as here and again employed^ is, of course, not intended to mark any inferio
rity in point of age— but to denote humble courtesy. Coverdale was born in the year 148H.
4 This he must give in Latin—" Nam quicquid est iu te concilii, nihil non politicum, nihil non
divinum est; quicquid enim agis, nihil inconsulte agis, nusquam te primum philosophum
prodes. De rore autem celi summam (more Jacob) surrepuisti benedictionem. De tuo ipso
torrente maximo potari exopto, te quia coram alloqui nom mediocriter cupio. Vale, decUB
literarum, conciliorum, omnium denique probitatum." , He subscribes himself still a friar,
and is mindful of Wolsey's i-ule. See the note under Coverdale's letter of August 152?, p. 186.
5 MS. Crumwell's Correspondence in the State Paper Oflice ; and see Gov. State Papers, i., p.
38:).

1537.] MYLES COVERDALE. 557
that, therefore, he must have been engaged officially near the
King. His Majesty's Commissioners in our day, who first
printed the letter, in 1830, have said — " From the superscrip
tion it was clearly before Crumwell became Secretary of State,
probably before he was of the Privy Council," and they have
dated it 1st May 1532. But the " superscription" is liter
ally the same which Vaughan and others employed, when
addressing Crumwell in 1531 ;® and as time must be allowed
for Coverdale to complete his translation, we are inclined to
think that the letter may have been written on May-day
1531. In May 1530, the Bishops and Sir Thomas More
were mad to fury against Tyndale, but by the next year, his
influence being more powerful than ever, Crumwell may have
felt that something must be attempted.^
As for the gentleman, in whose house Crumwell and Cover-
dale had conversed. Master Moor, there can be little hesita
tion. The name of Sir Thomas was then often so spelt, and
it is well known, that, at that period, in familiar correspond
ence, titles were frequently dropt. Master Moor''s name occurs
in the letter of 1527, as well as in the present.'
The style of this epistle, may have amused the reader, since
adulation could scarcely farther go. This was the foible of
the age ; though, at the same time, it forcibly explains to us,
the only course which Coverdale imagined he could pursue.
He felt that he must have a Patron, and posterity has now
the advantage of seeing, in the two cases of Tyndale and

e Crumwell was certainly a Privy Counsellor in 1531, if not earlier, see p. 225 ; though not
Secretary of State till 1534.
7 Among too many other mistakes, a most unceremonious freedom is used with this date of
the Government Commissioners, in a recent anonymous publication, entitled, " Memorials of
Myles Coverdale," 8vo, London, 1838. " The date there," says the author, "is wrongly assigned
to 1531 ;" misquoting the Commissioners, who say 1532. But then he tells us, that this letter
" it is ¦most probable was written before 1514 ! Because, in that year. Tanner says that Cover-
dale took orders at Norwich before John Bishop of Chalcedou." Wliat help or hope he could
have by applying to Crumwell llien, it is indeed hard to say ; for where was CrumweU to be
found before 1614 ? Four years before, according to the popular story, he had been trying to
soothe the sweet tooth of Julius II. at Rome, by some dainty jellies, made after the English
fashion ; .and after that, he is understood to have been a soldier-adventurer, when, of course,
he had but little to spare. But the first historical notice of Crumwell on English ground, then
in a humble capacity as confidential servant to the Marchioness of Dorset, is placed by Sir H.
Ellis, in U23.— Letters, i., p. 219. At last he got into Wolsey's good graces ; but assuredly he
wiis never there addressed as " the ornament of councils." In 152S, we have already seen
Coverdale in the Monastery at Cambridge with Barnes, then coming up to London with him ;
and two years afterwards, in no small danger of apprehension. See p. 186. But now, the hooks
he wanted were evidently for a specific design, in which he was eager to engage, after the godly
communication held with him, in Master Moor's house.
0 John Foxe, Tyndale, and others, meant nothing discourteous when referring to him as
Maister More.

558 COVERDALE'S SITUATION [^BOOK I.
Coverdale, whether, in translating the Sacred Volume, a man
succeeds best, with or without one. Coverdale was afterwards
of great value ; but as soon as he appears, when compared
with Tyndale, we have no choice, but are obliged to discrimi
nate. They were men evidently cast in two difi'erent moulds.
The former never could have adopted such a style of address
to any man, whether in or out of power. Once in his life,
indeed, we have seen Tyndale approach Sir Henry Guilford,
with the translation of a Greek Ode, as a specimen of his
scholarship, and he advised him to apply to Tunstal ; but
being civilly enough refused, this at once opened his eyes, so
that, from that moment he looked up to God alone, and
went on his way. " God," said he, seven years afterwards,
" who knoweth what is within hypocrites, saw that I was
beguiled, and that that counsel was not the next way to
my purpose, and, therefore, He gat me no favour in my
lord's sight."
After such a letter, and " books once had," it is natural to
suppose that Coverdale lost no time. He had been set to "the
smell of holy letters" by no common Patron — a man rising
into great power ; though the spot to which this second transla
tor retired, has never yet been ascertained. But wherever it
was, there he sat down, and amidst all the war's tumultuous
noise, as well as shielded from the keen arrows of the Lord
Chancellor of England, he was left, like Luther on his moun
tain ground at Wartburg, to pursue the even tenor of his
way. How striking is the contrast, when we turn for a mo
ment to the situation of Tyndale, whether in 1531 or 1532?
Having had no fixed abode, no certain dwelling place, but
under the pelting of a pitiless storm, by May 1531, for more
than seven long years, he had already been doing his best for
England. As far as reproach, denunciation, and persecution,
could go, it might be said, " with many an arrow, deep infixed,
his panting side was charged." — " As I now am," said he to
Vaughan, in April of that year, " very death were more
pleasant to me than life ;" and if the reader will only glance
over that stern and strange letter of this same man, Crum
weU, he will be better able to judge of the contrast.^ Or let
the date given in the Government State Papers turn out to

9 In May 1531. See page 275.

1537.] COMPARED WITH TYNDALE'S. 559
be the correct one ; then, at that moment. Sir Thomas Elyot
had been charged by Henry VIII. to seize Tyndale, if he
could ; at home, the Bishops were tormenting Latimer, and
burning Mr. Bainham ; and as Coverdale dates his letter
from St. Augustine's, he could scarcely miss hearing that
gentleman, with Tyndale's Testament in his hand, address
the Congregation there, as he did, with tears ! At all events,
if that letter was written on May -day 1532, Bainham had •
been consumed to ashes in Smithfield, that very morning.'"
If, however, we now assume the latest date, or that of the
Government Commissioners, to be the true time, it is evident
Coverdale had quite enough to do for fully two years to come,
in bringing his manuscript of the entire Scriptures into such
a state, as that he could please his employers, with regard to
any word or any rendering contained in it.
According to his own expression, he was then ready to set
forth this special translation. In other words, he was then
ready for the press." Nor is the time unworthy of notice.
It will be remembered that by May in that year, Crumwell
had been appointed Secretary of State, and that his influ
ence was rising rapidly to its great height. He had, there
fore, much more in his power, while Coverdale, as we have
seen for years past, was at his disposal, or entirely subservi
ent to his will. Now, it was the Wew Testament, all along,
of which the authorities had been most afraid ; the systematic
alteration of certain words in it, might be regarded as likely
to allay their apprehensions, and could be very easily done,
before the manuscript was committed to the press.'^ At all
events, Coverdale was then ready to " set forth" his transla
tion, " according as he was desired;'''' and theletter just quoted,
indeed, is chiefly valuable as a key to certain expressions to
be found in the preliminary matter affixed to the Bible of

10 See page 333.
1 1 To set forth, was Coverdale's phrase for printing, as in his next letter ; and thus much
seems to be implied in what he afterwards said in his Apology to the Header, before his
own second edition of his Bible in 1650. " For the which cause (accordyng as I was desyred,)
anno 1534, 1 toke the more upon me to set forth this speciall translacyon," &c. The same
words he had printed before, in his first edition ; but here he inserts the year in wliich he
waa " desired to set it forth." To suppose that he then only bkgan to translate from Genesis
to Revelation, aa already noticed, p. 553, would be to impose a task which neither Coverdale,
nor any other man, was able to accomplish, not only in his early day, but even in our own.
12 One of those terms was Penance; a word for which all the leading adherents of the old
learning entertained a decided preference. Fuller, the historian, was so uncourteous, or un
charitable, as to insinuate somewhere, that this waa owing to one circumstance— that Penance
kept Oieir Kilthen.

560 COVERDALE'S SITUATION [bOOK 1.
1535. No fault can ever be found with Covei'dale's amiable
temper as a man, while his expressed humility as a scholar
shines pre-eminent. Among his contemporaries he must ever
be ranked very high. As a translator he did well ; and had
he not been encumbered with patronage, he would have done
far better. We must, however, take the work as it came
from his hands, and can now judge of it only by its merits.
But if the situation of the two men has furnished one con
trast, the origin of the two translations presents another, not
less worthy of remembrance. The origin of Tyndale's, must
ever be traced to his own bosom and conscience alone. Before
leaving England, we have supposed that he might have said, —
" The word of the Lord was in mine heart, as a burning fire
shut up in my bones, and I was weary with forbearing, and I
could not stay ;" nay, and with the prophet of old, he might
have added — "All my familiars watched for my halting ; say
ing, peradventure he will be enticed, and we shall prevail against
him, and we shall take revenge upon him." With Coverdale,
it was far otherwise. It was an undertaking, no doubt, con
genial with his taste ; but, left to himself, if we are to believe
his own words, he never would have attempted it. In his pro
logue "to the Christian reader," he styles his work a " special
translation," because he proceeded as he was desired under au
thority. " But, to say the truth before God, it was neither
my labour, nor my desire to ham this work put into my hands;
nevertheless, when I was instantly required, though I could
not do so well as I would, I thought it yet my duty to do mv
best, and that with a good will."
Then, again, as to the expense of this undertaking, Coverdale
was patronised. In Tyndale's case, under the influence of the
power of Christianity and the noblest patriotism, the whole
commenced at his own risk ; and purely for his country's
benefit, we have seen him, again and again, embarrassed iu
more ways than one. But Coverdale had no risk whatever to
run. He was employed, and, whether he was to succeed or
not, the work was to involve him in no expense whatever.
He spake as he felt at the moment, and it was intended, no
doubt, as a hint to the King ; but certainly it was by far too
bold to say, that "he trusted, that God would bring his simple
and rude labour to good effect, seeing that others had been
moved by the Holy Ghost to undertake the cost of it." The

1537.] COMPARED WITH TYNDALE'S. 561
glaring truth was, that the community at large had been even
by that time happily brought into such a state, by manifold
editions of Tyndale's translation, that the patrons of Coverdale
were moved by no higher feeling than that of imperative ex
pediency ; and this feeling forms decidedly one of the strongest
testimonies to the effect and power of Tyndale's exertions.
Having proceeded however to the close, Coverdale had now
to approach his Majesty, no doubt under direction, that nothing
might be wanting to secure acceptance ; and therefore he came
with the_/?rs^ of those dedications, which, to say the least, ought
never to have been bound up with the word of the living God.
In the course of his dedication, he compares Henry VIII. to
Moses, to David, to Jehosaphat, to Hezekiah, " yea a very
Josias;" and as if all this had not been too much, he says —
" I thought it my duty, and to belong unto my allegiance,
when I had translated this Bible, not only to dedicate this
translation unto your Highness, but wholly to commit it unto
the same : to the intent that if any thing therein be translated
amiss, it may stand in your Grace's hands, to correct it, to
amend it, to improve, yea, and clean to reject it, if your godly
wisdom shall think it necessary!''''
In the volume which Coverdale thus presented, were these
words, of his own translating, — " He that rebuketh a man,
shall find more favour at the last, than he that flattereth him ;"
though certainly, at the moment, it might seem, that under
such high patronage, and after incense so dense and abundant
as had been offered to his Majesty, he must succeed. And not
only succeed, but overshadow the man who had been so sig
nally raised up by God, and who, for twelve years, had been
God's own sanctioned instrument, for conveying into Britain
His blessed Word. Often have we marked his labours, as form
ing a distinct and independent undertaking, with which Divine
providence would not permit mere time-serving men, whoever
they were, or worldly politicians, to interfere ; but how will it
be possible to draw this distinction now ? And, more especially,
as this is only the first of several distinct attempts, to bestow
on this country, a translation different from that of the first —
the unpatronised Tyndale's ?
Yet in serving man only, and in seeking to please him,
there are many critical moments, while in serving God, there
is not one : and, therefore, with regard to this attempt, it so
VOL. I. 2 N

562 COVERDALE'S DEDICATION. \JBOOK I-
happened that Coverdale had overshot the mark at a most criti
cal period. This might have well warned any future individual,
of the danger connected with such dedications. The last sheet
of this Bible having been put to press on the 4th of October
1535, Coverdale had closed the heading, or title, of his dedica
tion to Henry, by imploring the Divine blessing on himself,
and his " dearest just wife and most virtuous Princess, Queen
Anne.'''' Any copy of this book, bound, could not have reached
this country before the beginning of 1536, at the soonest.
But by February, if not earlier, the very name of Queen Anne,
so far from being a passport to royal favour, was fatal to any
thing, to which it was affixed ! Crumwell, too, as we have
already seen, had fallen in with the King's barbarous inten
tions, so that till another Queen arose, in the person of Jane
Seymour, the book must have remained unpresented. After
that, it is true, the Convocation assembled in June ; but, as a
body, they appear to have entertained no favour for the transla
tion, no nor even sympathy for those who, as Coverdale has told
us, had been " moved to pay the cost!'''' So far from this, " the
Convocation agreed upon the form of a petition to be presented
to the King," as already noticed, " That he would graciously
indulge unto his subjects of the laity, the reading of the
Bible in the English tongue, and that a new translation of it
might be forthwith made, for that end and purpose." And,
therefore, said Lewis, it appears that the Clergy did not ap
prove of the translations already made by Tyndale and Cover-
dale, and their ovjn attempt to have the royal permission to
make a new one had not succeeded.
Here, however, was a Bible, completely finished by Coverdale, dated
in 1535, and before any remarks respecting it, we give the Title and
Collation. " BiBLiA. The Bible, that is the holy Scripture of the Olde and New Tes
tament, faithfully and truly translated out of Douche and Latyn in to Englishe,
MDXXXV." The hook is in black letter, printed in double columns, in a foreign
secretary-gothie type, with wood-cuts ; but the dedication, prologue, and con
tents of Genesis, are in a different letter. Collation. Wood-cut title ; dedica
tion to K. Henry VIII. including his " dearest just wife, and most vertuous
pryncesse, Queen Anne," — indicating the powerful influence she possessed in
that year, S pages. " A prologue to the reader," 6 pages. « The Bokes of the
hole Byble," 2 pages. " The contentes of the boke of Genesis," 1 page. " The
first book of Moses," fol. i. — xe. ; then a map of the Holy Land. « The second
parte of the Olde Testament," Josua to Hester, fol. ii. — cxx. "Job to Solomon's

1537.11 COVERDALE'S BIBLE. 563
Balettes," fol. i.— lii. « All the Prophetes in Englishe," fol. ii.— cii. " Apo-
cripha," fol. ii. — Ixxxiii., falsely numbered Ixxxi., a blank leaf. " The Newe
Testamente," fol. ii. — exiii. and on the reverse of the last is, " Prynted in the
yeare of oure Lorde, mdxxxv. and fynished the fourth daye of October."
The death of Queen Anne in May 1536, having proved fatal to the
appearance of this book tUl after the event, various expedients were
then tried to ensure success. " The interval," says Professor Walter,
" between the date on the title-page and the actual publication, is clearly
marked by a curious alteration in the dedicatory letter to Henry VIII.
which contains these words, — ' your dearest just wife and most vertuous
pryncesse Qu. JAne.' This is not as it was printed ; for Anne has been
altered into JAne by the pen." Thus indeed it stands in the British
Museum copy, but there is great variety as to this appellation. Lam
beth Library has one copy with Anne, another with Jane. The Bodleian
has Anne. Sion College has Jane, and in some copies the nartve of the
Queen had been expunged. None of these expedients, it must be obvious,
could possibly meet the case. The preceding phrase was now as in
auspicious as that of the Queen's name. The epithet just, as intended
to mark both Coverdale's and CrumweU's approbation of Henry's second
Queen, had come too late ; and it was more than awkward when applied to
the third marriage, as it seemed to say that the question of legitimacy
would never be laid to rest. Only one other device remained to be tried,
which was that of a new title, as if it were a different book ; changing
the year to the next, or 1536, and leaving out the words " translated out
of Bouch and Latyn,'' as foUow, " Biblia. The Byble : that is, the
Holy Scrypture of the Olde and New Testament, faythfuUy translated in
Englyshe, mdxxxvi." But all was yet in vain, and that year expired
without leaving one shadow of proof that the book had obtained the
royal approbation. In June, the Prelates virtually expressed their dis
satisfaction, with all that had yet been done ; and we have already seen
that there were no injunctions on the subject in 1636.
From all this, it becomes evident, that wherever Cover-
dale had superintended the press, whether at Zurich, Frank
fort, or Cologne, for they have all been mentioned, in 1536
he must have been in London ; and in 1537 we have evi
dence not only of his occupation and place of abode, but of
his long-continued confidential communication with Crum
well. We have never seen him but as his obedient servant
for ten years past, or since August 1527. His return to
England therefore, and his continued residence in it till
next year, being thus ascertained, all such assertions as
that " Coverdale, assisted by Rogers who corrected the

564, COVERDALE AS A TRANSLATOR. [bOOK I.
press, revised the whole of Tyndale's work before they re
printed it, not only the published but the unpublished part
of it," as Mr. Whittaker had imagined, are now at an end.
Coverdale was at home in England, all the time that Rogers
was so busy abroad ; and from the superior manner in which
he executed his task, it is evident that he required no such
assistant. The alliance of Coverdale with Tyndale, at any
time, is a historical fiction, which must now be discarded.
No two undertakings could well be more distinct; though
Rogers, it will be evident, had sat in judgment on whatever
Coverdale had translated.
With reference, however, to the Bible brought into England
in 1 536, of Coverdale's qualifications as a Translator from the
original, there can be little or rather no question, after what
Mr. Whittaker has so ably written respecting his acquaint
ance with Hebrew ; though, at the same time, his leaning to
the Vulgate and German versions, has been made equally
apparent by Professor Walter ; who goes so far as to insist
that the version cannot be ranked so high as that of a primary
one." The truth seems to be, that between Coverdale and
Crumwell, expediency had been far too much consulted in the
undertaking throughout. Hence even the first title-page,
bearing these words " translated out of Douche and Latyn.''''
These terms, as Whittaker had not seen them, he could
scarcely believe ; adding, " if this be the case, the title-page
contains a very great misrepresentation." Hence the with-
drawment of the words in 1536 by Coverdale, and this year
by Nycolson ; to say nothing of the awkward substitute,
" translated in Englyshe." At the same time, Coverdale
himself informs us that he had five different translations,
both Latin and Dutch, that is German, before him, and " to
help him herein ;" and though he certainly does not appear
to have venerated these " interpreters" as authority, he regard
ed their translations with " gladness," and therefore could
not upon all occasions be free from some degree of bias.'*
13 See " An historical and critical enquiry into the interpretation of the Hebrew Scriptures,
by John W. Whittaker, M.A., 1819;" and Letter to Marsh, Bishop of Peterborough, by Henry
'Walter, B.D., 1823.
14 The Interpreters themselves, cannot now be positively fixed ; but considering the tim , the
following may have been the Jice referred to.— 1. The Vulgate, of course. 2. The Biblia Sacra,
of Rudelius, already mentioned, note, p. 167, printed at Cologne in 1527, and again in 1529 ; for,
though unknown to our bibliographers, and though Le Long, who had never seen the iirst edition,
and speaks of the second as so scarce that he could not find it in the Libraries at Paris, it

1537.] HIS TRANSIENT SUCCESS. 565
But we are now advancing into the year 1537, and yet, if
there has been any application to the King respecting this
Bible, there is no reply. Not a single petition from Crumwell
in its favour is to be found. A printer however, and in
London itself, now appeared in furtherance of Coverdale's
design — James Nycolson in St. Thomas' Hospital, South
wark. By this time he had reprinted Coverdale's Bible, with
his dedication to the King ; and it deserves notice that there
were other copies with a difi'erent title, without the dedica
tion. From the spelling, we presume the latter to have been
the first expedient for royal favour ; but this is immaterial,
for the fact is, that they both succeeded. Both titles bear at
the foot of the page these words, " Set forth with the Kynge's

But when, or in what month of 1537, could this have been
obtained ? There was, as already hinted, no Convocation ;
but were the Bishops not consulted I It should seem not.
Their Vicar-General had thought it unnecessary; for he it
was who had applied to Henry and obtained his license.
Coverdale himself was now in London ; and though there be
not a word yet found in favour of the first Bible printed in
1635, he now applied earnestly to his old patron, iox farther
favour to Nycolson, whom he was employing as a printer of
several smaller things.
" After due consideration to your good Lordship, I heartily and in most
humble wise beseech the same, that inasmuch as the King's most excellent
Majesty, of his singular grace, (by the means of your good Lordship as God's
instrument in that behalf,) hath granted unto this bearer, James Nicholson, bis
gracious license and privilege, for the sale of his Bibles and New Testaments al
ready printed ; and forasmuch as his Grace is also informed, and hath seen a part
of our posti], or ordinary sermons, which the Lord Archbishop of Canterbury
hath corrected ; your Lordship (according to your most loving and favourable
manner of old,) will help and further the said James Nicholson, to the King's
most gracious privilege for certain years to print the same ; considering the
cost and charge he hath had, not only for drawing of the said sermons out of
Scripture, but also in preparing now of his letters and prints for the setting
forth of the same.15 This I most humbly require of your Lordship, whom

must have been of easy access in the days of Coverdale ; and if it should turn out that he printed
at Cologne, the book was quite at hand. 3. The version by Pagninus, 1528. 4. The German-
Swiss or Helvetian version, by Leo Judae, 1525-1529, which, if Coverdale printed at Zurich, was
sure to be consulted. 5. Luthffr's German version of 1532. Besides these, indeed, there were
the Belgic or Dutch Bible, 1526, and following editions, printed by Leisveldt of Antwerp, and
the Lower Saxon, in 1533, at Lubeck, by Pomeranus. The Bible by Sebastian Munster, was
too late for Coverdale's consultation.
15 Coverdale's phrase for printing, as fomerly noticed in the prologue before his Bible.

566 REMARKABLY SUDDEN CHANGE. [BOOK I.
God preserve now and ever. Amen. Your Lordship's humble and daily
orator — Miles Coverdale."16
To this letter there is no month afiixed, but he writes
to Crumwell now, evidently more at ease, and as full of hope.
Here, therefore, and at last, it will be presumed by all that the
business is finished. Coverdale is alive, and in high favour.
The King's gracious license speaks for itself ; and if Crum
well and Cranmer, nay, and his Majesty be gained over, what
hope remained of the smallest notice being ever taken of
Tyndale's labours? What hope of any just estimate being
now formed of his merits as a Translator, however superior I
He had not only left the world, but left not one solitary friend
at that court, where his name had been branded with infamy,
from the days of Wolsey until now ; and, therefore, long be
fore Coverdale had even sat down to his work. Besides this,
the King and Crumwell, and Cranmer, had, for years, fully
committed themselves against Tyndale ; the two former by
the most violent language, and Cranmer, all these years, by
at least bowing to the storm, and winking hard at his mar
tyrdom. Nor must it be forgotten, that the Primate, in his
official capacity, in company with his brethren, had been
striving hard after some translation by their own authority.
Such was the actual state of matters, down to the beginning
of August this year; when, as far as it is yet known,not one man
in all England, from the King downwards, said, or even ima
gined, that any change was at hand ! But such are the ways
of Him, who is the Governor among the nations. That which
He most highly favours — that which, by way of eminence, is
his own cause. He may allow for a moment to sink into for
getfulness, or in oblivion die, only that his own hand may be
the more conspicuous.
Waiving therefore all implication of Coverdale, in any sense
whatever, whether as an individual, a translator, or a Christian,
the favour now bestowed upon him by man, becomes a part of
English history, by no means the least observable. It was
permitted to take its course. It was permitted to do so, till
it had reached its utmost height. But what if all this were
only to render the interposition of Divine providence more ap-

Crumwell's Correspondence, State Paper OiBce.

1537.11 REMARKABLY SUDDEN CHANGE. 567
parent and striking ? Capricious the King of England might
be, to a proverb ; but Henry the Eighth was God's servant, as
entirely as Nebuchadnezzar was of old ; and though all things,
at present, seem to run one way, in a few days only, we shall
see them all at once take another direction.
We shall see the translation set aside, which the King had
licensed, and of which even Crumwell, and perhaps some others,
had paid the cost ! No other man than Cranmer shall be the
moving cause. Nycolson the printer shall, next year, be out
of favour with Coverdale ; nay, Coverdale himself be engaged
in correcting the press of another translation, under the sanc
tion of both Henry and Crumwell ; while the Bible, which we
have just reported, shall be not only passed by, but ere long
interdicted by authority !
But why, it may be enquired, why make such distinction
between the two translations ? To this, at present, we only
reply, that supposing they had been precisely of equal merit ;
surely something was due to the memory of him who had
ploughed, and sowed,' and toiled so long ; who had first cast
up the high way, and lifted up a standard for the people;
without one word of encouragement, or one smile of Court fa
vour, from any of these men. The important distinction, how
ever, between the two translations, will be pointed out, when
once we have recorded the historical facts.
We must, therefore, as we have often done before, look
abroad, but only for a few moments, as we shall soon have occa
sion to return to England again.
In England itself, by this time, there were many admirers
of Tyndale, who now revered his memory ; many who had
read and believed the truths of Scripture, which he had been
importing into his native land since the year 1526; but they
were like the seven thousand in Israel, in the days of Elijah.
The printing press at home was fettered in the hands of but
a very few individuals, and there was no man of sufficient
nerve in this country to take up the cause. Tyndale himself
too, has been also withdrawn ; but all this will only render that
Providence, with whom the work had begun, still more con
spicuous, when lending the finishing stroke to all that his
chosen servant had translated. This then appears to have
been, and not till then, the proper moment for overruling the
men in England : that is, after all the three influential in
dividuals, the King, Crumwell, and Cranmer, had fully com-

568 TYNDALE'S BIBLE. [bOOK I.
mitted themselves, again and again ; and before any " injunc
tions" were issued, which might have misled the people.
As there was one man to whom Tyndale had been useful,
John Fryth, who had first stood by him as an assistant, and
then preceded him to a better world ; so now, there had been
a second raised up, to do justice to his memory, as a transla
tor. This was John Rogers, alias Matthew, a native of War
wickshire, born, it is most probable, about the year 1500.^'
He had been educated at Cambridge, and having come to Ant
werp while Tyndale resided there, he became a Chaplain to
the English merchant-adventurers. By his intimate conver
sation with our Translator, he was induced to examine the
Scriptures for himself, and the result was that he embraced,
in a great degree, the same views with this eminent man. We
have spoken with some limitation, as, according to Foxe, in
future years he had not even then understood, so clearly as
Tyndale, the subject of liberty of conscience, which indeed
scarcely any man then did.'*
Where Rogers sat down to superintend the press, remains
still only a matter of conjecture :'^ but it must have been soon,
if not immediately after Tyndale was imprisoned at Vilvorde,
that his friend set about his edition of the Bible, in large
folio ; as the work was finished, and ready for importation to
England by the month of July 1537.
That this tribute to Tyndale's memory originated in the in
dividual zeal of his friends, there can be little or rather no
doubt ; as Rogers had printed more than the half of the en
tire volume, before we have any evidence of the men coming
forward, who then took up the work, as a matter of business
or trade. These were Richard Grafton, and Edward Whit
church, so well known afterwards, as printers in London.
The former enjoyed the high honour of embarking almost his
all in the undertaking ; for neither Cranmer nor Crum
well, nor the King, ever contributed one farthing of the ex
pense.^" By the time, therefore, that Rogers had got to the

17 See a more particular account of him, when he comes to die, as the first martyr under
Queen Mary.
la This is only to be found in Foxe's Latin Edition, 1659. p. 202.
19 Foxe and Strype, supposed Hamburgh. Lewis, Marburg in Hesse. Wanly, thought
Paris. Antwerp itself has been mentioned, aud more recently Lubeck. But were the many
wooden blocks and flourishing capitals more carefully examined, the press may yet be tixed.
20 Lewis, in his history of translations, loosely speaks of—" Cranmer favouring this edition."
True, but not till he was astonished by the first sight of it. And he afterwards goes on to men-

1537.1 TYNDALE'S BIBLE. 569
beginning of Isaiah, these two individuals having embraced
the design, on that page the numbers begin again, with a
title, " The prophetes in Englishe,''^ in black and red letters,
surrounded by sixteen wood-cuts ; and on the next page there
is printed in flourished text capitals R.G. at the top, and E. W.
at the bottom, with a large wood-cut between. The name of
Tyndale affixed, would have been fatal to its acceptance with
Henry. That of Thomas Matthew, at whose instance perhaps
the undertaking may have commenced, was therefore printed, in
the title-page, and T. M. at the end of the dedication ; but to
mark Rogers' connexion with the book, we have at the beginning,
"An exhortation to the study of the Holy Scripture gathered out
of the Bible," which is subscribed J. R. : and what is singular,
at the end of the Old Testament, we find W. T. in very large
flourished text capitals, evidently intended for William Tyn
dale. Not that he had finished the whole, the remainder be
ing completed as we shall presently describe. The object
that Rogers had in view was to forward the work, and do jus
tice to the labours, of the man he admired. Accordingly, the
whole of the New Testament, and of the Old, as far as the
end of 2d Chronicles, or exactly two-thirds of the entire
Scriptures, are Tyndale's verbally, with an occasional variation
only in the orthography ; and as for the other third, while
Rogers may have taken advantage of Coverdale's printed
sheets, he evidently had sat in judgment on every page, and
his method is not implicitly followed.^'
When referring to this book. Bale has said that " Rogers
translated the Bible into English, from Genesis to the end of
Revelation, making use of the Hebrew, Greek, Latin, German,
and English (that is Tyndale's) copies." But this is merely
a specimen of those loose and inaccurate statements which
have been made by him, and Johnson, and various other
writers. There is now no question that Tyndale translated
his New Testament from the Greek ; and the Old, as far as he

tion Cranmer as the curator of a reprint ! Though pretty accurate for his^ime, it is years since
the whole work of Lewis has been pronounced to be ^* grievously in want of correction."
21 The contents of the chapters and prefaces are better disposed. In the 14th Psalm, Cover-
dale, following the Vulgate, iias three verses not in the Hebrew, which Bogers rejected. In the
Song of Solomon, the speakers are distinguished, and in red ink. The book of Jonah is the same
in both, but then Rogers inserts Tyndale's famous and solemn prologue, which had been so de
nounced. And will Henry receive it, and even sanction it now ? Besides these, there are other
variations. It is only to beregretted that Rogers should have inserted the Apocrypha, which, in
obedience to his patrons, Coverdale had translated.

570 STATE OF LONDON AT [bOOK I.
had gone, from that Hebrew, which he so admired. What
Rogers did therefore, was, that he adopted Tyndale as far as
he had proceeded in translating ; and as a variety of passages
from the Old Testament had been not only translated, hut pub
lished before Coverdale's Bible saw the light ; so it must be pre
sumed that there were other chapters in manuscript.^ In short,
Rogers had the whole of Tyndale, whether in print or manu
script, as well as Coverdale's sheets, for the remainder, before
him : and having now arrived at the close we find these words :
" To the honoure andprayse of God was this Byble prynted, and
fynesshed in the yere of oure Lorde God, a. mdxxxvii." No
month is mentioned, but it must have left the press by the
middle of July, if not in the end of June.
Richard Grafton, therefore, was now ready; but before any
application is made to England, in favour of that Bible which
was providentially to form the prototype of so many millions,
it becomes of importance, first to ascertain the precise circum
stances under which it came into our native land.
The occupation of Cranmer and his coadjutors — the position
of other men — the actual state of the country, and especially
of the capital, will explain these. Of the month or day when
Coverdale's Bible arrived, we have no account whatever, but
it happens to be very difi'erent in the present case ; and, there
fore, every item of intelligence becomes doubly interesting.
From the end of May Cranmer had been at Lambeth ; Pox of Here
ford was living at Poplar, and Latimer at hand, elsewhere ; but they,
with " other Bishops, and certain learned men," met frequently, by ap
pointment, at Stepney. They were engaged in long and harassing dis
cussion over the terms of a book, which was to follow up their " articles"
of last year ; well known afterwards as " the institution of a Christian
man," frequently styled " the Bishops' Book." For a season, it seemed
altogether impossible for them ever to agree ; and we need only refer to
the mouths of July and August in illustration ; the one preceding, and
the other following, the reception of the Bible. Upon a Friday in the
month of July, Fox of Hereford is writing to Lord Crumwell —
" Surely if it might so have stood with the King's pleasure and yours, I would
to God you had been here with us, for we wanted much your presence. Albeit
sir, we have done, in your absence, the best we could, and have subscribed all

22 In wliole or in part, Esther viii, Prov. xxxi. Isaiah i. ii. vi. vii. xliv. Ii. liii. Ivii. Iviii.
Jer. xxviii. Ezck. i. viii. xxxvi. Joel ii. iii. Hoseaxi. Amos iv., and Zech. ii. viii.

1537.] THE MOMENT OF ITS INTRODUCTION. 571
our books, (their opinions as to the ' Institution,') and shall send them to your
Lordship to-morrow. And now, if it shall be the King's pleasure to put the
same to printing, I beseech your Lordship to know his pleasure for the prefaces
which shall be put unto the said book ; and whether his Highness will, that the
book shall go forth in his name, according to such detiiee as I once moved unto
your Lordship ; or in the name of the Bishops. And thereupon, if it shall
please your Lordship to cause Mr. Wriothsley to devise the said prefaces and
send them hither, I shall be glad to employ my diligence to the speedy setting
forth thereof to the uttermost of my power." 23
This book, accordingly, was sent to Berthelet's press, and on Monday
the 27th of August, it was expected to be finished. In prospect of this,
on the Saturday before, Latimer is writing to Crumwell —
" Upon Monday, I think, it will be done altogether. As for myself, I can
nothing else but pray God, that, when it is done, it be well and sufficiently done,
so that we shall not need to have any more such doings ; for verily, for my part,
1 had lever (rather) be poor parson of poor Kingston again, than to continue
thus, Bishop of Worcester. Not for any thing that I have had to do therein,
or can do ; but yet, forsooth, it is a troublesome thing to agree upon a doctrine,
in things of such controversy, with judgments of such diversity, every man, I trust,
meaning well, and yet not all meaning one way."24
The device to which Fox alludes in July, is now worthy of notice, as
not unintelligible —
- , " It may have been," says Mr. Jenkyns, " that the commissioners should
send a letter to the King, respecting their proceedings, and praying for his
Majesty's sanction ; that the King should return a gracious answer, complying
with their request ; and that both these documents should be printed by way
of introduction to the book. Such a letter from the commissioners was actually
prefixed to the Institution, and a minute of an answer from the King is pre
served in the Chapter-house, Westminster, though it does not seem to have
been noticed by the historians. In this, he informs the Prelates, that he had
not had time to overlook their work ; he trusted to them for its being accord
ing to Scripture ; that he permitted it to be printed, and commanded all who
had care of souls to read a portion of it every Sunday and holiday for three
years. But it would appear, that, cautiously as this reply was worded, Henry
VIII. did not choose to commit himself by its publication ; for the Institution
came out with no other preface than the above-mentioned letter of the Prelates,
and with no farther claim to royal authority than was implied in its issuing from
the press of the King's printer." 25

23 Crumwell's Corr., bundle F. Chap.-House, or Gov. State Papers, vol. i., p. 666.
2< Idem, holograph, in bundle W., or State Papers, i., p. 563.
26 Remains of Cranmer, vol. i., p. 188. " It rested, therefore, on very different gi'ounds from
the 'Articles of Religion ' which preceded, and the ' Necessary Doctrine,' vihicb followed it. For
both of those formularies were first approved in Convocation, and were then provided with
a preface by the King, and declared in the title-page to be set forth by his authority. Thus it
was not a distinction without a difference, that the Institution was called the Bishops', and the
Necessary Doctrine the King's book. This statement has been given at some length ; because,
if correct, it will solve some difficulties in the subsequent, i. e. Cranmer's letters, and because
there are several contlictinB accounts of the matter in our ecclesiastical writers." Thus far the
valuable note of Mr. Jenkyns. Let the reader, therefore, only the more carefully mark the mo-

572 STATE OP LONDON AT QbOOK I.
Henry was a being, to whom no man, or set of men, must dictate at
any moment ; nay, they might fail, any day, even when they approached
him with the utmost courtesy ; and it must be obvious, that at this very
period, a company of " Bishops and learned men in union," had failed
in gaining all they wished, if not also craved.^^ At such a time as this,
therefore, beyond all others, if Grafton has arrived with his Bible, is it
at all probable that he can have succeeded ? If a selected body of com
missioners, with Cranmer, and even Crumwell at their head, have been
treated with caution, is it possible that Henry has been overruled with
regard to all that Tyiidale had translated ? WiU he now sanction the
work of that same man, against whom, he and his Council have been
fighting for more than ten years ? We shall see presently.
But the state of London and Westminster must not pass unnoticed ;
more especially as it was so expressly marked by these Bishops, and had
already excited general apprehension. Thus, on the 10th of August, we
find that Tunstal is down at Laleham on the Thames ; and though sent
for by Crumwell, he is afraid to approach the capital. It was the plague,
which had again appeared, as it had done last year, and the hand of God
lay heavy on the metropolis and its vicinity.^'
" On Saturday the 25th of August," says Bishop Fox to Crumwell, " I have
lain out of London myself (at Poplar) more than these three weeks ; and the
most part of all my servants have lain at Ruyslip (north-east of Uxbridge)
more than these ten weeks. Wherefore, if it shall please your Lordship to
send me word of the King's pleasure concerning my return to the Court, I
would gladly come thither on Monday or Tuesday next, and then I shall bring
with me the book, I trust, perfectly printed." — " Sir," says Latimer, on the same
day, " we be here not without all peril, for two have died of my keeper's folks,
out of my gate house ; and even now Mr. Nevell (Cranmer's confidential ser
vant) cometh and telleth me that my under-cook is fallen sick, and like to be of
the plague. Set duodecim sunt hore diei, et termini vite sunt ab eo constituti,
qui non potest falU ; neque verius est tamen, quod nascimur, quam quod sumus
morituri."28 But what, then, has become of Cranmer 1 The fact was, that Fox
and Latimer had remained where they were, for no other purpose than
to superintend the printing of this foresaid book ; otherwise neither of

ment in which the Sacred Volume was so singularly introduced into England, by the overrulin
hand of Him who first gave it to mankind— a.nd then let him as carefully observe, whether it
did not vitally overthrow the " Articles," which had preceded, and render " the necessary doc
trine," which followed, altogether unnecessary ; nay, as the people at large afterwards under
stood Christianity, superstitious and profane.
26 Even although they had been not less obsequious than Coverdale himself.' " We do," said
they, " most humbly submit it to the most excellent wisdom and exact judgment of your Ma
jesty to be recognised, overseen, and corrected, if your Grace shall find any word or sentence in
it meet to be changed, qualified, or further expounded, for the plain setting forth of your High
ness' most virtuous desire and purpose in that behalf. Wherefore, we shall, in that case, con
form ourselves ! .'"—Pr^ace to the Institution, 1537.
27 See Gov. Slate Papers, vol. v., p. 102, note. 20 Mem, vol. i., p. 563.

1537.] THE MOMENT OF ITS INTRODUCTION. 573
them would have been there ; since Cranmer and the rest had taken
alarm more than a month before. Thus he had addressed Crumwell as
early as the 21st of July —
" I, with other Bishops and learned men, here assembled by the King's com
mandment, have almost made an end of our determinations ; for we have al
ready subscribed unto the declarations of the Paternoster, and the Ave Maria,
the creed, and the ten commandments ; and there remaineth no more but cer
tain notes of the creed, unto which we be agreed to subscribe on Monday next ;
which all, when they shall be subscribed, I pray you that I may know your
mind and pleasure, whether I shall send them incontinently to you, or leave
them in the Lord of Hereford's (Fox's) hands, to be delivered by him when he
cometh next unto the Court : Beseeching you, my Lord, to be intercessor un
to the King's Highness for us all, that we may have his Grace's license to de
part for this time, until his Grace's farther pleasure be known : for they die al
most everywhere, in London and Westminster ; and in Lambeth they die at my
gate, even at the next house to me. I would fain see the King's Highness at my
departing ; but I fear me that I shall not, because that I shall come from this
smoky air ; yet I would gladly know the King's pleasure herein." 29
The next day, 22d July, the last letter which Cranmer wrote from
Lambeth before departing for Croydon, was one already quoted, on
behalf of that " very honest man," as he styled him, Mr. Theobald ! On
Monday the 28th, and Tuesday the 29th of July, he had been examin
ing Rowland Phillips, the Vicar of Croydon, that steady defender of the
old learning, and an enemy to all changes. " I beseech your Lordship,"
Cranmer had said to CrumweU on the 21st, and who, as Vicak-Genebal,
it seems, must now be obsequiously consulted on every step, " to send
me word whether I shall examine the Vicar of Croydon in this presence
of the Bishops, and other learned men of our Assembly, or otherwise
how I shall order him ;" and so the examination was held before the
Archbishop himself, on these two days. Some years before, this Vicar
had preached at Paul's Cross a noted sermon, one sayuig in which has
been often repeated, without knowing precisely from whom it came.
But this is the man — that very Yicar of Croydon who had declared, with
no inferior sagacity — " We must root oui printing, or printing will root
out us." It is a coincidence, therefore, not a little remarkable, that this
examination should happen to have been Cranmer's very last occupation
before proceeding into the country.'"

22 Cotton MS., Cleop., E. v., fol. 52, holograph. In the Gov. State Papers, i., 559, another
letter of this date has been assigned to Cranmer ; but, with far greater probability, Mr. Jenkyns
has placed it in \53S.— Cranmer's Bemains, i., p. 286, note.
30 Certain readers will be curious to see a little farther into this examination. On some loose
papers in the Chapter-house at Westminster, but now, probably, in the State Paper Office, frag
ments of this still remain ; and as part of the business in which Cranmer had been engaged, im
mediately before Grafton's visit to Forde, a few of the items are worth quoting. Interrogatur.
— " Whom he knoweth fallen into this error— that they trust to be saved by faith and baptism,
and have left all good works— and how long it is since the people fell into that error ?" Se-
spondet.—" That he knoweth no special person that is in that error ; but it is about eleven years

574 EVEN ITS APPROACH ALIKE UNKNOWN [bOOK I.
Immediately after this, Cranmer hastened farther from the plague,
into Kent, to his house at Forde ; so that if Richard Grafton has arrived-
in London from the Continent, and intends to apply to the Archbishop,
he must go down there with his Bible for inspection; and, for a moment,
we leave Cranmer looking over it.
Already we have done full justice to Coverdale. He had
stepped in, and occupied the field of favour, from all the higher
powers — the King, CrumweU, and Cranmer. But by the end
of July this favour had extended a little farther, and, more
especially, since Gardiner was not in England. We have
seen, by the Archbishop's own letter, as well as those of
Latimer and Fox, that he and his fellow commissioners, after
a tedious war of words, had agreed about their book, by Mon
day the 23d of July. Their preface having been also prepared,
in it, as a body, the parties thus express themselves, with
their accustomed flattery : —
" We, considering the godly effect and intent of your Highness' most virtuous
and gracious commandment, do not only rejoice and give thanks to Almighty
God with all our hearts, that it hath pleased him to send such a king to reign
over us, which so earnestly mindeth to set forth among his subjects the light of Holy
tScripture, which alone sheweth the right path to come to God, to see Him, to
know Him, to love Him, and so to serve Him, as He most desireth."
Coverdale, as well as Crumwell his patron, could, at this
moment, desire little more. Henry, observe, had treated the
Bishops' book with caution ; he would not commit himself by
any formal gracious reply ; yet has he permitted these words
to pass, which could refer to no other than Coverdale's Bible,
if to any Bible already printed at all ; but they will acquire
double emphasis, when the course that Cranmer and Crum-

ago (1526) since the people came into that error." Now, whatever Phillips meant, he counts
from the precise period when the New Testament had been introduced. Item.  " What good
works the people have left?" Jtojj.— "That they have left prayer, fasting, and alms." By
these, of course, he meant the mass, penance, and payment of money. ft«n.— " Whom he
knoweth to be of this opinion, that faith which justifieth, of nece«si(j/ bringeth forth good works ;
and whether he be of the same opinion, or no ?" Besp.—" That Barnes, Crome, Champion, and
many other, so have preached, and he is not of that opinion himself." Item.—" Whom he
knoweth that doth exclude all bodily observances as frivol and vain, all ceremonies of religion
and all vocal prayer, calling it lip labour?" Besp.—" The Bishop of Worcester, (Latimer,) and
Dr. Crome, have so done ; for it foUoweth of their yroiAa—Adorabunt Patron in spiritu '"' See
Cranmer's Bemains by Jenkyns, i., p. 190. Phillips had been warmly patronised by Warham,
and signalised himself by his opposition to the subsidy proposed by Wolsey in 1523 His silence'
says Lingard, was " at length purchased by the policy of the Court" He was not merely Vicar
of Croydon, but a prebendary of St. Paul's ; but certainly not the greater friend of Latimer now
any more than Gabriel Donne, after hearing his memorable sermon before the Convocation
last year.

1537.] TO CRANMER, CRUMWELL, OR THE KING. 575
well, and even Henry pursued in a few days hence, comes to
be observed..
There is, in short, another translation of the English Bible
coming from abroad ; and, it is true, that as far as any con
nexion with the Continent was concerned, the reader may be
StiU haunted by the recoUection, that he has found both
Cranmer and Crumwell in busy confidential communication
with such an unprincipled spy as Theobald; and not only this
year, but throughout the next. This; however, we can neither
help nor soften. Grross inconsistencies of character must stand
as matter of history ; but, in the present instance, they will
only render it the more apparent, who it was that gave the
Bible to Britain. To the people of this Country, it is of
infinite moment now, that they should see more fully into the
Divine character, with regard to an event never to be forgotten.
The laborious exertions of Tyndale, for twelve long years,
which the King and his Councillors, nay, and the generality
of these Bishops, had so violently opposed, are already before
the reader ; as well as the editions of his New Testament and
Pentateuch, which had been introduced into England, under
so many proofs of their hot displeasure ; but the reader may,
without reserve, admit the full force of that transient favour
which had been now shown towards Coverdale's translation.
Henry, without consulting either Convocation or Parliament,
had certainly so far sanctioned it, sometime before August, at
least in the instance of Nycolson's reprint.
We repeat, however, there is at this hour another Bible,
in folio, coming over the sea to old England, one page of
which neither Cranmer the Primate, Crumwell the Vicar-
General, or Henry the King, had ever beheld, and respecting
which not one of them had ever been consulted. Such appears
to have been the exact state of matters, immediately before all
that Tyndale had accomplished in translating the Sacred Volume
was laid before his Majesty.
Grafton therefore having arrived in England, from what
has now been narrated, we can scarcely make any mistake
with regard to Cranmer's state of mind. He had, in truth,
been made as sick of discussion, as he had been afraid of the
plague, and had only made his escape from both ; though had
his fellow commissioners but once suspected at the moment,
what effect this sickness would have upon him, certainly they

576 TYNDALE'S BIBLE ARRIVED. |[bOOK I.
had argued less. Like the Jews at Rome, of old, they must
have had " great reasoning among themselves" over ' this
" Bishops' Book ;" and, in the next letter from the Primate
to Crumwell, we shall see whether he does not hint, that, in
his apprehension, there would be no end to it.^^
It may be regretted that there had not been some solitary
expression of sympathy or admiration in the Translator's life
time ; but such was the preparation of Thomas Cranmer for the
sight of Tyndale's labours — such the moment when his trans
lation was brought before him ! Grafton had resolved to apply
first to the Archbishop, perhaps as not having been the patron
of Coverdale; but whatever was the motive, he must have
immediately followed him into Kent. We need not describe
how he sped, as the following letters from Forde speak more
forcibly than any description ; but before quoting them, we
give the title and collation of the Book which Grafton had
brought home with him.
Title. — " The Btele, which is the Holy Scripture : in which are contayned
the Olde and Newe Testament, truely and purely translated into Englysh  by
Thomas Matthew.. — mdxxxvii."
Collation. — This title is in red and black letters, within a wood engraving,
filling the page ; and, at the bottom, in large letters, " Set forth with the
Kinge's most gracyous licence." A Callender and Almanac for 18 years, be
ginning 1538, 4 pages. An Exhortation to the study of the Holy Scriptures,
1 page ; having, in large flourished capitals at the bottom, tlie initials of the
editor, I. R. The Summe and content of all the Holy Scripture, 2 pages.
Dedication to Henry VIIL, 3 pages, with flourished capitals at the beginning
and end. " To the Christen Readers," and a table of principal matters in the
Bible, 26 pages. " The names of all the bokes of the Bible, and a brief re
hearsal of the years passed since the begynnynge of the worlde, unto this yeare
of our Lord, mdxxxvii," 1 page. "Genesis to Salomon's Ballet," fol. i.— ccxlvii.
« The Prophetes in English." On the reverse of this title is a large woodcut,
between R. G. and E. W., in flourishing capitals — " Esay to Malachi," fol. i 
xciiii. ; and, at the end of Malachi, W. T. for William Tyndale, in large
flourished text capitals. The Apocripha, put in from Coverdale's Bible. " The
Newe Testament, &c., printed in the yere of our Lorde God mdxxxvii. " in
red and black, as in the first title. « Matthew to Revelation," fol. ii.— cix.
Tables, &c., fol. cx.-cxi. On the last leaf, is " The ende of the Newe Testa
ment, aud of the whole Byble."—" To the honoure and prayse of God, was this
Byble prynted and fynesshed, in the yere of our Lorde God, a. mdxxxvii." A
full page contains 60 lines.

,^ .^"'v °'.J "° .' annoyed. To go on thus wrangling with such men, he
would rather he " the poor parson of poor Kmgstone once more, than continue to be Bishop of
Worcester, with all its revenue ; and as for Fox, he had been longing for the iron hand, or
imperative presence, of the Vicar-General, to make them now, as Henry had done in 1536 all
agree, or xaWiGV fe^gn consent once more. '

1537.] TYNDALE'S BIBLE RECEIVED. 577
The following letters are all addressed to Crumwell ; and
they are the very next that Cranmer wrote and sent, after
those we have quoted.
" My especial good Lord, after most hearty commendations unto your Lord
ship ; these shall be to signify unto the same, that you shall receive by the
bringer thereof a Bible, both of a new translation, and of a new print, dedicated
unto the King's Majesty, as farther appeareth by a pistle unto his Grace, in
the beginning of the book, which, in mine opinion, is very well done ; and
therefore I pray your Lordship to read the same. And, as for the translation,
so far as I have read thereof, I like it better than any other translation here
tofore made ; yet not doubting that there may and will be found some fault
therein, as you Imow no man ever did or can do so well, but it may from time
to time be amended.
" And forasmuch as the book is dedicated unto the King's Grace, and also
great pains and labour taken in setting forth of the same, I pray you, my Lord,
that you will exhibit the book unto the King's Highness, and obtain of his
Grace, if you can, a license that the same may be sold and read of every
person, without danger of any act, proclamation, or ordinance heretofore granted
to the contrary, until such time that we, the Bishops, shall set forth a better
translation, which I think will not be till a day after doomsday 1 And if you
continue to take such pains for the setting forth of God's Word, as you do, al
though in the mean season you sufl'er some snubs and many slanders, lies, and
reproaches for the same, yet one day He will requite altogether. And the
same word, as St. John saith, which shall judge every man at the last day,
must needs show favour to them that now do favour it. Thus, my Lord, right
heartily fare you well. At Forde, the 4th day of August, [1537.] Your
assured ever — T. Cantuarien."32
So far then, from Cranmer having the slightest connexion
with this undertaking, or " exerting himself" for this book,
as Mr. Todd has imagined, this letter, in its proper connexion,
clearly shows that it came upon the writer in the way of de
lightful su/rprise.^^ No doubt he had wished for a Bible ; but,
after vainly toiling with his coadjutors as to the New Testa
ment only, he now, very candidly acknowledges that the present
production was literally beyond their power, as a body of men.
Here then, and at last, is that one transaction in Cranmer's
life, which those who must ever disapprove of many other
things in his conduct, should therefore never forget. Con
sidered in itself and in its consequences, every other good
thing he ever did shrinks into comparative insignificance.
For this, all who have prized the Word of God, or now do

32 CrumweU's Corr., Chapter-House. Original. Gov. State Papers, vol. i., p. 561.
33 Life of Cranmer, vol. i., p. 210. Another author actually represents it as printed under
his patronage. From inattention to his own language, the position of Cranmer has very fre
quently been mis-stated, by our ablest authors.
VOL 1. 2 o

578 TO BE BOUGHT AND READ. [bOOK I.
so, stand indebted to him as an instrument. It would have
been gratifying could we have fallen upon some distinct testi
mony from his pen, at an earlier season ; for it is passing
strange, if he had never, till this late period, expressed his
admiration of Tyndale's translation ; but such, alas ! may
have been one effect of that timidity which annoyed him all
his days. The conjunction of circumstances, already de
scribed, seems to have emboldened him, and better late than
never. But be this as it may, and after allowing to this
first agent at home all the good he did, the reader, as he
goes on, will lose sight of man ; and, it is presumed, will not
be slow to recognise, above all, that unseen hand, so con
spicuously displayed throughout the whole affiair, of which
this is nothing more than the first movement.
Grafton, let it be observed, was not kept long in suspense ;
the entire request of Cranmer was immediately granted ;
for, though all who could avoid London were gone, Crumwell
had remained at his post — went to the King, and succeeded.
Cranmer had heard of this in less than eight days ; for thus
he writes again, on Monday week after his last —
" My very singular good Lord, in my most hearty wise I commend me unto
your Lordship. And whereas I understand that your Lordship, at my request,
hath not only exhibited the Bible which I sent unto you, unto the King's Ma
jesty, but also hath obtained of his Grace, that the same shall be allowed by
his authority to be bought and read within this realm : My Lord, for this your
pain taken in this behalf, I give unto you my most hearty thanks ; assuring
your Lordship, for the contentation of my mind, you have shewed rae more
pleasure herein, than if you had given me a thousand pounds. And I doubt
not but that hereby such fruit of good knowledge shall ensue, that it shall well
appear hereafter, what high and acceptable service you have done unto God
and the King ; which shall so much redound to your honour, that, besides God's
reward, you shall obtain perpetual memory for the same within this realm.
And as for rae, you raay reckon rae your bondman for the same : And I dare
be bold to say, so may ye do my Lord of Worcester. Thus, my Lord, right
heartily fare ye well. At Forde, the 13th day of August" [1537.] 34
The gratitude of Cranmer is expressed in the strongest man
ner : " In terms," says Mr. Jenkyns, most correctly, " far too
warm to admit of the belief that the general use of the English
Scriptures was already allowed.^ There was, no doubt, some-.
thing in the translation itself, that at once caught the eye

34 Cotton MS., Cleop. E. v., fol. 329, original; or Cranmer's Remains, i., p. 199.
35 Cranmer's Remains, Pref., p. xxvii.

^^37.] THE KING AGREES TO THIS. 579
and the approbation of Cranmer ; but it was this step in ad
vance, this " general use," over which he also exulted. His
Majesty had, it is true, acceded, and at CrumweU's request,
to Coverdale's Bible, of Nycolson's printing, having these
words upon it—" Set forth by the King's gracious license ;"
and Coverdale had requested, that this printer might have the
monopoly for " certain years," — but there was no reply to that
application. Whereas now, the tide has not only changed,
but it has begun to flow in another direction : for this Bible
is not only to be stamped — Set forth, &c., but it is to be sold
and read of every person without danger of any Act, Proclama
tion or Ordinance heretofore granted to the contrary ! All this
Cranmer asked, and to all this Henry at once agreed ! Cran
mer, in short, felt like a man when every hindrance has been
removed : and escaped, for the present, out of the paw of his
brethren on the Bench, in a way that seemed quite marvellous
to himself ; so moved was he, that fifteen days after this, iu
his very next letter to Crumwell, he writes absolutely as if he
had not yet written at all. Other subjects, indeed, demanded
his attention, but, in the fulness of his heart, with this he
must begin.
" My very singular aud especial good Lord, in my most hearty wise I com
mend me to your Lordship. These shall be to give you most hearty thanks
that any heart can think, and that in the name of them all which favoureth
God's Word, for your diligence at this time in procuring the King's Highness
to set forth the said God's Word, and his Gospel, by his Grace's authority.
For the which act, not only the King's Majesty, but also you shall have a per
petual laud and memory of all them that be now, or hereafter shall be, God's
faithful people, and the favourers of his Word. And this deed you shall hear
of at the great day, when all things shall be opened and made manifest. For
our Saviour Christ saith in the said Gospel, ' that whosoever shrinketh from Him
and His Word, and is abashed to profess and set it forth before men in this
world. He vnll refuse him at that day : and contrary, whosoever constantly
doth profess Him and His Word, and studieth to set that forward in this world,
Christ will declare the same at the last day, before His Father and all His
angels, and take upon Him the defence of those men.' Thus, my Lord, right
heartily fare you well. At Ford, the 28th day of August," [1537.]36
Grafton seems to have brought only one Bible with him, as
a specimen, and had left his servant to follow him with other
copies. The first he had presented to Cranmer, who sent him
with it to Crumwell, and he requested six copies to be brought

30 Cleop. E. v., fol. 292. Original.

580 THIS SEEMS TO BE INCREDIBLE. [^BOOK I.
to him, on their arrival. The very day on which Cranmer
was writing his last letter, the servant had arrived ; and in
the midst of the plague, still raging, Grafton sent the volumes
to Crumwell, with the following letter, —
" Most humbly beseeching your Lordship to understand, that, according to
your request, I have sent your Lordship six Bibles ; which gladly I would have
brought myself, but because of the sickness that remaineth in the City ; and,
therefore, I have sent them by my servant, which this day came out of
Flanders. Requiring your Lordship, if T may be so bold as to desire you, to
accept them as my simple gift, given to you for those most godly pains, for
which the Heavenly Father is bound, even of his justice, to reward you with
the everlasting kingdom of God. For your Lordship's moving our most
gracious Prince to the allowance and licensing of such a work, hath wrought
such an act worthy of praise, as never was mentioned in any chronicle in this
realm ; and as my Lord of Canterbury said, the tidings thereof did him more
good than the gift of £1000."
In grossness of flattery, the printer exceeds Coverdale, to
say nothing of the profanity of his compliment, betraying his
ignorance of the truth, and the value of the truth contained
in his Bible ; but then his language shows, that some great
and unprecedented thing had taken place ; and thus it appeared
in general estimation. So much so, indeed, that it seemed
incredible. With some it was " too good news to be true."
Others demurred, because they wished not to believe it : and
Grafton therefore proceeds : —
" Yet certain there are which believe not that it pleased the King's Grace to
license it to go forth. Wherefore, if your Lordship's pleasure were such that
we might have it licensed under your Privy Seal, it would be a defence at this
present, and in time to come, for all enemies and adversaries of the same. And
forasmuch as this request is for the maintenance of the Lord's Word, which is
to maintain the Lord himself, I fear not, but that your Lordship will be earnest
therein. And I am assured, that my Lords of Canterbury, Worcester, and
Salisbury, will give your Lordship such thanks, as in them lieth.37 And sure
you may be, that the Heavenly Lord wUl reward you, for the establishment of
his glorious truth. And what your Lordship's pleasure is in this request, if it
may please your Lordship to inform my servant, I, and all that love God
heartily, are bound to pray for your preservation all the days of our life. At
London, the 28th day of this present month of August, 1 S37. Your orator
while he liveth, Richard Grafton, Grocer."^
The message in reply was, that Crumwell thought the
" Privy Seal" would be unnecessary ; but Grafton's anxiety
was perfectly natural ; for, let it be observed, that his all was
3r By this time, therefore, he had seen Latimer and Shaxton, since ho returned from Forde
38 Cleop. E. v., fol. 330. Grafton was a member of the Grocer's Company in London.

1537.] GRAFTON THE CHIEF PROPRIETOR. 581
embarked in the undertaking, amounting to above ¦£'500 ster
ling. This was a sum, equal in value of the present day, to
more than as many thousands ; and some would say, seven
thousand five hundred at the least ! No wonder, then, that
he should very soon write a long letter to Crumwell, under
the apprehension of being undersold by an inferior article
from the German press, just as Tyndale had so often been,
long before him.
" Most humbly beseeching your Lordship to understand, that accordmg as
your commission was, by my servant to send you certain Bibles, so have I now
done, desiring your Lordship to accept them, as though they were weU done.
And whereas I writ unto your Lordship for a Privy Seal to be a defence unto
the enemies of this Bible, I understand that your Lordship's mind is, that I
shall not need it. But now, most gracious Lord, forasmuch as this work hath
been brought forth to our most great and costly labours and charges ; which
charges amount above the sum of five hundred pounds ; and I have caused of
these same to be printed to the sum of fifteen hundred books complete, which
now, by reason that of many this work is highly commended, there are that
will, and doth, go about the printing of the same work again, in a lesser letter ;
to the intent that they may sell their little books better cheap than I can sell
these great; and so to make, that I shall seU none at all, or else very few, to the
utter undoing of me, your orator, and of all those my creditors, that hath been
my comforters and helpers therein. And now this work, thus set forth with
great study and labours, shall such persons, moved with a little covetousness, to
the undoing of others for their own private wealth, take as a thing done to their
hands. In which behalf the charges shall not come to them, that hath done to
your poor orator. And yet will not they do it, as they find it, but falsify the
text ; that I dare say, look, how many sentences are in the Bible, even so many
faults and errors shall be made therein. For their seeking, is not to set it out
to God's glory, and to the edifying of Christ's congregation, bnt for covetous
ness. And that may appear by the former Bibles, (i. e. the New Testaments,)
that they have set forth ; which hath neither good paper, letters, ink nor cor-
rection.39 And even so shall they corrupt this work, and wrap it up after their
fashions, and then they may sell it for nought at their pleasures. Yea, and to
make it raore truer than it is, therefore Dutchmen, dwelling within this realm,
go about the printing of it ; which can neither speak good English, nor yet
write none ! And they will be both the printers and correctors thereof ; be
cause of a little covetousness, they will not bestow twenty or forty pounds to a
learned man to take pains in it, to have it well done.
" It were, therefore, as your Lordship doth evidently perceive, a thing un
reasonable to permit, or sufl'er, them which now hath no such business, to enter
into the labours of them that had both sore trouble and unreasonable charges.
And the truth is this, that if it be printed by any other, before these be sold, which
I think shall not be these three years at the least, then am I, your poor orator,
utterly undone." (Even Grafton had no idea of the prospect now opening.)
" Therefore, by your most godly favour, if I may obtain the King's most

39 Referring to the pirated editions of Tyndale's Testament.

582 GRAFTON THE CHIEF PROPRIETOR. [bOOK I.
gracious privilege, that none shall print them until these be sold, your Lordship
shall not find rae unthankful, but that to the uttermost of my power I will con
sider it : and I dare say, that so will my Lord of Canterbury, with other, my
most special friends ; and at the last, God will look upon your merciful heart,
that considereth the undoing of a poor young man ; for triily my whole living lieth
hereupon. If I may have sale of them not being hindered by any other men,
it shall be my making and wealth ; and the contrary is my undoing. Therefore,
most humbly I beseech your Lordship to be my helper herein, that I may ob
tain this ray request.
" Or else, if by no means this privilege may be had, — forasmuch as it hath
pleased the King's Highness to license this work to go abroad ; and that it is
the most pure Word of God which teacheth all true obedience, and reproveth all
schisms and contentions. — It may therefore be commanded by your Lordship,
in the name of our most gracious prince, that every curate have one of them,
that they may learn to know God, and instruct their Parishioners; yea, and that
every Abbey should have six, to be laid in six Sfeveral places, that the whole
Convent, and the resorters thereunto, may have occasion to look on the Lord's
Law. — And then I know there would be enough found in my Lord of London's
diocese to spend away a great part of them. — And I know that a small com
mission will cause my Lord of Canterbury, SaUsbury, and Worcester, to cause
it to be done through their diocese ; yea, and this should cease the whole schism
and contention that is in the realm; which is, some calling them of the old
learning, and some of the new. Now, should we all follow one God, one book, and
one learning: and this is hurtful to no man, but profitable to all.
" I will trouble your Lordship no longer, for I am sorry I have troubled you
so much : but, to make an end, I desire your most gracious answer by my ser
vant. For the sickness is brime (fiirious) about us, or else I weuld wait upon your
Lordship: and because of coming to your Lordship, 1 liave not suffered my ser
vant with me since he came over. — Your orator, Richabd Gbafton."40
From this letter it is evident, that as the volume had come
upon Cranmer by surprise, so he had no concern whatever
with the cost incurred ; nay, that no man in England shared in
the expense. It was a gift from abroad, and the burden lay
chiefly on the shoulders of this individual, as a man in business.
We have no written reply to this letter, which, however,
does not signify, as it is well known that Grafton succeeded :
but as to the present sudden and most memorable interposi
tion in favour of Tyndale's exertions, it was an occurrence, the
effects of which reach down to the present hour. The event
itself, is only more extraordinary than the fact, that it should
never have been even marked as it ought to have been, and
much less dwelt upon, by any previous writer. But though
hitherto buried among other casual incidents, it would be un
pardonable now io pass on without contemplating an occurrence,
in which, without either presumption or enthusiasm, the over-

10 cleop. E. v., fol. 325 ; or Todd's Cranmer, i,, pp. 216, 220.

^¦^37.J RETROSPECT. 583
ruling hand of God may be so distinctly traced. There is
here no interference with the free agency of man, but one of
the most complete specimens of the mode in which an all-
wise Providence governs the world. Grafton, indeed, and
his co-partner Whitchurch, may be easily disposed of, or re
garded throughout the whole affair as resembUng only the
hewers of wood and drawers of water, in ancient time ; but
in looking back to the spring of ] 626, when Tyndale's first
efforts were so very keenly felt, as to awaken the wrath of all in
power ; and following the track, as we have done, down to the
month of August 1537, what a varied scene has passed before
us ! The hand of the Most High has been visible all along;
but it was most of all conspicuous now, for the day was won !
In the course of the long conflict, not a few of the enemy have
perished. Two Lords Chancellor, an Archbishop of Canter
bury, besides, at least, four noted Bishops, have fallen ; to say
nothing of other two, sent adrift into Italy. Wolsey and
Warham, West of Ely and Nix of Norwich, Standish of St.
Asaph and Fisher of Rochester, as well as Dr. Robert Rid
ley and Sir Thomas More, are gone.
But what, it may still be said, does all this signify ? There
are, at least, eight or ten men yet alive ; and, except it be the
King himself transiently, when in some unwonted mood, not
one of them has spoken a word in favour of Tyndale or his
exertions, up to this month of August; nay, with two or
three exceptions, all the rest have even raged against him.
These men too, occupy the Privy Council, the Senate, and the
Bench ; so that before such an event as the present could
possibly have taken place, every one of them must have been
overruled. And accordingly now, within the compass of
ten days, each day for a year, and whether pacified or not,
they have all been overruled.
Yes, the King himself, and his Prime Minister the Duke
of Norfolk; Crumwell his Vicegerent, and Cranmer his
Archbishop ; Tunstal of Durham and Stokesly of London ;
Longland of Lincoln and Gardiner of Winchester; nay,
Coverdale and his friend Nycolson, have all alike, or every
one of them, been disposed of.
For where is the individual who can now look so low, as to
trace this change to Cranmer, and simply say, that he was the
cause ? Already we have given him full credit, as weU as

584 ALL PARTIES OVERRULED. [bOOK I.
done him ample justice, by giving his own letters entire.
He was the superintended agent, and let it only be the more
observed, the willing instrument, for certainly he did all, at
this moment, not by constraint, but of hearty good will ; and
yet it must be clear as day, that of all others, he was most
under the influence of predominant power. The step he took
was a bold and decided one, and had CrumweU been the man,
it would have been in perfect character : but Cranmer, though
withal an amiable character, was by constitution timid, and
according to his own repeated confession, had lost beyond re
covery, in his youth, every spice of audacity or daring.^'
Yes, and he was therefore only the more fit to be employed
as an instrument, to overrule or take by surprise, all the rest.
After a long and tedious war, the bitter though fruitless op
position of eleven years, the opportunity for dealing with
crafty opponents, with stiff-necked and rebellious enemies to
the truth, had arrived ; the time for showing " the weakness
of God to be stronger than men." It was a select hour for
choosing a cautious and a timid man to sway the mighty and
the wayward. He himself, indeed, might be doubtful of suc
cess ; for he said to CrumweU, obtain all I ask — if you can ;
but what was the result? Take up the men individually,
and see.
In so sanctioning this prototype, which contained the trans
lations of Tyndale, the King himself was overruled. Witness
his violent language for years, employed in public documents
— his interdict of Tyndale's version, and all his other writ
ings — his commissioning men to apprehend him, though in
vain — and his cold indifference at the end, only last year, re
specting his very life. On the same ground stands Crumwell;
after having vilified our Translator, and warned the English
Envoy, Vaughan, if he dared to speak favourably of him ;
after having long patronised Coverdale, contributed to his
support, nay, and there can be no doubt, to the cost of his
translation, as well as obtained the temporary assent of
Henry to the reprint of that book. As for the others, who
had been sworn enemies all along : Tunstal, notwithstanding
his raving in 1526, about the " pestiferous poison" that had

11 This he himself used to ascribe to tho " crwLty of his earliest teacher ;" as he different
times reported to his Secretary, Ralph Morice,— See Todd's Cranmer, ii., p. 640.

^^^'^•11 ALL PARTIES OVERRULED. 585
infected his diocese of London, he is now in alarm as to other
infection. He is now absolutely terrified to approach the
capital, for fear of the plague; and besides, he is under
marching orders for Newcastle, as President of the Council
of the North. Stokesly of London, after all his bloody deeds,
must now be quiet, although Grafton be proposing, for his
diocese, such a plentiful supply of that very translation, for
the reading of which, he was wont to doom the party to the
flames. Old Longland of Lincoln, who so exulted over Wol
sey's " secret search, and at one time" in London, Oxford, and
Cambridge, for books to be burnt, must, for the present, also
ponder over the change, but remain neutral ! Gardiner, when
at home, of all other men, wonderfully contrived to retain the
King's ear ; but that shrewd and far-seeing man, the ablest
foe of all, had been removed to a distance. As Tunstal was
out of the way, in Spain, when the New Testament first came,
so was Gardiner, in Frcmce, when the Bible arrived. After
displeasing the King in 1536, it had been convenient to send
him into honourable exile, as Ambassador to Paris, out of
CrumweU's way, and he was not to be recalled for a year to
come. The Duke of Norfolk too, Gardiner's dear friend, is
down in the North ; and though panting to return, and pes
tering Crumwell with letters for this end, he cannot wend his
way to London till relieved by Tunstal, who, however, is slow
to move. But, above all the rest, no one was more signally over
ruled than Cranmer, the agent first employed. No individual
in England had striven so hard for some certain translation,
to be sanctioned by his fellows. He had got them to petition
his Majesty, in 1534, for such a one. In 1535, he had at
tempted the New Testament only, but failed ; and last year,
in Convocation again, he had not only petitioned once more
for the same thing, but acquiesced, with all the rest, in the
King's sacrament of penance ; which the Bible of this year,
over which he now so rejoiced, will not sanction ! And,
finally, as for Myles Coverdale himself, he is shortly to be
employed in correcting the press of a second edition of this
very Bible, which Grafton had thus brought into England.
In short, as this year no Parliament was assembled — no
Convocation held, so neither the one, nor the other was, or
could be, consulted on the subject ! The Bishops, as a body,
were now scattered by the plague, " every one to his own ;"

586 ALL PARTIES OVERRULED. [BOOK I.
while Cranmer, who has just fied from it, and in total despair
of all deliverance arising from that quarter, boldly afiirms,
that a better translation of the Sacred Scriptures, they either
could not, or would not, " set forth, till a day after dooms
day !" To this, no doubt, the best men in all England then
fully responded ; and, in concert, they might all have said
or sung, in the language of their own Bible —
O ! sing unto the Lord a new song.
For he hath done marvellous things !
With his own right hand, and with his holy arm.
Hath He gotten the victory !
The Lord is King, be the people never so unpatient :
He sitteth upon the Cherubims, be the earth never so unquiet.
At such a crisis, when the country was in danger of being
deluged with corrupt versions of His own blessed Word, it
was thus shown, in the most striking manner, to every de
vout and careful observer, that the God of Providence is the
God of the Sacred Scriptures ; and as He intended the version
now given, to remain in this highly-favoured land for geneua-
tions then unborn, it was fit that this interference should
take place at the beginning. In the wide compass of English
history, a more signal interposition of Divine providence on
behalf of His own Word never occurred since, and that simply
for this reason, it was never demanded ; the present sufficed
for all time to come. This same Monarch, indeed, and some
of his wilfully blind Prelates, may yet rage and strive, but
the version shall never be banished from the land. It may
be corrected and improved, nay, and be burnt again ; and
seventy years after this, upwards of fifty learned men may
be engaged for three years, in order to make it, as they said,
" more smooth and easy, and agreeable to the text ;" but
the translation now received, shall be the basis of all future
editions. And well it might ; for after all this labour, and
after all due praise to our present version, to say nothing
of particular words, there are still happy turns of expression,
which had better have been retained. " In point of per
spicuity, and noble simpUcity, propriety of idiom, and purity
of style," it has been said, " no EngUsh version has yet sur
passed it ;"^ and if any one suspect that this is saying too

" These words are applied hy Geddes, by way of distinction, to Tyndale ; and not to Covei
dale, as sometimes quoted.

'•J DISTINCTION TO BE OBSERVED. 587
much, let him first peruse Tyndale for himself, and then
Observe the innumerable passages, which, after so many re
visions are verbally the same as in our present version.
In the detail thus presented to the reader, he cannot fail
to have observed more reasons than one for the distinction
drawn between the translation of Tyndale and that of Cover-
dale. He has seen that the powerful effects of the former
had roused CrumweU, and led him to employ Coverdale
" instantly," or in all haste, to sit down to his task ; and the
task performed, before it could have made any impression on
England, he has heard Fox of Hereford, in Convocation last
year, aUow or rather describe the glorious result of Tyn
dale's primary version-—" The lay people," said he, " do now
know the Holy Scripture, better than many of us." In one
word, the times themselves, were the effect of Tyndale's transla
tion ; Coverdale's translation was only one effect of the times.
But, independently of these material circumstances, or of Tyndale's
version being preferable, for his choice of terms, and greatly superior in
point of euphony, there is a far more important distinction between these
two Bibles, than that of style or idiom ; and it is one which renders it
still more extraordinary, that the unpatronised, nay, obnoxious trans
lator, and his hitherto obnoxious translation, should have gained the
ascendancy. Instead of describing this, the better way will be to
exhibit it. Tyndale. Coverdale.
Printed in 1525, imported 1526. Printed 1S3S, imported 1S36.
Repent, the Kyngdome of heven is Amende your selves, the Kyngdome
at hande. of heven is at hande.
Brynge forth therefore the frutes Beuarre, bringe forth due frutes of
belonging to repentance.

And they went forth and preached And they went forth and preached
that they should repent. that men should amende them selfes.
Repent and beleve the gospell. Amende your selves, and beleve the
gospell.
But except ye repent, ye shall all But exeepte ye amende your selves,
in likewyse perish. ye shall perish likewise.
I say unto you that likewyse joy I saye unto you : Even so shall
shall be heven over one synner that there be joy in heven over one synner
repeuteth, more than over ninety and that doth pennaunce, more than over
nine juste persons, which node no re- nyne and nyentye righteous, which
pentaunce. nede not repentaunce.
Lykewise I say unto you, joy shall Even so (I tell you) shall there be
be in the presence of the angels of joye before the Angels of God, over one
God, over one synner that repenteth. synner that doth pennaunce.

588 DISTINCTION BETWEEN THE BIBLE REJECTED, [BOOK I.

Rebuke him, and if he repent, for
give him.
Peter sayde unto them ; Repent
and be ye baptyzed every one of
you. Repent ye, therefore, and turne,
that your synnes may be done
away.

Rebuke liym, and if he amende, for ¦¦
give him.
Peter said unto them ; Amende
your selfes, and let every one of you
be baptysed.
Do penaunce now, therefore, and
turn you, that your synnes may be
done awai.

One passage may be quoted in full. Acts xxvi., 19-24, not only in
volving the same distinction, but as a specimen of their diiTerent styles.

Wherefore, King Agrippa, I was
not disobedient to the heavenly
vision : but shewed fyrst unto them
of Damasco, and at Jerusalem, and
throughout all the coastes of Jewry,
and to the gentyls, that they should
repent, and turne to God, and do the
ryght workes of repentance. For
this cause the Jewes caught me in the
temple, and went about to kyll me.
Nevertheless I obtained help of God,
and continue unto this day, witness-
inge both to small and to greate, say
ing none other thinges, than those
which the prophetes and Moses dyd
say shuld come, that Christ shuld
suifre, and that he shuld be the fyrst
that shuld ryse from death, and shuld
shewe lyght unto the people, and the
gentyls.

Wherefore (O Kynge Agrippa) I
was not faithlesse unto the heavenly
vysion, but shewed it fyrste unto them
at Damascon, and at Jerusalem, and
in all the coastes of Jewrye, and to
the Heithen, that they should do pen
aunce, and turn to God, and to do
right workes of penaunce. For this
the Jewes toke me in the temple and
went about to kyll me. But thoroughe
the help of God lente unto me, I
stonde unto this daye, and testifye
both unto small and greate, and say
none other thynge, then that the pro
phetes have sayde, (that it shoulde
come to passe) and Moses : that
Chryste should suffre, and be the
fyrst of the resurrection from the
dead, and shew lyght unto the people
and to the Heythen.

We need not therefore now aj65rm, that the two productions were very
distinct. No man was more conscious of this than Coverdale himself ;
and the modesty with which he speaks of his own performance, would
be more than sufficient to have dissuaded from any comparison, if the
interests and purity of Divine Truth were not concerned : but Lewis, in
his " History of Translations," has so heedlessly confounded the one
with the other, and, in our own day, others have been so misled, that no
choice is left to any impartial writer. After comparing Tyndale's trans
lation of one passage in the Pentateuch with that of Coverdale, in which
the former is best, Lewis then adds, — " So Matt. iii. is, ' sayinge. Amende
your selves,' as it is in Tyndale's first editions." But where is there any
such expression to be found in Tyndale ? Had Lewis not examined
the first editions 1 Was he not aware that they were the first
editions that Sir Thomas More attacked, and that upon this very point,
among others ? Or had he not read Tyndale's able and animated
reply in 1530, when he answered, why he had translated love and not
charity— congregation and not church — ^repentance and not penance ?

1537 *1 -¦ AND THE BIBLE RECEIVED. 58.9
Yes, all this he had done, and of all this he seems to have been aware,
ana yet, strange to say, forgot his own previous history ! No, there
existed m Tyndale's mind a very difi-erent feeling from that wbich would
have led him to have regarded penance and repentance as synonymom
terms ; and, more especiaUy, since the seme of the previous term was so
fully known and felt throughout Europe, when " the scourge inexorable,
and the torturing hour, called them to penance." Coverdale, on the
other hand, m obedience to the dominant power of the day, faUing under
the influence of expediency, mixed up those terms with others of far
inferior moment, and here is his explanation.
« Sure I am," he says in his epistle to the reader, « that there cometh more
understanding and knowledge of the Scripture, by these sundry translations,
than by aU the glosses of our sophistical doctors. Be not thou offended, there
fore, good reader, though one call a scribe, that another calleth lawyer; or
elders, that another calleth father and raother; or repentance, that another
calleth penance or amendment. For if we were not deceived by men's tradi
tions, we should find no more diversity between these terms, than between
four-pence and a groat ' And this manner have I used in my transla
tion, calling in some places penance, that in another I call repentance ;44 and
that not only because the interpreters have done so before me,46 but that the
adversaries of the truth might see that we abhor not this word penance no
more than the interpreters of Latin abhor pcenitere, when they read resipiseere."
Now, above five years before his translation was printed, Coverdale
must have been perfectly familiar with Tyndale's strong impression, as
to the vital importance of this word Metanoia being correctly rendered 
he had heard him saying to his opponent, the Lord Chancellor 
" He cannot prove that I gave not the right English unto the Greek word ;''
and after explaining his views, had heard hira add—" these things to be even
so, Mr. More knoweth well enough, for he understandeth the Greek, and he
knew them long ere I. So now the cause why our prelates thus rage, and what
moveth them to call Mr. More to help, is, not that they find just causes in the
translation, but because they have lost their feigned terms, wherewith Peter
prophesied they should make raerchandise of the people."
If, therefore, Coverdale had been for once with Tyndale, at Ham
burgh, in 1529, we need not suppose that the former dissembled ever
after, or kept in secret from Tyndale the course he was pursuing. No
the conclusion to be drawn is this, that there could have been no fami
liar intercourse between the parties ever simie that period; while there can
be no doubt, that had Tyndale known of this proceeding, or read Cover-
dale's lame apology for it, the voice of remonstrance, nay, and of strong
reprobation, would have been heard from the castle of Vilvorde.
At the same time, a distinction so systematic, in opposition to all the
editions of Tyndale's New Testament, which had been imported into
44 But penance most frequently, as already shown.
45 The only English interpreter before hira had never done so— they must have been his
Latin or Douch (Grerman) interpreters to whom he referred.

590 DISTINCTION TO BE REMEMBERED. [bOOK I.
England for above ten years past, could not now have been adopted, but
under the sanction of Crumwell, though he must by no means be allowed
to bear all the blame. Long after his death, this particular word was
one to which Coverdale, when acting for himself, pertinaciously ad
hered.*^ Indeed, of all the men now so signally overruled, it is natural
to suppose that he must have felt the greatest mortification ; but there
was no help for him. He had been so profoundly obsequious to his Ma/-
jesty as to give him his choice of putting his version aside altogether,
and so it has come to pass. He must of course therefore now submit,
and very soon, or almost immediately, he wUl be engaged to superiatend
the press of a second edition of the successful translation.
On reading thus far, however, it is by no means improbable that,
owing to recent circumstances, a few questions will naturally occur to
many. Was there not held in the year 1835 a commemoration of the
4th of October 1535, styled " the third Centenary of the English Bible."
There was. And was it with reference to Coverdale's Bible just de
scribed ? Of course it was. But were the parties aware that his version
was thus laid aside ? Were they aware that it was not only superseded,
but never enjoined to be read in England, or that it stood at the top of
the list of interdicted books in 1546 ? Above all, were they aware that
this was the book, which contained these passages, thus rendered ?
Surely they were not ; for if they had, the centenary must have been
postponed ; except they had been resolved to celebrate the wrong book,
and rejoice before the proper time. But, again, did the year 1825 and
1826 pass by, without any notice of Tyndale, three hundi-ed years be-
4c In the days of Edward VI. , Coverdale felt himself more at liberty, when we find him,
however strange it may seem, repeatedly attempting to push the same translation into notice,
by dedicating it afresh to that Prince, it was reprinted abroad, and even not so correctly as at
first, in 1550, and agaiu re-issued in 1553. In both instances he printed his dedications in London,
and repeats the same language which he had employed in 1535, but, happily, with as little effect.
These impressions of his Bible, in quarto, embrace the solitary two years, out of eighty-otie, in
which he was Bishop of Exeter ; and what is curious enough, as if the Church, of which he was
then a Bishop, had been all along of his sentiments, in reference to penance and repentance,
in one of the sentences already quoted, he changes " the adversaries of the truth," into, " the
adversaries of the Church,"—" that the adversaries of the Church might see, that we abhor not
this word penance."
Variety of translations was a favourite subject of Coverdale's, and in his prologue he had ex
pressed himself in terms which have puzzled more authors than one ; even so late as 1838, the
anonymous Memorialist of Coverdale confesses himself to be quite in the dark. " Among the
Greeks," says Coverdale, " had not Origen a special translation? Had not Vuloarius one pe
culiar, and likewise Chrysostom?" But who was Vulgarius? For it is singular enough, that
fifteen and eighteen years after, or in 1550 and 1553, he repeats tho same word. " Miles Cover-
dale," says Jortin, " published an English translation of the Bible in 1550, and dedicated it to
Edward VI. In his preface he reckons Vulgarius among the fathers of the Church. Maittaire
(iii., 586,1 makes mention of this edition, and declares himself quite at a loss, and unable to
guess who this Vulgarius should be. He knew nothing, it seems, of the history of this blunder.
Erasmus, by a strange mistake, gave the name of Vulgarius to Theophylact. Being censured
for this, he made a shuiHing excuse ; but was sensible of his error, and afterwards called him
by his true name Theophylact, in the second and the following editions of the New Testament.
Coverdale then was misled by Erasmus, which is somewhat strange, since Erasmus had cor
rected the mistake in his notes."— Jortin's Erasmus, ii., 376. Had Coverdale then only consulted
tho first edition of 1516 ? So it should seem. Tyndale had kept his eye on them aU, up to tho
fourth, in 1527.

15S7T ¦J CONCLUSION. 591
forte ? Til,
worth ^^^ '^°*' ^'^^ month of August 1537, far more
J y of joyful commemoration than that of October 1635, when, in
ac , nothing whatever immediately followed ? Of this, we presume,
t^ere can be no question now ; but it also passed away without the
Shghtest reference to Tyndale. The first introducer of penance, as
pnnted in the English tongue, and forty-seven years before the Rliemish
version, was held up to view by many, though even then, not by all ; on
the other hand, his predecessor by ten years, and the first able advo
cate of " Repentance towards God," has been allowed to sleep in oblivion.
These, however, it is acknowledged, are matters of but small account,
compared with the fact, that up to this hour the hand of the Almighty
has never been distinctly, and therefore duly recognised. The very
marked, and ever-to-be-remembered, period, when God, by his overruling
providence and grace, was introducing that inestimable boon, which, as
an instrument in his hand, has made our Country what it is, has never
been clearly distinguished ; never held up to public view as the fit
season for grateful and adoring commemoration ! It is one proof, among
too many others, that du£ regard has not yet been paid to the history of
our Sacred Record.
It was only two months after the arrival of this Bible, when Henry
met, most unexpectedly, with what was calculated to produce some per
manent impression upon him. It was not yet seventeen months since
he had so barbarously put his Queen to death, and married a third wife
the next day ! On the 12th of October Queen Jane Seymour gave birth
to a son, but in twelve days afterwards sunk and died. Whether his
Majesty was long or deeply afflicted by his loss, as historians have but
too often represented, will appear very soon. But the birth of this
amiable chUd, following so immediately after the introduction of the
Scriptures, it may now be said, — " about which time Edward was
born." Throughout his brief reign, the Word of the Lord, and in this
translation of it, will be treated as it ought ever to have been, whether
by the prince or the peasant.
But in conclusion of this present year, all other events sink
into insignificance when compared with that extraordinary oc
currence in the month of August. Such was the introduction
of Tyndale's Bible to his countrymen ; so peacefully, easily, and
efFectually accompUshed, after all the blood and turmoil of the
past. The plague was raging furiously all the time ; yet the
prototype, the first edition of our EngUsh Bible must be then
and so introduced. Come it did, at a season so rousing, and
fraught with solemn warning. Not to increase alarm, even Graf
ton who brought it, was cautious of approach. Official men had
fled for safety from the Metropolis. Not so CrumweU. He

592 CONCLUSION. [BOOK f
.stood firm in the midst of the dying and the dea i. It was
chiefly to do, what he did in this matter ; while all oTri.ir men
of power and pretension have appeared before us, only as " claj
in the hand of the potter." To exempt any individual, woulc
be historically incorrect : they have been overruled to a man
If, therefore, there be any importance in setting an ex
ample ; in exhibiting a pattern after which others may work,
or in laying the foundation-stone of a great enterprise ; if it
be easy to follow, where one has broken up the way, and
smoothed it ; and if the first individual who strikes out a
new and untried path, in which his country, after having
shewed great resistance, at last follows, be allowed to discover
a mind above the common order ; then, so far as human
agency was concerned, all this must be traced to one man ;
and one whom now we need not name.
But above all, the mode of the Divine procedure, in this in
stance, deserves special regard. In studying this, whether to
wards the Christian individually, or towards a people as such,
it has been said that, in certain cases, something may be dis
covered, bearing no slight analogy to the principal sound, —
the key-note in music ; to which the whole piece is accommo
dated, with which it usually begins, but always ends. Now
if the Sovereign disposer of all events had begun to discourse
with the higher powers in this country after this fashion ;
had begun by an instance of his overruling providence, so sig
nal as the present ; it remains to be cautiously observed,
whether He does not so interpose, again and again, in favour
of his own blessed word. Nay, whether He has not once done
so, even in our own times, and may yet do so, once more.
At all events, ancient though this triumph be, hitherto al
most unobserved, and therefore generally disregarded, it
may yet be seen to carry a firm and determined aspect,
quite beyond our own eventful day. The series of events to
be recorded in our Second Volume should resolve this point.
But they will at least prove that we have far more to do, and
to do now, with the history of the EngUsh Bible, than the
great body of those who at present profess Christianity
throughout this kingdom have imagined.

END OF VOLUME I.

3 9002

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