_MEN WITH A MISSION._
WILLIAM TYNDALE.
MEN WITH A MISSION.
NEW SERIES OF POPULAR BIOGRAPHIES.
_Illustrated. Small Crown 8vo.
Price Fifty Cents each._
HENRY MORTON STANLEY.
CHARLES KINGSLEY.
HUGH LATIMER.
WILLIAM TYNDALE.
_In Preparation._
JOHN HOWARD.
ABRAHAM LINCOLN.
LORD LAWRENCE.
DAVID LIVINGSTONE.
[Illustration: WILLIAM TYNDALE.]
_MEN WITH A MISSION._
WILLIAM TYNDALE.
BY
REV. JAMES J. ELLIS,
AUTHOR OF
“THE MESSAGES OF CHRIST,” “HARNESS FOR A PAIR,” “HENRY MORTON STANLEY,”
ETC. ETC.
“Thou hast left behind
Powers that will work for thee; earth, air, and skies,
There’s not a breathing of the common wind
That will forget thee; thou hast great allies;
Thy friends are exultations, agonies,
And love, and man’s unconquerable mind.”
--WORDSWORTH.
NEW YORK:
THOMAS WHITTAKER,
2 & 3 BIBLE HOUSE.
_PRINTED IN ENGLAND._
PREFACE.
“I have surveyed most of the learning found among the sons of men,”
said the learned Seldon, “but I can stay my soul upon none of them
but the Bible;” and precisely similar has been the experience of many
others.
The Bible is in the Scripture declared to be that which the Holy Spirit
employs both in conversion and in sanctification; it is therefore
needful above all things that we should know our Bibles well. Nothing
can compensate for the want of this, and at the same time a spiritual
knowledge of the Scriptures will often atone for natural deficiencies,
both in mental equipment and in social position.
The man, therefore, who brings the Bible to bear efficiently upon the
hearts and lives of his fellow-creatures is the true servant of God;
what then shall be said in praise of William Tyndale?
Before his day such copies of Wycliffe’s Version as still survived
could only be consulted in secret; they were but few in number, and
the language in which they were written had become obsolete. Tyndale
conceived the bold idea of translating the Scriptures so that the
poorest might be able to obtain and to understand them.
For this noble object he lived and died, and Englishmen should never
forget that the priceless boon of an open Bible, which is the secret
source of our national liberties and success, was paid for by Tyndale
with his blood.
Tyndale does not regret the purchase now, for although duty exacts a
heavy fine, it more than repays those who give up all things that they
may possess her.
HARRINGAY, LONDON N., 1890.
CONTENTS.
CHAPTER I.
_THE APOSTLE OF ENGLAND; OR, THE MAN WHO
IS FORGOTTEN BECAUSE OF HIS SUCCESS._
PAGE
“PUT IT ON THE SHELF!”--A BLANK WORLD--CLEVERNESS
NO CREDIT--THE FARMER’S SON--NEW LIGHT
FROM THE OLD CHRONICLES--THE MIDNIGHT DARKNESS
AND THE MORNING STAR 1
CHAPTER II.
_THE SCHOLAR WHO OUTSTRIPPED HIS TEACHER._
HARD FARE MAKES FIRM MEN--WHAT ERASMUS WISHED,
AND TYNDALE ACCOMPLISHED--WEALTH MADE
THE TEST OF TRUTH--A MAN OF PUTTY HELPING
A MAN OF IRON--DRIVEN AWAY, BUT NOT CONQUERED 11
CHAPTER III.
_MARKING THE COURSE OF THE WORLD; OR,
LEARNING WHOM NOT TO TRUST._
NO ROOM FOR A BIBLE IN THE BISHOP’S PALACE--THE
MERCHANT’S HOUSE A HOME--MONMOUTH’S GRACIOUS
CHARACTER--AN EXILE FOR CONSCIENCE’ SAKE 23
CHAPTER IV.
_AN EXILE, YET IN HIS FATHER’S LAND._
HELPED BY LUTHER--FINDING A COMPANION--A BOLD
VENTURE--DRIVEN AWAY--BURNING THE BIBLE
DOES NOT DESTROY IT 30
CHAPTER V.
_A MAN WITHOUT A PATTERN, BUT WITH MANY IMITATORS._
CURIOSITIES OF TRANSLATION--ANCIENT VERSIONS--THE
BOOK THAT TURNS THE HEART INSIDE OUT--TYNDALE’S
QUALIFICATIONS--HIS PUNGENT GLOSSES 40
CHAPTER VI.
_HATED BY THE CARDINAL, BUT WORKING FOR GOD._
LEAVES WORMS FOR MARBURG--FARTHER FROM ROME,
YET NEARER TO THE TRUTH--“THE WICKED MAMMON”
AND “THE OBEDIENCE OF A CHRISTIAN MAN”--READ
BY KING HENRY--“THE PRACTICE OF PRELATES”--NOTES
ON THE PENTATEUCH 56
CHAPTER VII.
_NOT SECOND TO A GLADIATOR; OR, STRONG FOR THE TRUTH._
SIR THOMAS MORE THE ADVOCATE OF THE BISHOPS--TYNDALE’S
CRUSHING REPLY--MORE’S GROSS ABUSE AND FOUL
LANGUAGE--PUBLIC OPINION WITH TYNDALE 73
CHAPTER VIII.
_BRIBES AND BAIT; OR, THE FLY WHO WOULD
NOT ENTER THE SPIDER’S WEB._
ATTEMPTS TO INDUCE TYNDALE TO RETURN TO ENGLAND--THE
INTERVIEW IN THE MEADOW--TYNDALE’S
PATHETIC APPEAL AND HIS NOBLE OFFER 79
CHAPTER IX.
_A FRIEND UNTO DEATH; OR, COMFORTING A SUFFERER._
THE BOOK OF JONAH TRANSLATED--POWER LENT BY
GOD--WANDERING BUT WORKING--COMFORTING
FRYTH--FRYTH’S NOBLE DEFENCE--TYNDALE’S MODE
OF LIFE 87
CHAPTER X.
_TRAPPED AT LAST; OR, DYING FOR THE TRUTH._
THE QUEEN’S BIBLE--THE TRAITOR--THE TRAP--THE
WEARY YEAR OF IMPRISONMENT--THE TRIUMPH 98
WILLIAM TYNDALE.
CHAPTER I.
_THE APOSTLE OF ENGLAND; OR, THE MAN WHO IS FORGOTTEN BECAUSE OF HIS
SUCCESS._
“How seldom, friend, a good, great man inherits
Honour or wealth, with all his toil and pains!
It sounds like stories from the land of spirits,
If any man obtain that which he merits,
Or any merit that which he obtains.”
--COLERIDGE.
“Did you ever sit and look at a handsome or well-made man, and thank
God from your heart for having allowed you such a privilege and
lesson?”--KINGSLEY.
“There is an inscrutability of truth which sometimes increases its
power, while we wait with solemn reverence for the hour when it shall
be fully revealed to us; and our faith, like the setting sun, may
clothe celestial mysteries with a soft and rosy-coloured light, which
makes them more suitable to our present existence.”--CHEEVER.
“PUT IT ON THE SHELF!”--A BLANK WORLD!--CLEVERNESS NO CREDIT--THE
FARMER’S SON--NEW LIGHT FROM THE OLD CHRONICLES--THE MIDNIGHT
DARKNESS AND THE MORNING STAR.
“I have long adopted an expedient which I have found of singular
service to me,” said Richard Cecil. “I have a shelf in my study for
tried authors, and one in my mind for tried principles and characters.
“When an author has stood a thorough examination and will bear to be
taken as a guide, I PUT HIM ON THE SHELF!
“When I have most fully made up my mind on a principle, I PUT IT ON THE
SHELF!
“When I have turned a character over and over on all sides, and seen it
through and through in all situations, I PUT IT ON THE SHELF!”
William Tyndale is a man whose character may be placed upon the shelf,
for he and his life have successfully endured the test of the ages
that have in turn examined him, and sometimes not with the kindest of
feelings. It is difficult for us to estimate adequately the magnitude
of his success, because the whole current of religious life has changed
since his time, and mainly because of what he accomplished. A great
writer has imagined what would occur if some morning every sentence of
the Scriptures were obliterated both from the printed page and from
the minds of men; he believes that _a blank Bible would mean a blank
world_, and that was largely the moral condition of things into which
Tyndale was born. There was no Bible, at least in circulation, and
therefore there were ignorance, tyranny, hopelessness, and discord. The
Reformation was not only a bringing-in of a new life beyond the grave,
it also gave fresh hope and meaning to the existence on this side of
death; so that commercial enterprise and national liberty are products
of that period.
Frith, in his amusing autobiography, tells us of a picture-dealer who
said of Dickens and his writings, “He couldn’t help writing ’em. He
deserves no credit for that. He a clever man! Let him go and sell a lot
of pictures to a man that don’t want ’em, as I have done lots of times;
that’s what I call being a clever man!”
The same has practically been long felt if not expressed about William
Tyndale, for it is only of late years that his supreme ability has been
admitted. Yet he was undoubtedly a great man; Foxe calls him “the true
servant and martyr of God, who, for his notable pains and travail, may
well be called the Apostle of England.” Tyndale is rightly so called,
for he, in spite of the Bishops, gave to the world a book which they
did not desire, and in so doing he did more for the English Reformation
than the King and Parliament combined.
Of the early days of this great man but very little is known. Foxe,
in his Life of William Tyndale, says that he “was born about the
borders of Wales, and brought up from a child in the University of
Oxford, where he, by long continuance, grew up and increased as well
in the knowledge of tongues and other liberal arts, as especially in
the knowledge of the Scriptures, _whereunto his mind was singularly
addicted_, insomuch that he, lying then in Magdalen Hall, read privily
to certain students and fellows of Magdalen College some parcel
of divinity; instructing them in the knowledge and truth of the
Scriptures. His manners also and conversation, being correspondent to
the same, were such that all they that knew him reputed and esteemed
him to be a man of most virtuous disposition and of life unspotted.
Thus he, in the University of Oxford, increasing more and more in
learning and proceeding in degrees of the schools, spying his time,
removed from thence to the University of Cambridge, where, after he had
likewise made his abode a certain space, being now further ripened in
the knowledge of God’s Word, leaving that University also, he resorted
to one Master Welch, a knight of Gloucestershire.” In these few lines
Foxe concentrates the history of several years, and these were years
of supreme interest and importance both to the man and to us. Nor has
subsequent research done very much to fill in this gap, although one or
two things are now clear to us.
It was for a long time believed that William Tyndale was a son of
Thomas Tyndale of Hunts Court, the manor-house of North Nibley, a
village in Gloucestershire. Accordingly a monument has been erected
upon Nibley Knoll (one of the Cotswold Hills) in his honour--a noble
column which is still conspicuous from far in that pleasant country.
But it has been shown that this could not have been, and that not to
the manor-house, but to a farmhouse, must we look for the birthplace of
our hero. At Melksham Court, in the parish of Stinchcombe, there had
long lived a family of Tyndales, who, it is said, had originally come
from the North of England. This was during the Wars of the Roses, and
in order to elude the proscription which in turn visited the adherents
of each house, these Tyndales assumed the name of Hutchins.
It is probable that these farmers, whose lands were principally
swamps that had been reclaimed from the Severn, were the ancestors of
William Tyndale. The Tyndales of North Nibley were, however, probably
relatives of these farmers. The precise date of William Tyndale’s birth
cannot be stated, but from the fact that, in his reply to Sir Thomas
More, Tyndale said, “These things to be even so M. More knoweth well
enough, for he understandeth the Greek, and he knew them long ere I
did,” it is inferred that More was at least some years the elder.
More was born in the year 1478 A.D., and therefore it is conjectured
that about 1480 was the date of Tyndale’s birth. Of Slymbridge, his
probable birthplace, Demaus says that it “was then, as now, wholly
engrossed in the production of cheese and butter; a quiet agricultural
parish, where life would flow on calmly as the great river that formed
its boundary. The dairymaid was the true annalist of Slymbridge; and
the only occurrence beyond drought which would distress the peaceful
population would be occasional predatory incursions of their lawless
neighbours from the Forest of Dean, which waved in hills of verdure
towards the west, as a picturesque counterbalance to the Cotswolds in
the east. Such a place one naturally associates with stagnant thought
and immemorial tradition.”[1]
One would have been thankful for an account of the home life of the
Tyndales, and especially for some information about the two parents. We
can imagine the grave, sober farmer given up to religious observances
like his neighbours, thinking grimly but silently of the evils which he
saw in the Churches around him; perhaps also with a tinge of Lollardism
as carefully concealed as might be. And the sober, diligent mother,
not wholly occupied with the pursuits of the farm, but thinking high
thoughts about God and life, that from time to time she communicated
to her sons. From what we know of their children, we must form a high
estimate of the parents.
Four sons, it would seem, formed the family group, and they were named
respectively Richard Tyndale (who succeeded to the farm), Edward
Tyndale, William the Martyr, and John Tyndale, a merchant in London.
It is a fact that the last named was fined for sending money to his
brother William when the latter was abroad, and for aiding him in the
circulation of the Scriptures, so that in all probability the brothers
were of one mind in religious opinions. One brother, Edward Tyndale,
was appointed receiver of the revenues of Berkley, which had been
left to the Crown in the year 1492, so that he at anyrate was fairly
well-to-do.
Tyndale himself, in his “Obedience of a Christian Man,” to which
reference will be further made later on in this biography, makes the
following allusion to his own childhood:--“Except my memory fail me,
and that I have forgotten what I read when I was a child, thou shalt
find in the English Chronicle, how that King Adelstone (Athelstone)
caused the Holy Scripture to be translated into the tongue that then
was in England, and how prelates exhorted him thereto.”
We may therefore suppose that the child was taught at home in the
ancient records of the Kingdom, and perhaps his attention was called by
his father to the significant fact that then the Scriptures could not
be read by the people, whereas this had been permitted in earlier days.
It is singular that the boy should have noticed such a fact, and it
suggests that some one significantly indicated it to him. It is certain
that a strong sympathy for the opinions of Wycliffe and his followers
existed all through the West of England, and probably William Tyndale’s
father hinted to his sons what he did not dare to speak out to others.
And there were also here and there, men, in monasteries, vicarages, and
dwelling-houses, who were beginning to discern the coming dawn.
“Midnight being past,” says Fuller, “some early risers were beginning
to strike fire and enlighten themselves from the Scriptures.” And there
was indeed great need for them to do so, for the religious condition of
England was at that time lamentable.
As an example of the dissoluteness of the national manners, and
principally amongst the clergy, it is said of Mr. Edmund Loud, a
gentleman of rank in Huntingdonshire, that he “was disgusted at the
dissolute lives of the monks of Sawtry, an abbey in his neighbourhood,
and even ventured to chastise one of them who had insulted his
daughter. For this, and other circumstances, they determined to be
revenged; and he was waylaid and assaulted by six men, tenants of
the abbey. He defended himself with a billhook for some time, till a
constable came up and stopped the fray, and Mr. Loud was required to
give up his weapon. They then proceeded peaceably with the constable;
but, watching an opportunity, as Mr. Loud was crossing a stile, one
seized him by the arms, while another fractured his skull with the blow
of a club, and he died seven days afterwards. The murderers escaped,
and the influence of the Romish clergy prevented the matter being
properly followed up.”
Dr. Henry in his history of this period observes, however, that “there
was one vice, indeed, which the clergy most zealously endeavoured to
extirpate. This was what they called the damnable vice of heresy,
which consisted in reading the New Testament in English, the works of
Wickliff and Luther, and of others of that learning; in denying the
infallibility of the Pope, transubstantiation, purgatory, praying to
saints, worshipping images, &c. Notwithstanding the cruel punishments
that had been inflicted on those who entertained these opinions,
their number was still considerable, particularly in London, and
in Colchester, and in other parts of Essex. They called themselves
Brethren in Christ, and met together with great secrecy in one
another’s houses, to read the New Testament and other books, and to
converse upon religious subjects. Many of them were apprehended, and
brought before Cuthbert Tonstall, bishop of London, and Dr. Wharton,
his chancellor. But Bishop Tonstall, being a prelate of uncommon
learning and eloquence, and of great humanity, earnestly tried to
prevail upon them to renounce, or rather to dissemble, their opinions,
by which they escaped a painful death, but incurred the painful
reproaches of their minds.”
As a specimen of those who were brought before the tribunals, take
these cases:--
“Elizabeth Wightil deposed against her mistress, Alice Doly, that
speaking of John Hacher, a water-bearer in Coleman Street, London, she
said he was so very expert in the Gospels and the Lord’s Prayer in
English, that it did her good to hear him. She was also said to have
heretical books in her possession.
“Roger Hackman, of Oxfordshire, was accused for saying in the county of
Norfolk, ‘I will never look to be saved for any good deed that ever I
did, neither for any that I shall ever do, unless I have my salvation
by petition, as an outlaw pardoned by the king;’ adding, ‘that if he
might not have his salvation so, he thought he should be lost.’” If
such doctrine as this was condemned, we cannot wonder at hearing of
“certain heretical books called the Epistles and Gospels.”
The darkness was indeed thick, but happily the dawning was at hand.