* * * * *
"THE SUPPER OF THE LORDE."
I shall be glad to find that your correspondent "C.H." (No. 21. p.
333.) receives a satisfactory answer to his inquiry, as such a reply
would also satisfy my earlier query, No. 7. p. 109. I perceive,
however, from his letter, that I can give him some information on
other points noticed in it, though the absence of papers now passing
through the press with the Parker Society's reprint of a third volume
of Tyndale, will prevent my replying with such precision as I could
wish. That ancient tract on "The Supper of the Lorde, after the true
meanyng of the sixte of John," &c., of which "C.H." says he possesses
a copy, was reprinted at different intervals with the same date, viz.,
MCCCCCXXXIII, Apryll v., on its title-page. The original edition has a
final colophon, stating that it was "imprinted at Nornberg, by Nielas
Twonson," and is so rare, that I have not been able to discover the
existence of any copy, but one recently deposited in the Bodleian.
That "C.H.'s" copy is not a specimen of that first edition, is
apparent from two circumstances. The first is, that he has given you
a quotation from his copy as follows:--"And as for M. More, whom the
verity most offendeth, and doth but mocke it," whereas the original
edition has, "And as for M. Mocke," &c., and Sir Thomas More notices
this mockage of his name in his reply. The next is, that his copy
contains "Crowley's Epistle to the Reader," which does not appear in
any edition of an earlier date than 1551. When first attached to this
treatise, the epistle was anonymous, as may be seen in the Lambeth
copy; but Crowley eventually {363} affixed his name to the epistle,
as it appears in "C.H.'s" and in other copies. Robert Crowley was a
fellow of Magdalen College, Oxford; vicar of St. Giles, Cripplegate;
a printer and publisher; but to his singular combination of titles, we
cannot add that of author of the treatise in question. "C.H." has seen
that he did not enter Oxford till 1534; and in his Prefatory Epistle,
Crowley speaks of the author of the treatise as a person distinct from
himself.
I do not wish, however, to be considered as positively affirming the
treatise to be Tyndale's. Foxe, the martyrologist, edited Tyndale's
works for Day, and he has only said that this treatise was "compiled,
as some do gather, by M. Wm. Tyndale, because the method and phrase
agree with his, and the time of writing are [sic] concurrent." On the
other hand, the authorship is unhesitatingly assigned to Tyndale by
Mr. C. Anderson (_Annals of the English Bible_, §ix. _ad finem_),
and by Mr. Geo. Offer (_Mem. of Tyndale_, p. 30.), the two most
pains-taking and best informants as to his works. But still there are
objections of such force, that I must confess myself rather inclined
to attribute the treatise to Joy's pen, if I could but be satisfied
that he was capable of writing so correctly, and of keeping so clear
of vulgarity in a controversy with a popish persecutor.