BOOK I.

wealth, intelligence, and importance of the middle classes, CHAP. I. and the beginning of the Swiss and German reformations in religion. In England, the spirit of Wickliffe and the Lollards was never entirely extinguished; for, however obscure their followers, history affords continual evidence of their inquisitive and resisting spirit. The English people were steadily rising to a participation in the political power and freedom which had, aforetime, been the privilege of the barons. The literature and language of the country were making rapid advances.―There were many considerations leading to changes in the church. The aggressions of the popes were resented by the people, conscious of their growing power; while their rapacity awoke the hatred of the clergy. The vices of the clergy themselves had called forth the stinging rebukes of Dr. Colet, the dean of St. Paul's, some years before the appearance of Luther, as a reformer, at Wittemberg. A calm, devout, and patient protest against the corruptions of religion had been gathering strength in the bosom of English society. The popular poetry of Chaucer and his imitators had familiarized the people with the grosser faults of priests and "pardoners.” The elegant and varied learning of Erasmus-who resided much in England, and who taught at both the universities, and gained the friendship of Henry VIII. and of the best and most learned men in the nation-had diffused a thoughtful spirit among the higher ranks. These things were independent of Luther; yet they prepared for the acceptance and popularity of his writings in this country.

The Fathers

of the English Church.

Tindal

All the leading events of Europe bore upon the reformation of religion; and the same tendency is obvious in the most important movements of the national mind in England. Nor should the fact be lost sight of, that the Fathers of the English reformation mostly held opinions, and indulged in language, not less strong than those for which the Puritans were afterwards condemned.

A brief sketch of the Fathers of the English Church will show how far the Puritans may be fairly regarded as men of the same order, embracing the same principles, and walking in the same steps.

In Fox's "Acts and Monuments" WILLIAM TINDAL is spoken of as a man "who, for his notable pains and travail, may well be called the Apostle of England in this our latter

age, as he was a special organ of the Lord appointed, and as God's mattock, to shake the inward roots and foundations of the Pope's proud Prelacy."

Born in the borders of North Wales, he distinguished himself in early youth by his general learning, especially his knowledge of the scriptures, as well as by his unspotted life. Leaving Oxford, he made his abode for a time at Cambridge. Having become private tutor in the family of Sir John Walsh, of Little Sodbury Manor, in Gloucestershire, he excited so much attention and opposition by his disputes with learned doctors and churchmen round about, that he was brought before the chancellor of the diocese, who "rated him as though he had been a dog." Harassed by the ignorant priests of Gloucestershire, he sought rest first in London, afterwards at Hamburg, and then at Cologne, where he devoted himself to the translation of the scriptures into his mother-tongue. He brought out the New Testament in 1526, which was followed by the five books of Moses, with "sundry most learned and godly prologues." He visited Saxony, where he had conferences with Luther and other learned men, but took up his abode chiefly at Antwerp. In a voyage to Hamburg for the purpose of printing his translation of the Pentateuch, he was shipwrecked on the coast of Holland, and lost all his books, writings, and copies. But he persevered; and, with the help of Miles Coverdale, went a second time through the labour of translation. The prelates of the realm procured a proclamation from the King, prohibiting the use of his translation of the New Testament, with other works, both by him and by other writers. In the year 1527, Warham, Archbishop of Canterbury, spent a large sum of money, and invited other bishops to follow his example, in buying up these Testaments to burn them.* Still they found their way, concealed in various kinds of merchandise, into both England and Scotland. For seven years Tindal eluded the attempts of his enemies to seize his person. At length, in 1535, he was betrayed by Gabriel Donne, a monk from Stratford Abbey, and by a man of the name of Philips, employed by the English bishops; he was apprehended in the Emperor's name at Antwerp, and

* Tonstal, Bishop of London, and Sir Thomas More, bought up nearly the whole impression, and burned them at St. Paul's Cross.

BOOK I.

CHAP. 1.

BOOK I.

CHAP. I.

demnation

and martyrdom.

conveyed to the prison of Vilford near Brussels. Abandoned in his solitude, both by the Lord Cromwell and by Cranmer, he had one friend, Thomas Poyntz, an English merchant in Tindal's con- Antwerp, who, for trying to save him, was himself thrown into prison at Brussels. After many disputations and examinations, Tindal was condemned as a heretic, by virtue of a decree of the Emperor made at Augsburg; and, shortly after, he was brought to the place of execution, where he was led to a stake: there, with fervent zeal, and loud voice, he cried, "Lord! open the eyes of the King of England!" and then, first, he was with an halter strangled, and afterwards consumed with fire, in the year 1536.*

of Tindal.

The works of Tindal, with those of Frith, and those of The writings Barnes, dated 1573, were printed under the sanction of Edward VI., by John Daye, London. Among these is a “Pathway into the Holy Scripture, made by William Tindal." It contains a luminous explanation of the terms-the Old Testament; the New Testament; the Law; the Gospel; Moses; Christ; Nature; Faith; Grace; Working and Believing; Deeds and Faith: it is, in fact, a body of scriptural theology, expressed with great force and fulness of illustration. The conclusion is in the following strain. "These things, I say, to know, is to have all the scriptures unlocked and opened before thee, so that if thou wilt go in and read, thou canst not but understand. And in these things to be ignorant, is to have all the scriptures locked up, so that the more thou readest it, the blinder thou art; and the more contrariety thou findest in it, and the more tangled art thou therein, and canst nowhere through. For if thou add a gloss in one place, in another it will not serve. And therefore, because we be never taught the profession of our baptism, we remain always unlearned, as well the spirituality, for all their great clergy and high stools (as we say) as the lay people. And now because the lay and unlearned people are taught these first principles of our profession, therefore they read the Scripture and understand and delight therein. And our great pillars of holy church-which have nailed a vail of false glosses on Moses' face, to corrupt the true understand

Fox's Acts and Monuments of the Christian Martyrs. For the most complete and interesting account of Tindal, see the Annals of the English Bible, by Christopher Anderson. Two vols. 8vo., Pickering, London, 1845.

BOOK I.

ing of his law-cannot come in, and therefore bark, and say -the Scripture maketh heretics, and it is not possible for CHAP. I. them (the people) to understand it in English, because they themselves do not, in Latin. And, of pure malice that they cannot have their will, they slay their brethren for their faith they have in our Saviour, and therewith shew their bloody wolfish tyranny, and what they be within, and whose disciples. Herewith, reader, be committed unto the grace of our Saviour Jesus, unto whom, and God our Father, through him, be praise for ever and ever; amen."

Testament.

In a preface to the New Testament, in 1534, he says, Tindal's New "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 knowledge of the Scripture, and, as far as the Scripture approveth it, so far to allow it, and, if in any place the word of God disallow it, there to refuse it, as I do before our Saviour Christ, and his congregation.”

Thomas

In vindicating the doctrines of the reformers from the Answer to Sir objections of Sir Thomas More, in his "Dialogue," he says More. of the reformer, "Thou art a strong heretic, and worthy to be burnt;' and then he is excommunicated out of the church. If the little flock fear not that bay, then they (their enemies) go straight to the King:-'An it like your Grace, perilous people and seditious, and even enough to destroy your realm, if ye see not to them betimes, they are so obstinate and tough, that they will not be converted, and rebellious against God and the ordinances of his holy church; and how much more shall they be so against your Grace, if they increase and grow to a multitude? They will pervert all, and surely make new laws, and either subdue your Grace unto them, or rise against you;' and then goeth a part of the little flock to pot, and the rest scatter. Thus hath it ever been, and shall ever be let no man, therefore, deceive himself."* His writings, in addition to his translations and prologues, are not very numerous; but they breathe the same sentiments as those of the Puritans in later times.

JOHN FRITH, the bosom friend of Tindal, became ac- John Frith. quainted with him, and received the gospel from him at Cambridge, where he became, as Fox expresses it, "an exquisitely learned man. He was the chief of the great

* History of the Reformation. See Burnet, i. 167-8.

BOOK I. scholars chosen by Wolsey to adorn his college (Christ's CHAP. I. Church) at Oxford. Being imprisoned on a charge of heresy,

but released on condition of not passing above ten miles out of Oxford, he took alarm on hearing of the indignities inflicted on Dalaber and Garret, two of his fellow-sufferers, and made his escape beyond the seas. Two years after this voluntary banishment, he returned, at the invitation of the Prior of Reading.

"Being at Reading, it happened that he was there taken for a vagabond, and brought to examination, where the simple man, who could not craftily enough colour himself, was set in the stocks. Where, after he had sat a long time, and was almost pined with hunger, and would not for all that declare what he was; at the last, he desired that the schoolmaster of the town might be brought to him, who at that time was Leonard Cox, a man very well learned. As soon as he came to him, Frith, by and by, began in the Latin tongue to bewail his captivity. The schoolmaster, by and by, 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, unlooked for in such an estate and misery. Afterward, they, conferring together upon many things, as touching the universities, schools, and tongues, fell from the Latin into the Greek; wherein Frith did so inflame the love of the schoolmaster toward him, that he brought him into a marvellous admiration, especially when the schoolmaster heard him so promptly, by heart, rehearse Homer's verses out of his first book of Iliads. Whereupon the schoolmaster went, with all speed, unto the magistrates, grievously complaining of the injury which they did shew unto so excellent and innocent a young man. This Frith, through the help of the schoolmaster, was freely released out of the stocks, and set at liberty without punishment."*

Frith did not continue long in safety. He was eagerly pursued by the chancellor, Sir Thomas More. After many narrow escapes, he was imprisoned in the Tower of London, where he maintained long conflicts with the bishops, and especially with the chancellor. Having incautiously intrusted a friend with a copy of a paper he had drawn up on the doctrine of the Eucharist, he was summoned before

Fox's Acts and Monuments.