Acts, iv, p. 633.) That the ungodly may be converted to thyself
through me, once ungodly.
John Fryth, a young man of eighteen, the son of an innkeeper of
Sevenoaks in Kent, was distinguished among the students of King's
College, by the promptitude of his understanding and the integrity of
his life. He was as deeply read in the mathematics as Tyndale in the
classics, and Bilney in canon law. Although of an exact turn of mind,
yet his soul was elevated, and he recognised in Holy Scripture a
learning of a new kind. "These things are not demonstrated like a
proposition of Euclid," he said; "mere study is sufficient to impress
the theories of mathematics on our minds; but this science of God
meets with a resistance in man that necessitates the intervention of a
divine power. Christianity is a regeneration." The heavenly seed soon
grew up in Fryth's heart.[323]
[323] Through Tyndale's instructions he first received into his heart
the seed of the Gospel. Foxe, Acts, v. p. 4.
These three young scholars set to work with enthusiasm. They declared
that neither priestly absolution nor any other religious rite could
give remission of sins; that the assurance of pardon is obtained by
faith alone; and that faith purifies the heart. Then they addressed to
all men that saying of Christ's at which the monks were so offended:
_Repent and be converted!_
[Sidenote: CHRIST COMETH.]
Ideas so new produced a great clamour. A famous orator undertook one
day at Cambridge to show that it was useless to preach conversion to
the sinner. "Thou, who, for sixty years past," said he, "hast wallowed
in thy lusts, like a sow in her mire,[324] dost thou think that thou
canst in one year take as many steps towards heaven, and that in thine
age, as thou hast done towards hell?" Bilney left the church with
indignation. "Is that preaching repentance in the name of Jesus?" he
asked. "Does not this priest tell us: Christ will not save thee.[325]
Alas! for so many years that this deadly doctrine has been taught in
Christendom, not one man has dared open his mouth against it!" Many of
the Cambridge fellows were scandalized at Bilney's language: was not
the preacher whose teaching he condemned duly _ordained_ by the
bishop? He replied: "What would be the use of being a hundred times
consecrated, were it even by a thousand papal bulls, if the inward
calling is wanting?[326] To no purpose hath the bishop breathed on our
heads if we have never felt the breath of the Holy Ghost in our
hearts?" Thus, at the very beginning of the Reformation, England,
rejecting the Romish superstitions, discerned with extreme nicety what
constitutes the essence of consecration to the service of the Lord.
[324] Even as a beast in his own dung. Bilnæus Tonstallo episcopo;
Foxe, Acts, iv, p. 640.
[325] He will not be thy Jesus or Saviour. Ibid.
[326] Without this inward calling it helpeth nothing before God to be
a hundred times elect and consecrated. Ibid. p. 638.
After pronouncing these noble words, Bilney, who longed for an
outpouring of the Holy Ghost, shut himself up in his room, fell on his
knees, and called upon God to come to the assistance of his church.
Then rising up, he exclaimed, as if animated by a prophetic spirit: "A
new time is beginning. The Christian assembly is about to be
renewed.... Some one is coming unto us, I see him, I hear him--it is
Jesus Christ.[327]... He is the king, and it is he who will call the
true ministers commissioned to evangelize his people."
[327] If it be Christ, him that cometh unto us. Ibid. p. 637.
Tyndale, full of the same hopes as Bilney, left Cambridge in the
course of the year 1519.
Thus the English Reformation began independently of those of Luther
and Zwingle--deriving its origin from God alone. In every province of
Christendom there was a simultaneous action of the divine word. The
principle of the Reformation at Oxford, Cambridge, and London was the
_Greek New Testament_, published by Erasmus. England, in course of
time learnt to be proud of this origin of its Reformation.
CHAPTER III.
Alarm of the Clergy--The Two Days--Thomas Man's
Preaching--True real Presence--Persecutions at
Coventry--Standish preaches at St. Paul's--His Petition to
the King and Queen--His Arguments and Defeat--Wolsey's
Ambition--First Overtures--Henry and Francis Candidates for
the Empire--Conference between Francis I and Sir T.
Boleyn--The Tiara promised to Wolsey--The Cardinal's
Intrigues with Charles and Francis.
[Sidenote: ALARM OF THE CLERGY.]
This revival caused great alarm throughout the Roman hierarchy.
Content with the baptism they administered, they feared the baptism of
the Holy Ghost perfected by faith in the word of God. Some of the
clergy, who were full of zeal, but of zeal without knowledge, prepared
for the struggle, and the cries raised by the prelates were repeated
by all the inferior orders.
The first blows did not fall on the members of the universities, but
on those humble Christians, the relics of Wickliffe's ministry, to
whom the reform movement among the learned had imparted a new life.
The awakening of the fourteenth century was about to be succeeded by
that of the sixteenth, and the last gleams of the closing day were
almost lost in the first rays of that which was commencing. The young
doctors of Oxford and Cambridge aroused the attention of the alarmed
hierarchy, and attracted their eyes to the humble Lollards, who here
and there still recalled the days of Wickliffe.
[Sidenote: THE COVENTRY MARTYRS.]
An artisan named Thomas Man, sometimes called Doctor Man, from his
knowledge of Holy Scripture, had been imprisoned for his faith in the
priory of Frideswide at Oxford (1511 A. D.) Tormented by the
remembrance of a recantation which had been extorted from him, he had
escaped from this monastery and fled into the eastern parts of
England, where he had preached the Word, supplying his daily wants by
the labour of his hands.[328] This "champion of God" afterwards drew
near the capital, and assisted by his wife, the new Priscilla of this
new Aquila, he proclaimed the doctrine of Christ to the crowd
collected around him in some "upper chamber" of London, or in some
lonely meadow watered by the Thames, or under the aged oaks of Windsor
Forest. He thought with Chrysostom of old, that "all priests are not
saints, but all saints are priests."[329] "He that receiveth the word
of God," said he, "receiveth God himself, that is the true _real
presence_. The vendors of masses are not the high-priests of this
mystery;[330] but the men whom God hath _anointed with his Spirit_ to
be kings and priests." From six to seven hundred persons were
converted by his preaching.[331]
[328] Work thereby to sustain his poor life. Foxe, Acts, iv, p. 209.
[329] Chrysostom, 43 Homily on Matth.
[330] He called them _pilled knaves_. Foxe. iv, p. 209.
[331] Ibid. p. 211.
The monks who dared not as yet attack the universities, resolved to
fall upon those preachers who made their temple on the banks of the
Thames, or in some remote corner of the city. Man was seized,
condemned, and burnt alive on the 29th March 1519.
And this was not all. There lived at Coventry a little band of serious
Christians--four shoemakers, a glover, a hosier, and a widow named
Smith--who gave their children a pious education. The Franciscans were
annoyed that _laymen_, and even a _woman_, should dare meddle with
religious instruction. On Ash Wednesday (1519) Simon Morton, the
bishop's sumner, apprehended them all, men, women, and children. On
the following Friday, the parents were taken to the Abbey of
Mackstock, about six miles from Coventry, and the children to the Grey
Friar's convent. "Let us see what heresies you have been taught?" said
Friar Stafford to the intimidated little ones. The poor children
confessed they had been taught in English the Lord's prayer, the
apostles' creed, and the ten commandments. On hearing this, Stafford
told them angrily: "I forbid you, (unless you wish to be burnt as your
parents will be,) to have any thing to do with the _Pater_, the
_credo_, or the ten commandments _in English_."
Five weeks after this, the men were condemned to be burnt alive, but
the judges had compassion on the widow, because of her young family
(for she was their only support,) and let her go. It was night: Morton
offered to see Dame Smith home; she took his arm, and they threaded
the dark and narrow streets of Coventry. "Eh, eh!" said the apparitor,
on a sudden, "what have we here?" He heard in fact the noise of paper
rubbing against something. "What have you got there?" he continued,
dropping her arm, and putting his hand up her sleeve, from which he
drew out a parchment. Approaching a window whence issued the faint
rays of a lamp, he examined the mysterious scroll, and found it to
contain the Lord's prayer, the apostles' creed, and the ten
commandments _in English_. "Oh, oh! sirrah!" said he; "come along. As
good now as another time!"[332] Then seizing the poor widow by the
arm, he dragged her before the bishop. Sentence of death was
immediately pronounced on her, and on the 4th of April, Dame Smith,
Robert Hatchets, Archer, Hawkins, Thomas Bond, Wrigsham, and
Landsdale, were burnt alive at Coventry in the Little Park, for the
crime of teaching their children the Lord's prayer, the apostles'
creed, and the commandments of God.
[332] Ibid. p. 357.
[Sidenote: STANDISH AT ST. PAUL'S.]
But what availed it to silence these obscure lips, so long as the
Testament of Erasmus could speak? Lee's conspiracy must be revived.
Standish, bishop of St. Asaph, was a narrow-minded man, rather
fanatical, but probably sincere, of great courage, and not without
some degree of piety. This prelate, being determined to preach a
crusade against the New Testament, began at London, in St. Paul's
cathedral, before the mayor and corporation. "Away with these new
translations," he said, "or else the religion of Jesus Christ is
threatened with utter ruin."[333] But Standish was deficient in tact,
and instead of confining himself to general statements, like most of
his party, he endeavoured to show how far Erasmus had corrupted the
Gospel, and continued thus in a whining voice: "Must I who for so many
years have been a doctor of the Holy Scriptures, and who have always
read in my Bible: _In principio erat_ VERBUM,--must I now be obliged
to read: _In principio erat_ SERMO," for thus had Erasmus translated
the opening words of St. John's Gospel. _Risum teneatis_, whispered
one to another, when they heard this puerile charge: "My lord,"
proceeded the bishop, turning to the mayor, "magistrates of the city,
and citizens all, fly to the succour of religion!" Standish continued
his pathetic appeals, but his oratory was all in vain; some stood
unmoved, others shrugged their shoulders, and others grew impatient.
The citizens of London seemed determined to support liberty and the
Bible.
[333] Imminere christianæ religionis πανολετρείαν, nisi
novae translationes omnes subito de medio tollerentur. (Erasm. Ep.
p. 596.) That destruction threatened the Christian religion,
unless all new translations were at once taken away from amongst
them.
[Sidenote: A DISCUSSION.]
Standish, seeing the failure of his attack in the city, sighed and
groaned and prayed, and repeated mass against the so much dreaded
book. But he also made up his mind to do more. One day, during the
rejoicings at court for the betrothal of the Princess Mary, then two
years old, with a French prince who was just born, St. Asaph, absorbed
and absent in the midst of the gay crowd, meditated a bold step.
Suddenly he made his way through the crowd, and threw himself at the
feet of the king and queen. All were thunder-struck, and asked one
another what the old bishop could mean. "Great king," said he, "your
ancestors who have reigned over this island,--and yours, O great
queen, who have governed Aragon, were always distinguished by their
zeal for the church. Show yourselves worthy of your forefathers. Times
full of danger are come upon us,[334] a book has just appeared, and
been published too, by Erasmus! It is such a book that, if you close
not your kingdom against it, it is all over with the religion of
Christ among us."
[334] Adesse tempora longe periculosissima. Erasm. Ep. p. 597.
The bishop ceased, and a dead silence ensued. The devout Standish,
fearing lest Henry's well-known love of learning should be an obstacle
to his prayer, raised his eyes and his hands toward heaven, and
kneeling in the midst of the courtly assembly, exclaimed in a
sorrowful tone: "O Christ! O Son of God! save thy spouse! ... for no
man cometh to her help."[335]
[335] Cæpit obsecrare Christum dignaretur ipse suæ sponsæ opitulari.
(Ibid. p. 598.) He began to implore Christ, that he himself would
deign to succour his spouse.
Having thus spoken, the prelate, whose courage was worthy of a better
cause, rose up and waited. Every one strove to guess at the king's
thoughts. Sir Thomas More was present, and he could not forsake his
friend Erasmus. "What are the heresies this book is likely to
engender?" he inquired. After the sublime came the ridiculous. With
the forefinger of his right hand, touching successively the fingers of
his left,[336] Standish replied: "First, this book destroys _the
resurrection_; secondly, it annuls the _sacrament of marriage_;
thirdly, it abolishes _the mass_." Then uplifting his thumb and two
fingers, he showed them to the assembly with a look of triumph. The
bigoted Catherine shuddered as she saw Standish's three
fingers,--signs of the three heresies of Erasmus; and Henry himself,
an admirer of Aquinas, was embarrassed. It was a critical moment: the
Greek Testament was on the point of being banished from England. "The
proof, the proof," exclaimed the friends of literature. "I will give
it," rejoined the impetuous Standish, and then once more touching his
left thumb: "Firstly," he said, ... But he brought forward such
foolish reasons, that even the women and the unlearned were ashamed of
them. The more he endeavoured to justify his assertions, the more
confused he became: he affirmed among other things that the Epistles
of St. Paul were written in _Hebrew_. "There is not a schoolboy that
does not know that Paul's epistles were written in _Greek_," said a
doctor of divinity kneeling before the king. Henry, blushing for the
bishop, turned the conversation, and Standish, ashamed at having made
a Greek write to the Greeks in Hebrew, would have withdrawn
unobserved. "The beetle must not attack the eagle,"[337] was whispered
in his ear. Thus did the book of God remain in England the standard of
a faithful band, who found in its pages the motto, which the church of
Rome had usurped: _The truth is in me alone_.
[336] Et rem in digitos porrectos dispartiens. (Ibid.) And
distributing the charge on his outstretched fingers.
[337] Scarabæus ille qui maximo suo malo aquilam quæsivit. (Erasm. Ep.
p. 555.) That beetle who sought to do the worst he could to the eagle.
[Sidenote: WOLSEY'S AMBITION.]
A more formidable adversary than Standish aspired to combat the
Reformation, not only in England, but in all the West. One of those
ambitious designs, which easily germinate in the human heart,
developed itself in the soul of the chief minister of Henry VIII; and
if this project succeeded, it promised to secure for ever the empire
of the papacy on the banks of the Thames, and perhaps in the whole of
Christendom.
Wolsey, as chancellor and legate, governed both in state and in
church, and could, without an untruth, utter his famous _Ego et rex
meus_. Having reached so great a height, he desired to soar still
higher. The favourite of Henry VIII, almost his master, treated as a
brother by the emperor, by the king of France, and by other crowned
heads, invested with the title of Majesty, the peculiar property of
sovereigns,[338] the cardinal, sincere in his faith in the popedom,
aspired to fill the throne of the pontiffs, and thus become _Deus in
terris_. He thought, that if God permitted a Luther to appear in the
world, it was because he had a Wolsey to oppose to him.
[338] Consultissima tua Majestas. Vestra sublimis et longe
reverendissima, Majestas, etc. Fiddes, Bodleian Papers, p. 178.
It would be difficult to fix the precise moment when this immoderate
desire entered his mind: it was about the end of 1518 that it began to
show itself. The bishop of Ely, ambassador at the court of Francis I,
being in conference with that prince on the 18th of December in that
year, said to him mysteriously: "The cardinal has an idea in his mind
... on which he can unbosom himself to nobody ... except it be to your
majesty." Francis understood him.
[Sidenote: AMBITION OF FRANCIS I.]
An event occurred to facilitate the cardinal's plans. If Wolsey
desired to be the first priest, Henry desired to be the first king.
The imperial crown, vacant by the death of Maximilian, was sought by
two princes:--by Charles of Austria, a cold and calculating man,
caring little about the pleasures and even the pomp of power, but
forming great designs, and knowing how to pursue them with energy; and
by Francis I, a man of less penetrating glance and less indefatigable
activity, but more daring and impetuous. Henry VIII, inferior to both,
passionate, capricious, and selfish, thought himself strong enough to
contend with such puissant competitors, and secretly strove to win
"the monarchy of all Christendom."[339] Wolsey flattered himself that,
hidden under the cloak of his master's ambition, he might satisfy his
own. If he procured the crown of the Cæsars for Henry, he might easily
obtain the tiara of the popes for himself; if he failed, the least
that could be done to compensate England for the loss of the empire,
would be to give the sovereignty of the church to her prime minister.
[339] Cotton MSS. Brit. Mus. Calig. D. 7, p. 88.
Henry first sounded the king of France. Sir Thomas Boleyn appeared one
day before Francis I just as the latter was returning from mass. The
king, desirous to anticipate a confidence that might be embarrassing,
took the ambassador aside to the window and whispered to him: "Some of
the electors have offered me the empire; I hope your master will be
favourable to me." Sir Thomas, in confusion, made some vague reply,
and the chivalrous king, following up his idea, took the ambassador
firmly by one hand, and laying the other on his breast,[340]
exclaimed: "By my faith, if I become emperor, in three years I shall
be in Constantinople, or I shall die on the road!" This was not what
Henry wanted; but dissembling his wishes, he took care to inform
Francis that he would support his candidature. Upon hearing this
Francis raised his hat and exclaimed: "I desire to see the king of
England; I will see him, I tell you, even if I go to London with only
one page and one lackey."
[340] He took me hard by the wrist with one hand, and laid the other
upon his breast. Ibid. D. 8, p. 93.
Francis was well aware that if he threatened the king's ambition, he
must flatter the minister's, and recollecting the hint given by the
bishop of Ely, he said one day to Boleyn: "It seems to me that my
brother of England and I could do, indeed ought to do ... something
for the cardinal. He was prepared by God for the good of Christendom
... one of the greatest men in the church ... and on the word of a
king, if he consents, I will do it." A few minutes after he continued:
"Write and tell the cardinal, that if he aspires to be the head of the
church, and if any thing should happen to the reigning pope, I will
promise him fourteen cardinals on my part.[341] Let us only act in
concert, your master and me, and I promise you, Mr. Ambassador, that
neither pope nor emperor shall be created in Europe without our
consent."
[341] He will assure you full fourteen cardinals for him. Ibid. D. F.
p. 98.
[Sidenote: THE CARDINAL'S PRACTICES.]
But Henry did not act in concert with the king of France. At Wolsey's
instigation he supported three candidates at once: at Paris he was
for Francis I; at Madrid for Charles V; and at Frankfort for himself.
The kings of France and England failed, and on the 10th August, Pace,
Henry's envoy at Frankfort, having returned to England, desired to
console the king by mentioning the sums of money which Charles had
spent. "By the mass!"[342] exclaimed the king, congratulating himself
at not having obtained the crown at so dear a rate. Wolsey proposed to
sing a _Te Deum_ in St. Paul's, and bonfires were lighted in the city.
[342] Bi the messe! State Papers, i. 9.
The cardinal's rejoicings were not misplaced. Charles had scarcely
ascended the imperial throne, in despite of the king of France, when
these two princes swore eternal hatred of each other, and each was
anxious to win over Henry VIII. At one time Charles, under the
pretence of seeing his uncle and aunt, visited England; at another,
Francis had an interview with the king in the neighbourhood of Calais.
The cardinal shared in the flattering attentions of the two monarchs.
"It is easy for the king of Spain, who has become the head of the
empire, to raise whomsoever he pleases to the supreme pontificate,"
said the young emperor to him; and at these words the ambitious
cardinal surrendered himself to Maximilian's successor. But erelong
Francis I flattered him in his turn, and Wolsey replied also to his
advances. The king of France gave Henry tournaments and banquets of
Asiatic luxury; and Wolsey, whose countenance yet bore the marks of
the graceful smile with which he had taken leave of Charles, smiled
also on Francis, and sang mass in his honour. He engaged the hand of
the Princess Mary to the dauphin of France and to Charles V, leaving
the care of unravelling the matter to futurity. Then proud of his
skilful practices he returned to London full of hope. By walking in
falsehood he hoped to attain the tiara: and if it was yet too far
above him, there were certain _gospellers_ in England who might serve
as a ladder to reach it. Murder might serve as the complement to
fraud.
CHAPTER IV.
Tyndale--Sodbury Hall--Sir John and Lady
Walsh--Table-Talk--The Holy Scriptures--The images--The
Anchor of Faith--A Roman Camp--Preaching of Faith and
Works--Tyndale accused by the Priests--They tear up what he
has planted--Tyndale resolves to translate the Bible--His
first triumph--The Priests in the taverns--Tyndale summoned
before the Chancellor of Worcester--Consoled by an aged
Doctor--Attacked by a schoolman--His Secret becomes
known--He leaves Sodbury Hall.
[Sidenote: TYNDALE.]
Whilst this ambitious prelate was thinking of nothing but his own
glory and that of the Roman pontificate, a great desire, but of a very
different nature, was springing up in the heart of one of the humble
"gospellers" of England. If Wolsey had his eyes fixed on the throne of
the popedom in order to seat himself there, Tyndale thought of raising
up the true throne of the church by re-establishing the legitimate
sovereignty of the word of God. The Greek Testament of Erasmus had
been one step; and it now became necessary to place before the simple
what the king of the schools had given to the learned. This idea,
which pursued the young Oxford doctor everywhere, was to be the mighty
mainspring of the English Reformation.
On the slope of Sodbury hill there stood a plain but large mansion
commanding an extensive view over the beautiful vale of the Severn
where Tyndale was born. It was inhabited by a family of gentle birth:
Sir John Walsh had shone in the tournaments of the court, and by this
means conciliated the favour of his prince. He kept open table; and
gentlemen, deans, abbots, archdeacons, doctors of divinity, and fat
rectors, charmed by Sir John's cordial welcome and by his good
dinners, were ever at his house. The former brother at arms of Henry
VIII felt an interest in the questions then discussing throughout
Christendom. Lady Walsh herself, a sensible and generous woman, lost
not a word of the animated conversation of her guests, and discreetly
tried to incline the balance to the side of truth.[343]
[343] Lady Walsh, a stout and wise woman. Foxe, Acts, v. p. 115.
[Sidenote: TABLE-TALK AT SODBURY.]
Tyndale after leaving Oxford and Cambridge had returned to the home of
his fathers. Sir John had requested him to educate his children, and
he had accepted. William was then in the prime of life (he was about
thirty-six), well instructed in Scripture, and full of desire to show
forth the light which God had given him. Opportunities were not
wanting. Seated at table with all the doctors welcomed by Sir
John,[344] Tyndale entered into conversation with them. They talked of
the learned men of the day--of Erasmus much, and sometimes of Luther,
who was beginning to astonish England.[345] They discussed several
questions touching the holy Scriptures, and sundry points of theology.
Tyndale expressed his convictions with admirable clearness, supported
them with great learning, and kept his ground against all with
unbending courage. These animated conversations in the vale of the
Severn are one of the essential features of the picture presented by
the Reformation in this country. The historians of antiquity invented
the speeches which they have put into the mouths of their heroes. In
our times history, without inventing, should make us acquainted with
the sentiments of the persons of whom it treats. It is sufficient to
read Tyndale's works to form some idea of these conversations. It is
from his writings that the following discussion has been drawn.
[344] Who were together with Master Tyndale sitting at the same table.
Foxe, Acts, v. p. 115.
[345] Talk of learned men, as of Luther and Erasmus, etc. Ibid.
[Sidenote: THE HOLY SCRIPTURES.]
In the dining-room of the old hall a varied group was assembled round
the hospitable table. There were Sir John and Lady Walsh, a few
gentlemen of the neighbourhood, with several abbots, deans, monks, and
doctors, in their respective costumes. Tyndale occupied the humblest
place, and generally kept Erasmus's New Testament within reach in
order to prove what he advanced.[346] Numerous domestics were moving
about engaged in waiting on the guests; and at length the
conversation, after wandering a little, took a more precise direction.
The priests grew impatient when they saw the terrible volume appear.
"Your Scriptures only serve to make heretics," they exclaimed. "On the
contrary," replied Tyndale, "the source of all heresies is _pride_;
now the word of God strips man of everything, and leaves him as bare
as Job."[347]--"_The word of God!_ why even _we_ don't understand your
word, how can the _vulgar_ understand it?"--"You do not understand
it," rejoined Tyndale, "because you look into it only for foolish
questions, as you would into _our Lady's Matins_, or _Merlin's
Prophecies_.[348] Now the Scriptures are a clue which we must follow,
without turning aside, until we arrive at Christ;[349] for Christ is
the end."--"And I tell you," shouted out a priest, "that the
Scriptures are a Dædalian labyrinth, rather than Ariadne's clue--a
conjuring book wherein everybody finds what he wants."--"Alas!"
replied Tyndale; "you read them without Jesus Christ; that's why they
are an obscure book to you. What do I say? a den of thorns where you
only escape from the briers to be caught by the brambles."[350] "No!"
exclaimed another clerk, heedless of contradicting his colleague,
"nothing is obscure to us; it is we who give the Scriptures, and we
who explain them to you."--"You would lose both your time and your
trouble," said Tyndale; "do you know who taught the eagles to find
their prey?[351] Well, that same God teaches his hungry children to
find their Father in his word. Far from having given us the
Scriptures, it is you who have hidden them from us; it is you who burn
those who teach them, and if you could, you would burn the Scriptures
themselves."
[346] When they at any time did vary from Tyndale in opinions and
judgment, he would show them in the book. Ibid.
[347] Tyndale, Expositions. (Park. Soc.) p. 140.
[348] Tyndale, Expositions. (Park. Soc.) p. 141.
[349] So along by the Scripture as by a line until thou come at
Christ. Tynd. Works, i. 354 (ed. Russell).
[350] A grave of briers; If thou loose thyself in one place thou art
caught in another. Tyndale, Expositions, p. 5.
[351] Ibid. Answer to More (Park. Soc.) p. 49.
Tyndale was not satisfied with merely laying down the great principles
of faith: he alway sought after what he calls "the sweet marrow
within;" but to the divine unction he added no little humour, and
unmercifully ridiculed the superstitions of his adversaries. "You set
candles before images," he said to them; "and since you give them
_light_, why don't you give them _food_. Why don't you make their
bellies hollow, and put victuals and drink inside.[352] To serve God
by such mummeries is treating him like a spoilt child, whom you pacify
with a toy or with a horse made of a stick."[353]
[352] Make a hollow belly in the image. Ibid. p. 81.
[353] Make him a horse of a stick. Tyndale's Wks. (ed. Russell) ii.
475.
But the learned Christian soon returned to more serious thoughts; and
when his adversaries extolled the papacy as the power that would save
the church in the tempest, he replied: "Let us only take on board the
anchor of faith, after having dipped it in the blood of Christ,[354]
and when the storm bursts upon us, let us boldly cast the anchor into
the sea; then you may be sure the ship will remain safe on the great
waters." And, in fine, if his opponents rejected any doctrine of the
truth, Tyndale (says the chronicler) opening his Testament would set
his finger on the verse which refuted the Romish error, and exclaim:
"Look and read."[355]
[354] Ibid. Expositions, (Park. Soc.) p. 15.
[355] And lay plainly before them the open and manifest places of the
Scriptures, to confute their errors and confirm his sayings. Foxe,
Acts, v. p. 115.
[Sidenote: SERMONS AT ST. ADELINE'S.]
The beginnings of the English Reformation are not to be found, as we
have seen, in a material ecclesiasticism, which has been decorated
with the name of _English Catholicism:_ they are essentially
spiritual. The Divine Word, the creator of the new life in the
individual, is also the founder and reformer of the church. The
reformed churches, and particularly the reformed churches of Great
Britain, belong to evangelism.
The contemplation of God's works refreshed Tyndale after the
discussions he had to maintain at his patron's table. He would often
ramble to the top of Sodbury hill, and there repose amidst the ruins
of an ancient Roman camp which crowned the summit. It was here that
Queen Margaret of Anjou halted; and here too rested Edward IV, who
pursued her, before the fatal battle of Tewkesbury, which caused this
princess to fall into the hands of the White Rose. Amidst these ruins,
monuments of the Roman invasion and of the civil dissensions of
England, Tyndale meditated upon other battles, which were to restore
liberty and truth to Christendom. Then rousing himself he would
descend the hill, and courageously resume his task.
Behind the mansion stood a little church, overshadowed by two large
yew trees, and dedicated to Saint Adeline. On Sundays Tyndale used to
preach there, Sir John and Lady Walsh, with the eldest of the
children, occupying the manorial pew. This humble sanctuary was filled
by their household and tenantry, listening attentively to the words of
their teacher, which fell from his lips like _the waters of Shiloah
that go softly_. Tyndale was very lively in conversation; but he
explained the Scriptures with so much unction, says the chronicler,
"that his hearers thought they heard St. John himself." If he
resembled John in the mildness of his language, he resembled Paul in
the strength of his doctrine. "According to the pope," he said, "we
must first be good after his doctrine, and compel God to be good again
for our goodness. Nay, verily, God's goodness is the root of all
goodness. Antichrist turneth the tree of salvation topsy-turvy:[356]
he planteth the branches, and setteth the roots upwards. We must put
it straight......As the husband marrieth the wife, before he can have
any lawful children by her; even so faith justifieth us to make us
fruitful in good works.[357] But neither the one nor the other should
remain barren. Faith is the holy candle wherewith we must bless
ourselves at the last hour; without it, you will go astray in the
valley of the shadow of death, though you had a thousand tapers
lighted around your bed."[358]
[356] Antichrist turneth the roots of the trees upward. Tyndale,
Doctrinal Treatises (Park. Soc.), p. 295.
[357] Tyndale, Parable of the Wicked Mammon. Ibid. 126.
[358] Though thou hadst a thousand holy candles about thee. Ibid. p.
48.
[Sidenote: TYNDALE THWARTED BY THE PRIESTS.]
The priests, irritated at such observations, determined to ruin
Tyndale, and some of them invited Sir John and his lady to an
entertainment, at which he was not present. During dinner, they so
abused the young doctor and his New Testament, that his patrons
retired greatly annoyed that their tutor should have made so many
enemies. They told him all they had heard, and Tyndale successfully
refuted his adversaries' arguments. "What!" exclaimed Lady Walsh,
"there are some of these doctors worth one hundred, some two hundred,
and some three hundred pounds[359] ... and were it reason, think you,
Master William, that we should believe you before them?" Tyndale,
opening the New Testament, replied: "No! it is not me you should
believe. That is what the priests have told you; but look here, St.
Peter, St. Paul, and the Lord himself say quite the contrary."[360]
The Word of God was there, positive and supreme: the sword of the
spirit cut the difficulty.
[359] Well, there was such a doctor who may dispend a hundred pounds.
Foxe. Acts, v. p. 115.
[360] Answering by the Scriptures maintained the truth. Ibid.
Before long the manor-house and St. Adeline's church became too narrow
for Tyndale's zeal. He preached every Sunday, sometimes in a village,
sometimes in a town. The inhabitants of Bristol assembled to hear him
in a large meadow, called St. Austin's Green.[361] But no sooner had
he preached in any place than the priests hastened thither, tore up
what he had planted,[362] called him a heretic, and threatened to
expel from the church every one who dared listen to him. When Tyndale
returned he found the field laid waste by the enemy; and looking sadly
upon it, as the husbandman who sees his corn beaten down by the hail,
and his rich furrows turned into a barren waste, he exclaimed: "What
is to be done? While I am sowing in one place, the enemy ravages the
field I have just left. I cannot be everywhere. Oh! if Christians
possessed the Holy Scriptures in their own tongue, they could of
themselves withstand these sophists. Without the Bible it is
impossible to establish the laity in the truth."[363]
[361] Ibid. p. 117.
[362] Whatsoever truth is taught them, these enemies of all truth
quench it again. Tynd. Doctr. Tr. p. 394.
[363] impossible to establish the lay people in any truth, except the
Scripture were plainly laid before their eyes in their mother-tongue.
Ibid.
[Sidenote: THE PRIESTS IN THE ALEHOUSES.]
Then a great idea sprang up in Tyndale's heart: "It was in the
language of Israel," said he, "that the Psalms were sung in the temple
of Jehovah; and shall not the Gospel speak the language of England
among us?... Ought the church to have less light at noonday than at
the dawn?... Christians must read the New Testament in their
mother-tongue." Tyndale believed that this idea proceeded from God.
The new sun would lead to the discovery of a new world, and the
infallible rule would make all human diversities give way to a divine
unity. "One holdeth this doctor, another that," said Tyndale, "one
followeth Duns Scotus, another St. Thomas, another Bonaventure,
Alexander Hales, Raymond of Penaford, Lyra, Gorram, Hugh de Sancto
Victore, and so many others besides.... Now, each of these authors
contradicts the other. How then can we distinguish him who says right
from him who says wrong?... How?... Verily, by God's word."[364]
Tyndale hesitated no longer.... While Wolsey sought to win the papal
tiara, the humble tutor of Sodbury undertook to place the torch of
heaven in the midst of his fellow-countrymen. The translation of the
Bible shall be the work of his life.
[364] Tynd. Doct. Tr. p. 119.
The first triumph of the word was a revolution in the manor-house. In
proportion as Sir John and Lady Walsh acquired a taste for the Gospel,
they became disgusted with the priests. The clergy were not so often
invited to Sodbury, nor did they meet with the same welcome.[365] They
soon discontinued their visits, and thought of nothing but how they
could drive Tyndale from the mansion and from the diocese.
[365] Neither had they the cheer and countenance when they came, as
before they had. Foxe, Acts, v. p. 1.6.
Unwilling to compromise themselves in this warfare, they sent forward
some of those light troops which the church has always at her
disposal. Mendicant friars and poor curates, who could hardly
understand their missal, and the most learned of whom made _Albertus
de secretis mulierum_ their habitual study, fell upon Tyndale like a
pack of hungry hounds. They trooped to the alehouses,[366] and calling
for a jug of beer, took their seats, one at one table, another at
another. They invited the peasantry to drink with them, and entering
into conversation with them, poured forth a thousand curses upon the
daring reformer: "He's a hypocrite," said one; "he's a heretic," said
another. The most skilful among them would mount upon a stool, and
turning the tavern into a temple, deliver, for the first time in his
life, an extemporaneous discourse. They reported words that Tyndale
had never uttered, and actions that he had never committed.[367]
Rushing upon the poor tutor (he himself informs us) "like unclean
swine that follow their carnal lusts,"[368] they tore his good name to
very tatters, and shared the spoil among them; while the audience,
excited by their calumnies and heated by the beer, departed
overflowing with rage and hatred against the heretic of Sodbury.
[366] Come together to the alehouse, which is their preaching place.
Tynd. Doct. Tr. 394
[367] They add too of their own heads what I never spake. Ibid. p.
395.
[368] Ibid. Expositions, p. 10.
[Sidenote: TYNDALE CITED BEFORE THE CHANCELLOR.]
After the monks came the dignitaries. The deans and abbots, Sir John's
former guests, accused Tyndale to the chancellor of the diocese,[369]
and the storm which had begun in the tavern burst forth in the
episcopal palace.
[369] Tyndale, Doctr. Tr. 395.
The titular bishop of Worcester (an appanage of the Italian prelates)
was Giulio de' Medici, a learned man, great politician, and crafty
priest, who already governed the popedom without being pope.[370]
Wolsey, who administered the diocese for his absent colleague, had
appointed Thomas Parker chancellor, a man devoted to the Roman church.
It was to him the churchmen made their complaint. A judicial inquiry
had its difficulties; the king's companion-at-arms was the patron of
the pretended heretic, and Sir Anthony Poyntz, Lady Walsh's brother,
was sheriff of the county. The chancellor was therefore content to
convoke a general conference of the clergy. Tyndale obeyed the
summons, but foreseeing what awaited him, he cried heartily to God, as
he pursued his way up the banks of the Severn, "to give him strength
to stand fast in the truth of his word."[371]
[370] Governava il papato e havia piu zente a la sua audienzia che il
papa. (He governed the popedom, and had more people at his audiences
than the pope.) Relazione di Marco Foscari, 1526.
[371] Foxe, Acts. v. p. 116.
When they were assembled, the abbots and deans, and other
ecclesiastics of the diocese, with haughty heads and threatening
looks, crowded round the humble but unbending Tyndale. When his turn
arrived, he stood forward, and the chancellor administered him a
severe reprimand, to which he made a calm reply. This so exasperated
the chancellor, that, giving way to his passion, he treated Tyndale as
if he had been a dog.[372] "Where are your witnesses?" demanded the
latter. "Let them come forward, and I will answer them." Not one of
them dared support the charge--they looked another way. The chancellor
waited, one witness at least he must have, but he could not get
that.[373] Annoyed at this desertion of the priests, the
representative of the Medici became more equitable, and let the
accusation drop. Tyndale quietly returned to Sodbury, blessing God who
had saved him from the cruel hands of his adversaries,[374] and
entertaining nothing but the tenderest charity towards them. "Take
away my goods," he said to them one day, "take away my good name! yet
so long as Christ dwelleth in my heart, so long shall I love you not a
whit the less."[375] Here indeed is the Saint John to whom Tyndale has
been compared.
[372] He threatened me grievously and reviled me, and rated me as
though I had been a dog. Tynd. Doctr. Tr. p. 395.
[373] And laid to my charge whereof there would be none accuser
brought forth. Ibid.
[374] Escaping out of their hands. Foxe, Acts, v. p. 116.
[375] Tynd. Doctr. Tr. p. 298.
[Sidenote: TYNDALE AND THE SCHOOLMAN.]
In this violent warfare, however, he could not fail to receive some
heavy blows; and where could he find consolation? Fryth and Bilney
were far from him. Tyndale recollected an _aged doctor_ who lived near
Sodbury, and who had shown him great affection. He went to see him,
and opened his heart to him.[376] The old man looked at him for a
while as if he hesitated to disclose some great mystery. "Do you not
know," said he, lowering his voice, "that _the pope is very
Antichrist_ whom the Scripture speaketh of?... But beware what you
say.... That knowledge may cost you your life."[377] This doctrine of
Antichrist, which Luther was at that moment enunciating so boldly,
struck Tyndale. Strengthened by it, as was the Saxon reformer, he felt
fresh energy in his heart, and the aged doctor was to him what the
aged friar had been to Luther.
[376] For to him he durst be bold to disclose his heart. Foxe, Acts,
v. p. 117.
[377] Ibid.
When the priests saw that their plot had failed, they commissioned a
celebrated divine to undertake his conversion. The reformer replied
with his Greek Testament to the schoolman's arguments. The theologian
was speechless: at last he exclaimed: "Well then! it were better to be
without God's laws than the pope's."[378] Tyndale, who did not expect
so plain and blasphemous a confession, made answer: "And I defy the
pope and all his laws!" and then, as if unable to keep his secret, he
added: "If God spares my life, I will take care that a plough-boy
shall know more of the Scriptures than you do."[379]
[378] Ibid.
[379] Cause a boy that driveth the plough to know more of the
Scriptures than he did. Ibid.
All his thoughts were now directed to the means of carrying out his
plans; and desirous of avoiding conversations that might compromise
them, he thenceforth passed the greater portion of his time in the
library.[380] He prayed, he read, he began his translation of the
Bible, and in all probability communicated portions of it to Sir John
and Lady Walsh.
[380] This part of the house was standing in 1839, but has since been
pulled down. Anderson, Bible Annals, i. p. 37. We cannot but unite in
the wish expressed in that volume, that the remainder of the building,
now tenanted by a farmer, may be carefully preserved.
[Sidenote: TYNDALE LEAVES SODBURY.]
All his precautions were useless: the scholastic divine had betrayed
him, and the priests had sworn to stop him in his translation of the
Bible. One day he fell in with a troop of monks and curates, who
abused him in the grossest manner. "It's the favour of the gentry of
the country that makes you so proud," said they; "but notwithstanding
your patrons, there will be a talk about you before long, and in a
pretty fashion too!... You shall not always live in a manor-house!"
"Banish me to the obscurest corner of England," replied Tyndale;
"provided you will permit me to teach children and preach the Gospel,
and give me ten pounds a-year for my support.[381]... I shall be
satisfied!" The priests left him, but with the intention of preparing
him a very different fate.
[381] Binding him to no more but to teach children and to preach.
Foxe, Acts, v. p. 117.
Tyndale indulged in his pleasant dreams no longer. He saw that he was
on the point of being arrested, condemned, and interrupted in his
great work. He must seek a retreat where he can discharge in peace the
task God has allotted him. "You cannot save me from the hands of the
priests," said he to Sir John, "and God knows to what troubles you
would expose yourself by keeping me in your family. Permit me to leave
you." Having said this, he gathered up his papers, took his Testament,
pressed the hands of his benefactors, kissed the children, and then
descending the hill, bade farewell to the smiling banks of the Severn,
and departed alone--alone with his faith. What shall he do? What will
become of him? Where shall he go? He went forth like Abraham, one
thing alone engrossing his mind:--the Scriptures shall be translated
into the vulgar tongue, and he will deposit the oracles of God in the
midst of his countrymen.
CHAPTER V.
Luther's works in England--Consultation of the Bishops--The
Bull of Leo X published in England--Luther's books
burnt--Letter of Henry VIII--He undertakes to write against
Luther--Cry of Alarm--Tradition and Sacramentalism--Prudence
of Sir T. More--The Book presented to the Pope--_Defender of
the Faith_--Exultation of the King.
[Sidenote: LUTHER'S WORKS IN ENGLAND.]
Whilst a plain minister was commencing the Reformation in a tranquil
valley in the west of England, powerful reinforcements were landing on
the shores of Kent. The writings and actions of Luther excited a
lively sensation in Great Britain. His appearance before the diet of
Worms was a common subject of conversation. Ships from the harbours of
the Low Countries brought his books to London,[382] and the German
printers had made answer to the nuncio Aleander, who was prohibiting
the Lutheran works in the empire: "Very well! we shall send them _to
England_!" One might almost say that England was destined to be the
asylum of truth. And in fact, the _Theses_ of 1517, the _Explanation
of the Lord's Prayer_, the books _against Emser_, _against the papacy
of Rome_, _against the bull of Antichrist_, _the Epistle to the
Galatians_, _the Appeal to the German nobility_, and above all the
_Babylonish Captivity of the Church_--all crossed the sea, were
translated, and circulated throughout the kingdom.[383] The German and
English nations, having a common origin and being sufficiently alike
at that time in character and civilization, the works intended for one
might be read by the other with advantage. The monk in his cell, the
country gentleman in his hall, the doctor in his college, the
tradesman in his shop, and even the bishop in his palace, studied
these extraordinary writings. The laity in particular, who had been
prepared by Wickliffe and disgusted by the avarice and disorderly
lives of the priests, read with enthusiasm the eloquent pages of the
Saxon monk. They strengthened all hearts.
[382] Burnet, Hist. of the Reformation, (Lond. 1841, Oct.) i. p. 21.
[383] Libros Lutheranos quorum magnus jam numerus pervenerat in manus
Anglorum. (Polyd. Virg. Angl. Hist. (Basil, 1570, fol.) p. 664.) A
great many of the Lutheran books had already come into the hands of
the English.
[Sidenote: PUBLICATION OF THE PAPAL BULL.]
The papacy was not inactive in presence of all these efforts. The
times of Gregory VII and of Innocent III, it is true, were passed; and
weakness and irresolution had succeeded to the former energy and
activity of the Roman pontificate. The spiritual power had resigned
the dominion of Europe to the secular powers, and it was doubtful
whether faith in the papacy could be found in the papacy itself. Yet a
German (Dr. Eck) by the most indefatigible exertions had extorted a
bull from the profane Leo X,[384] and this bull had just reached
England. The pope himself sent it to Henry, calling upon him to
extirpate the Lutheran heresy.[385] The king handed it to Wolsey, and
the latter transmitted it to the bishops, who, after reading _the
heretic's_ books, met together to discuss the matter.[386] There was
more Romish faith in London than in the Vatican. "This false friar,"
exclaimed Wolsey, "attacks submission to the clergy--that fountain of
all virtues." The humanist prelates were the most annoyed; the road
they had taken ended in an abyss, and they shrank back in alarm.
Tonstall, the friend of Erasmus, afterwards bishop of London, and who
had just returned from his embassy to Germany where Luther had been
painted to him in the darkest colours, was particularly violent: "This
monk is a _Proteus_.... I mean an _atheist_.[387] If you allow the
heresies to grow up which he is scattering with both hands, they will
choke the faith and the church will perish.[388] Had we not enough of
the Wickliffites--here are new legions of the same kind!... To-day
Luther calls for the abolition of the mass; to-morrow he will ask for
the abolition of Jesus Christ.[389] He rejects every thing, and puts
nothing in its place. What? if barbarians plunder our frontiers, we
punish them ... and shall we bear with heretics who plunder our
altars?... No! by the mortal agony that Christ endured, I entreat
you.... What am I saying? the whole church conjures you to combat
against this devouring _dragon_.... to punish this _hell-dog_, to
silence his sinister howlings, and to drive him shamefully back into
his den."[390] Thus spoke the eloquent Tonstall; nor was Wolsey far
behind him. The only attachment at all respectable in this man was
that which he entertained for the church; it may perhaps be called
respectable, for it was the only one that did not exclusively regard
himself. On the 14th May 1521, this English pope, in imitation of the
Italian pope, issued his bull against Luther.
[384] See above. Book VI. chap. iv.
[385] Ab hoc regno extirpandum et abolendum. Cardinal. Ebor.
Commissio. Strype, M. I. v. p. 22.
[386] Habitoque super hac re diligenti tractatu. Ibid.
[387] Cum illo _Protheo_....imo _Atheo_. Erasm. Ep. 1158.
[388] Tota ruet Ecclesia. Ibid. p. 1159.
[389] Nisi de abolendo Christo scribere destinavit. Ibid. p. 1160.
[390] Gladio Spiritus abactum in antrum suum coges. Ibid.
[Sidenote: SARCASMS OF THE PEOPLE.]
It was read (probably on the first Sunday in June) in all the churches
during high mass, when the congregation was most numerous.[391] A
priest exclaimed: "For every book of Martin Luther's found in your
possession within fifteen days after this injunction, you will incur
the greater excommunication." Then a public notary, holding the pope's
bull in his hand, with a description of Luther's _perverse opinions_,
proceeded towards the principal door of the church and fastened up the
document.[392] The people gathered round it; the most competent person
read it aloud, while the rest listened; and the following are some of
the sentences which, by the pope's order, resounded in the porches of
all the cathedral, conventual, collegiate, and parish churches of
every county in England:[393]
"11. Sins are not pardoned to any, unless, the priest
remitting them, he believe they are remitted to him.
"13. If by reason of some impossibility, the _contrite_ be
not confessed, or the priest absolve him, not in earnest,
but in jest; yet if he believe that he is absolved, he is
most truly absolved.
"14. In the sacrament of _penance_ and the remission of a
fault, the pope or bishop doth not more than the lowest
priest; yea, where there is not a priest, then any Christian
will do; yea, if it were a woman or a child.
"26. The pope, the successor of Peter, is not Christ's
vicar.
"28. It is not at all in the hand of the church or the pope
to decree articles of faith, no, nor to decree the laws of
manners or of good works."
[391] Cum major convenerit multitudo. Ibid.
[392] In valvis seu locis publicis ecclesiæ vestræ. (Ibid. p. 24.) On
the doors or public places of your churches.
[393] Strype, M. I. p. 57, (Oxf. ed.) or Luther, xvii, p. 306.
The cardinal-legate, accompanied by the nuncio, by the ambassador of
Charles V, and by several bishops, proceeded in great pomp to St.
Paul's, where the bishop of Rochester preached, and Wolsey burnt
Luther's books.[394] But they were hardly reduced to ashes, before
sarcasms and jests were heard in every direction. "_Fire_ is not a
theological argument," said one. "The papists, who accuse Martin
Luther of slaying and murdering Christians," added another, "are like
the pickpocket, who began to cry _stop thief_, as soon as he saw
himself in danger of being caught." "The bishop of Rochester," said a
third, "concludes that because Luther has thrown the pope's decretals
into the fire, he would throw in the pope himself.... We may hence
deduce another syllogism, quite as sound: The popes have burnt the New
Testament, therefore, if they could, they would burn Christ
himself."[395] These jests were rapidly circulated from mouth to
mouth. It was not enough that Luther's writings were in England, they
must needs be known, and the priests took upon themselves to advertise
them. The Reformation was advancing, and Rome herself pushed behind
the car.
[394] See above, Book IX, chap x.
[395] They would have burnt Christ himself. Tynd. Doct. Tr. Obedience,
etc. (Park. Soc.) p. 221.
[Sidenote: HENRY WRITES AGAINST LUTHER.]
The cardinal saw that something more was required than these paper
_autos-da-fé_, and the activity he displayed may indicate what he
would have done in Europe, if ever he had reached the pontifical
chair. "The spirit of Satan left him no repose," says the papist
Sanders.[396] Some action out of the ordinary course is needful,
thought Wolsey. Kings have hitherto been the enemies of the popes: a
king shall now undertake their defence. Princes are not very anxious
about learning, a prince shall publish a book!... "Sire," said he to
the king, to get Henry in the vein, "you ought to write to the princes
of Germany on the subject of this heresy." He did so. Writing to the
Archduke Palatine, he said: "This fire, which has been kindled by
Luther, and fanned by the arts of the devil, is raging every where. If
Luther does not repent, deliver him and his audacious treatises to the
flames. I offer you my royal co-operation, and even, if necessary, my
life."[397] This was the first time Henry showed that cruel thirst,
which was in after days to be quenched in the blood of his wives and
friends.
[396] Satanæ spiritu actus. (De Schism. Angl. p. 8.) Urged by the
spirit of Satan.
[397] Kapps Urkunden, ii, p. 458.
The king having taken the first step, it was not difficult for Wolsey
to induce him to take another. To defend the honour of Thomas Aquinas,
to stand forward as the champion of the church, and to obtain from the
pope a title equivalent to that of _Christianissimus_, most Christian
king, were more than sufficient motives to induce Henry to break a
lance with Luther. "I will combat with the pen this Cerberus, sprung
from the depths of hell,"[398] said he, "and if he refuses to retract,
the fire shall consume the heretic and his heresies together."[399]
[398] Velut Cerberum ex inferis producit in lucem. Regis ad lectorem.
Epist. p. 94.
[399] Ut errores ejus eumque ipsum ignis exurat. Ibid. p. 95.
The king shut himself up in his library: all the scholastic tastes
with which his youth had been imbued were revived; he worked as if he
were archbishop of Canterbury, and not king of England; with the
pope's permission he read Luther's writings; he ransacked Thomas
Aquinas; forged, with infinite labour, the arrows with which he hoped
to pierce the heretic; called several learned men to his aid, and at
last published his book. His first words were a cry of alarm. "Beware
of the track of this serpent," said he to his Christian readers; "walk
on tiptoe; fear the thickets and caves in which he lies concealed, and
whence he will dart his poison on you. If he licks you, be careful!
the cunning viper caresses only that he may bite!"[400] After that
Henry sounded a charge: "Be of good cheer! Filled with the same valour
that you would display against Turks, Saracens, and other infidels,
march now against this _little friar_,--a fellow apparently weak, but
more formidable through the spirit that animates him than all
infidels, Saracens, and Turks put together."[401] Thus did Henry VIII,
the _Peter the Hermit_ of the sixteenth century, preach a crusade
against Luther, in order to save the papacy.
[400] Qui tantum ideo lambit ut mordeat. Assertio Sept. Sacram.
[401] Sed animo Turcis omnibus Sarracenis omnibus usquam infidelibus
nocentiorem fraterculum. Ibid. p. 147.
[Sidenote: PRUDENCE OF MORE.]
He had skilfully chosen the ground on which he gave battle:
sacramentalism and tradition are in fact the two essential features of
the papal religion; just as a lively faith and Holy Scripture are of
the religion of the Gospel. Henry did a service to the Reformation, by
pointing out the principles it would mainly have to combat; and by
furnishing Luther with an opportunity of establishing the authority of
the Bible, he made him take a most important step in the path of
reform. "If a teaching is opposed to Scripture," said the Reformer,
"whatever be its origin--traditions, custom, kings, Thomists,
sophists, Satan, or even an angel from heaven,--all from whom it
proceeds must be accursed. _Nothing can exist contrary to Scripture_,
and every thing must exist for it."
Henry's book being terminated by the aid of the bishop of Rochester,
the king showed it to Sir Thomas More, who begged him to pronounce
less decidedly in favour of the papal supremacy. "I will not change a
word," replied the king, full of servile devotion to the popedom.
"Besides, I have my reasons," and he whispered them in More's ear.
Doctor Clarke, ambassador from England at the court of Rome, was
commissioned to present the pope with a magnificently bound copy of
the king's work. "The glory of England," said he, "is to be in the
foremost rank among the nations in obedience to the papacy."[402]
Happily Britain was ere long to know a glory of a very different kind.
The ambassador added that his master, after having refuted Luther's
errors with the _pen_, was ready to combat his adherents with the
_sword_.[403] The pope, touched with this offer, gave him his foot,
and then his cheek to kiss, and said to him: "I will do for your
Master's book as much as the church has done for the works of St.
Jerome and St. Augustine."
[402] Fiddes' Life of Wolsey. p. 249.
[403] Totius regni sui viribus et armis. (Rymer, Fœdera, VI. p. 199.)
By the strength and arms of his whole kingdom.
[Sidenote: DEFENDER OF THE FAITH.]
The enfeebled papacy had neither the power of intelligence, nor even
of fanaticism. It still maintained its pretensions and its pomp, but
it resembled the corpses of the mighty ones of the earth that lie in
state, clad in their most magnificent robes: splendour above, death
and corruption below. The thunder-bolts of a Hildebrand ceasing to
produce their effect, Rome gratefully accepted the defence of laymen,
such as Henry VIII and Sir Thomas More, without disdaining their
judicial sentences and their scaffolds. "We must honour those noble
champions," said the pope to his cardinals, "who show themselves
prepared to cut off with the sword the rotten members of Jesus
Christ.[404] What title shall we give to the virtuous king of
England?"--_Protector of the Roman church_, suggested one; _Apostolic
king_, said another; and finally, but not without some opposition,
Henry VIII was proclaimed _Defender of the Faith_. At the same time
the pope promised ten years' indulgence to all readers of the king's
book. This was a lure after the fashion of the middle ages, and which
never failed in its effect. The clergy compared its author to the
wisest of kings; and the book, of which many thousand copies were
printed, filled the Christian world (Cochlœus tells us) with
admiration and delight.
[404] Putida membra...ferro et materiali gladio abscindere. (Rymer,
Fœdera, vi, p. 199.) To cut off the rotten members with iron and the
material sword.
Nothing could equal Henry's joy. "His majesty," said the vicar of
Croydon, "would not exchange that name for all London and twenty miles
round."[405] The king's fool, entering the room just as his master had
received the bull, asked him the cause of his transports. "The pope
has just named me _Defender of the Faith_!"--"Ho! ho! good Harry,"
replied the fool, "let you and me defend one another; but ... take my
word for it ... _let the faith alone to defend itself_."[406] An
entire modern system was found in those words. In the midst of the
general intoxication, the fool was the only sensible person. But Henry
could listen to nothing. Seated on an elevated throne, with the
cardinal at his right hand, he caused the pope's letter to be read in
public. The trumpets sounded: Wolsey said Mass; the king and his court
took their seats around a sumptuous table, and the heralds at arms
proclaimed: _Henricus Dei gratia Rex Angliæ et Franciæ, Defensor Fidei
et Dominus Hiberniæ!_
[405] Foxe, Acts, iv, p. 596.
[406] Fuller, book v, p. 168.
Thus was the king of England more than ever united to the pope:
whoever brings the Holy Scriptures into his kingdom shall there
encounter that material sword, _ferrum et materialem gladium_, in
which the papacy so much delighted.
CHAPTER VI.
Wolsey's Machinations to obtain the Tiara--He gains Charles
V--Alliance between Henry and Charles--Wolsey offers to
command the Troops--Treaty of Bruges--Henry believes himself
King of France--Victories of Francis I--Death of Leo X.
[Sidenote: WOLSEY DESIRES THE TIARA.]
One thing only was wanting to check more surely the progress of the
Gospel: Wolsey's accession to the pontifical throne. Consumed by the
desire of reaching "the summit of sacerdotal unity,"[407] he formed,
to attain this end, one of the most perfidious schemes ambition ever
engendered. He thought with others: "The end justifies the means."
[407] Unitatis sacerdotalis fastigium conscendere. Sanders, De Schism.
Ang. 8.
The cardinal could only attain the popedom through the emperor or the
king of France; for then, as now, it was the secular powers that
really elected the chief of catholicity. After carefully weighing the
influence of these two princes, Wolsey found that the balance inclined
to the side of Charles, and his choice was made. A close intimacy of
long standing united him to Francis I, but that mattered little; he
must betray his friend to gain his friend's rival.
But this was no easy matter. Henry was dissatisfied with Charles the
Fifth.[408] Wolsey was therefore obliged to employ every imaginable
delicacy in his manœuvres. First he sent Sir Richard Wingfield to the
emperor; then he wrote a flattering letter in Henry's name to the
princess-regent of the Low Countries. The difficulty was to get the
king to sign it. "Have the goodness to put your name," said Wolsey,
"even if it should annoy your Highness.... You know very well ... that
women like to be pleased."[409] This argument prevailed with the king,
who still possessed a spirit of gallantry. Lastly, Wolsey being named
arbitrator between Charles and Francis, resolved to depart for Calais,
apparently to hear the complaints of the two princes; but in reality
to betray one of them. Wolsey felt as much pleasure in such practices,
as Francis in giving battle.
[408] Hys owne affayris doith not succede with th'Emperour. State
Papers, vol. i, p. 10.
[409] Ibid. p. 12.
[Sidenote: THE EMPEROR'S PROMISES.]
The king of France rejected his arbitration: he had a sharp eye, and
his mother one still sharper. "Your master loves me not," said he to
Charles's ambassador, "and I do not love him any more, and am
determined to be his enemy."[410] It was impossible to speak more
plainly. Far from imitating this frankness, the politic Charles
endeavoured to gain Wolsey, and Wolsey, who was eager to sell himself,
adroitly hinted at what price he might be bought. "If the king of
England sides with me," Charles informed the cardinal, "you shall be
elected pope at the death of Leo X."[411] Francis, betrayed by Wolsey,
abandoned by the pope, and threatened by the emperor, determined at
last to accept Henry's mediation.
[410] He was utterly determined to be his enemy. Cotton MSS. Galba, B.
7, p. 35.
[411] Ut Wolseus mortuo Leone decimo fieret summus pontifex.
But Charles was now thinking of very different matters. Instead of a
mediation, he demanded of the king of England 4000 of his famous
bowmen. Henry smiled as he read the despatch and looking at Pace his
secretary, and Marney the captain of his guards, he said: "_Beati qui
audiunt et non intelligunt!_" thus forbidding them to understand, and
above all to bruit abroad this strange request. It was agreed to raise
the number of archers to 6000; and the cardinal, having the tiara
continually before his eyes, departed to perform at Calais the odious
comedy of a hypocritical arbitration. Being detained at Dover by
contrary winds, the mediator took advantage of this delay to draw up a
list of the 6000 archers and their captains, not forgetting to insert
in it, "certain obstinate deer," as Henry had said, "that must of
necessity be hunted down."[412] These were some gentlemen whom the
king desired to get rid of.
[412] Sayyinge that certayne hartes were so toggidde for hym, that he
must neadys hunte them. State Papers, i, p. 26.
While the ambassadors of the king of France were received at Calais on
the 4th of August with great honours, by the lord high chamberlain of
England, the cardinal signed a convention with Charles's ministers
that Henry should withdraw his promise of the Princess Mary's hand to
the dauphin, and give her to the emperor. At the same time he issued
orders to destroy the French navy, and to invade France.[413] And
finally he procured by way of compensating England for the pension of
16,000 pounds hitherto received from the court of St. Germains, that
the emperor should pay henceforward the annual sum of 40,000 marks.
Without ready money the bargain would not have been a good one.
[413] Ibid. i, p. 23.
[Sidenote: THE TREATY OF BRUGES.]
This was not all. While Wolsey was waiting to be elected pope, he
conceived the idea of becoming a soldier. A commander was wanted for
the 6000 archers Henry was sending against the king of France; and why
should he not be the cardinal himself? He immediately intrigued to get
the noblemen set aside who had been proposed as generals in chief.
"Shrewsbury," he said to the king, "is wanted for Scotland--Worcester
by his experience is worthy that ... you should keep him near you. As
for Dorset ... he will be very dear." Then the priest added: "Sire, if
during my sojourn on the other side of the sea, you have good reason
to send your archers.... I hasten to inform you that whenever the
emperor takes the command of his soldiers, I am ready, although an
ecclesiastic,[414] to put myself at the head of yours." What
devotedness! Wolsey would cause his cross of cardinal _a latere_ to be
carried before him (he said); and neither Francis nor Bayard would be
able to resist him. To command at the same time the state, the church,
and the army, while awaiting the tiara,--to surround his head with
laurels: such was this man's ambition. Unfortunately for him, they
were not of that opinion at court. The king made the earl of Essex
commander-in-chief.
[414] Though I be a spiritual man. State Papers, i, p. 31.
As Wolsey could not be general, he turned to diplomacy. He hastened to
Bruges; and as he entered at the emperor's side, a voice was heard
above the crowd, exclaiming: _Salve, Rex regis tui atque regni
sui!_[415]--a sound most pleasing to his ears. People were very much
astonished at Bruges by the intimacy existing between the cardinal and
the emperor. "There is some mystery beneath it all," they said.[416]
Wolsey desired to place the crown of France on Henry's head, and the
tiara on his own. Such was the mystery, which was well worth a few
civilities to the mighty Charles V. The alliance was concluded, and
the contracting parties agreed "to avenge the insults offered to the
throne of Jesus Christ," or in other words, to the popedom.
[415] Hail, both king of thy king and also of his kingdom. Tynd.
Expos. p. 314.
[416] There was a certain secret whereof all men knew not. Ibid. 315.
[Sidenote: WOLSEY'S PRACTICES.]
Wolsey, in order to drag Henry into the intrigues which were to
procure him the tiara, had reminded him that he was _king of France_,
and the suggestion had been eagerly caught at. At midnight on the 7th
of August, the king dictated to his secretary a letter for Wolsey
containing this strange expression: _Si ibitis parare regi locum in
regno ejus hereditario, Majestas ejus_ _quum tempus erit opportunum,
sequetur_.[417] The theologian who had corrected the famous latin book
of the king's against Luther, most certainly had not revised this
phrase. According to Henry, France was his hereditary kingdom, and
Wolsey was going to prepare the throne for him.... The king could not
restrain his joy at the mere idea, and already he surpassed in
imagination both Edward III and the Black Prince. "I am about to
attain a glory superior to that which my ancestors have gained by so
many wars and battles."[418] Wolsey traced out for him the road to his
palace on the banks of the Seine: "Mezières is about to fall;
afterwards there is only Rheims, which is not a strong city; and thus
your grace will very easily reach Paris."[419] Henry followed on the
map the route he would have to take: "Affairs are going on well,"
wrote the cardinal, "the Lord be praised." In him this Christian
language was a mere official formality.
[417] If you go to prepare a place for the king in his hereditary
kingdom, his Majesty will follow you at a fitting season. State
Papers, i, 36.
[418] Majora assequi quam omnes ipsius progenitores tot bellis et
præliis. Ibid. 45.
[419] Your grace shall have but a leyve wey to Parys. Ibid. 46.
Wolsey was mistaken: things were going on badly. On the 20th of
October 1522, Francis I whom so much perfidy had been unable to
deceive,--Francis, ambitious and turbulent, but honest in this matter
at least, and confiding in the strength of his arms, had suddenly
appeared between Cambray and Valenciennes. The emperor fled to
Flanders in alarm, and Wolsey, instead of putting himself at the head
of the army, had shielded himself under his arbitrator's cloak.
Writing to Henry, who, a fortnight before, had by his advice excited
Charles to attack France, he said: "I am confident that your _virtuous
mediation_ will greatly increase your reputation and honour throughout
Christendom."[420] Francis rejected Wolsey's offers, but the object of
the latter was attained. The negotiations had gained time for Charles,
and bad weather soon stopped the French army. Wolsey returned
satisfied to London about the middle of December. It was true that
Henry's triumphant entry into Paris became very difficult; but the
cardinal was sure of the emperor's favour, and through it (he
imagined) of the tiara. Wolsey had done, therefore, what he desired.
He had hardly arrived in England, when there came news which raised
him to the height of happiness: Leo X was dead. His joy surpassed what
Henry had felt at the thought of his _hereditary kingdom_. Protected
by the powerful Charles V, to whom he had sacrificed every thing, the
English cardinal was at last on the point of receiving that pontifical
crown which would permit him to crush heresy, and which was, in his
eyes, the just reward of so many infamous transactions.
[420] Cotton MSS. Calig. D. 8. p. 85.
CHAPTER VII.
The Just Men of Lincolnshire--Their Assemblies and
Teaching--Agnes and Morden--Itinerant Libraries--Polemical
Conversations--Sarcasm--Royal Decree and Terror--Depositions
and Condemnations--Four Martyrs--A Conclave--Charles
consoles Wolsey.
[Sidenote: THE JUST MEN OF LINCOLNSHIRE.]
Wolsey did not stay until he was pope, before persecuting the
disciples of the word of God. Desirous of carrying out the
stipulations of the convention at Bruges, he had broken out against
"the king's subjects who disturbed the apostolic see." Henry had to
vindicate the title conferred on him by the pope; the cardinal had to
gain the popedom; and both could satisfy their desires by the erection
of a few scaffolds.
[Sidenote: AGNES AND MORDEN.]
In the county of Lincoln on the shores of the North Sea, along the
fertile banks of the Humber, Trent, and Witham, and on the slopes of
the smiling hills, dwelt many peaceful Christians--labourers,
artificers, and shepherds--who spent their days in toil, in keeping
their flocks, in doing good, and in reading the Bible.[421] The more
the gospel-light increased in England, the greater was the increase in
the number of these children of peace.[422] These "just men," as they
were called, were devoid of human knowledge, but they thirsted for the
knowledge of God. Thinking they were alone the true disciples of the
Lord, they married only among themselves.[423] They appeared
occasionally at church; but instead of repeating their prayers like
the rest, they sat, said their enemies, "mum like beasts."[424] On
Sundays and holidays, they assembled in each other's houses, and
sometimes passed a whole night in reading a portion of Scripture. If
there chanced to be few books among them, one of the brethren, who
had learnt by heart the Epistle of St. James, the beginning of St.
Luke's gospel, the sermon on the mount, or an epistle of St. Paul's,
would recite a few verses in a loud and calm voice; then all would
piously converse about the holy truths of the faith, and exhort one
another to put them in practice. But if any person joined their
meetings, who did not belong to their body, they would all keep
silent.[425] Speaking much among each other, they were speechless
before those from without: fear of the priests and of the faggot made
them dumb. There was no family rejoicing without the Scriptures. At
the marriage of a daughter of the aged Durdant, one of their
patriarchs, the wedding party met secretly in a barn, and read the
whole of one of St. Paul's epistles. Marriages are rarely celebrated
with such pastimes as this!
[421] Being simple labourers and artificers. Foxe, Acts, iv, p. 240.
[422] As the light of the Gospel began more to appear, and the numbers
of professors to grow. Ibid. p. 217.
[423] Did contract matrimony only with themselves. Ibid. p. 223.
[424] Ibid. p. 225.
[425] If any came in among them that were not of their side, then they
would keep all silent. Foxe, Acts, iv, p. 222.
Although they were dumb before enemies or suspected persons, these
poor people did not keep silence in the presence of the humble: a
glowing proselytism characterized them all. "Come to my house," said
the pious Agnes Ashford to James Morden, "and I will teach you some
verses of Scripture." Agnes was an educated woman; she could read;
Morden came, and the poor woman's chamber was transformed into a
school of theology. Agnes began: "Ye are the salt of the earth," and
then recited the following verses.[426] Five times did Morden return
to Agnes before he knew that beautiful discourse. "We are spread like
salt over the various parts of the kingdom," said this Christian woman
to the neophyte, "in order that we may check the progress of
superstition by our doctrine and our life. But," added she in alarm,
"keep this secret in your heart, as a man would keep a thief in
prison."[427]
[426] Matth. v. 13-16.
[427] Foxe, Acts, iv, p. 225.
[Sidenote: SARCASM.]
As books were rare these pious Christians had established a kind of
itinerant library, and one John Scrivener was continually engaged in
carrying the precious volumes from one to another.[428] But at times,
as he was proceeding along the banks of the river or through the
forest glades, he observed that he was followed. He would quicken his
pace and run into some barn where the friendly peasants promptly hid
him beneath the straw, or, like the spies of Israel, under the stalks
of flax.[429] The bloodhounds arrived, sought and found nothing; and
more than once those who so generously harboured these evangelists
cruelly expiated the crime of charity.
[428] Carrying about books from one to another. Ibid. iv, p. 224.
[429] Hiding others in their barns. Ibid. p. 243.
The disappointed officers had scarcely retired from the neighbourhood
when these friends of the word of God came out of their hiding-place,
and profited by the moment of liberty to assemble the brethren. The
persecutions they suffered irritated them against the priests. They
worshipped God, read, and sang with a low voice; but when the
conversation became general, they gave free course to their
indignation. "Would you know the use of the pope's pardons?" said one
of them; "they are to blind the eyes and empty the purse."--"True
pilgrimages," said the tailor Geoffrey of Uxbridge, "consist in
visiting the poor and sick--barefoot, if so it please you--for these
are the little ones that are god's true image."--"Money spent in
pilgrimages," added a third, "serves only to maintain thieves and
harlots."[430] The women were often the most animated in the
controversy. "What need is there to go to the _feet_," said Agnes
Ward, who disbelieved in saints, "when we may go to the
_head_?"[431]--"the clergy of the good old times," said the wife of
David Lewis, "used to lead the people as a hen leadeth her
chickens;[432] but now if our priests lead their flocks any where, it
is to the devil assuredly."
[430] Foxe, Acts, iv, p. 243.
[431] Ibid. p. 229.
[432] Ibid. p. 224.
Erelong there was a general panic throughout this district. The king's
confessor John Longland was bishop of Lincoln. This fanatic priest,
Wolsey's creature, took advantage of his position to petition Henry
for a severe persecution: this was the ordinary use in England,
France, and elsewhere, of the confessors of princes. It was
unfortunate that among these pious disciples of the word, men of a
cynical turn were now and then met with, whose biting sarcasms went
beyond all bounds. Wolsey and Longland knew how to employ these
expressions in arousing the king's anger. "As one of these fellows,"
they said, "was busy beating out his corn in his barn, a man chanced
to pass by. 'Good morrow, neighbour,' (said the latter), 'you are hard
at it!'--'Yes,' replied the old heretic, thinking of transubstantiation,
'I am thrashing the corn out of which the priests make God Almighty.'"
[433] Henry hesitated no longer.
[433] I thresh God Almighty out of the straw. Ibid. p. 222.
[Sidenote: THE BISHOP'S TRIBUNAL.]
On the 20th October 1521, nine days after the bull on the _Defender of
the Faith_ had been signed at Rome, the king, who was at Windsor,
summoned his secretary, and dictated an order commanding all his
subjects to assist the bishop of Lincoln against the heretics. "You
will obey it at the peril of your lives," added he. The order was
transmitted to Longland, and the bishop immediately issued his
warrants, and his officers spread terror far and wide. When they
beheld them, these peaceful but timid Christians were troubled.
Isabella Bartlet, hearing them approach her cottage, screamed out to
her husband: "You are a lost man! and I am a dead woman!"[434] This
cry was re-echoed from all the cottages of Lincolnshire. The bishop,
on his judgment-seat, skilfully played upon these poor unhappy beings
to make them accuse one another. Alas! according to the ancient
prophecy: "the brother delivered up the brother to death." Robert
Bartlet deposed against his brother Richard and his own wife; Jane
Bernard accused her own father and Tredway his mother. It was not
until after the most cruel anguish that these poor creatures were
driven to such frightful extremities; but the bishop and death
terrified them: a small number alone remained firm. As regards
heroism, Wickliffe's Reformation brought but a feeble aid to the
Reformation of the sixteenth century; still, if it did not furnish
many heroes, it prepared the English people to love God's word above
all things. Of these humble people, some were condemned to do penance
in different monasteries; others to carry a faggot on their shoulders
thrice round the market-place, and then to stand some time exposed to
the jeers of the populace; others were fastened to a post while the
executioner branded them on the cheek with a red-hot iron. They also
had their martyrs. Wickliffe's revival had never been without them.
Four of these brethren were chosen to be put to death, and among them
the pious evangelical _colporteur_ Scrivener. By burning him to ashes,
the clergy desired to make sure that he would no longer circulate the
word of God; and by a horrible refinement of cruelty his children were
compelled to set fire to the pile that was to consume their
father.[435] They stretched forth their trembling hands, held in the
strong grasp of the executioners.... Poor children!... But it is
easier to burn the limbs of Christians than to quench the Spirit of
Heaven. These cruel fires could not destroy among the Lincolnshire
peasantry that love of the Bible which in all ages has been England's
strength, far more than the wisdom of her senators or the bravery of
her generals.
[434] Alas! now are you an undone man, and I but a dead woman. Foxe,
Acts, v, p. 224.
[435] Ibid. p. 245.
[Sidenote: WOLSEY LOSES THE TIARA.]
Having by these exploits gained indisputable claims to the tiara,
Wolsey turned his efforts towards Rome. Leo X, as we have seen, was
just dead (1522). The cardinal sent Pace to Rome, instructing him to
"Represent to the cardinals that by choosing a partizan of Charles or
Francis, they will incur the enmity of one or the other of these
princes, and that if they elect some feeble Italian priest, the
apostolical see must become the prey of the strongest. Luther's revolt
and the emperor's ambition endanger the papacy. There is only one
means of preventing the threatening dangers.... It is to choose me....
Now go and exert yourself."[436] The conclave opened at Rome on the
27th December, and Wolsey was proposed; but the cardinals were not
generally favourable to his election. "He is too young," said one;
"too firm," said another. "He will fix the seat of the papacy in
England and not in Rome," urged many. He did not receive twenty votes.
"The cardinals," wrote the English ambassador, "snarled and quarrelled
with each other; and their bad faith and hatred increased every day."
On the sixth day, only one dish was sent them; and then in despair
they chose Adrian, who had been tutor to the emperor, and the cry was
raised: _Papam habemus!_
[436] The sole way ... was to chuse him. Herbert, p. 110.
During all this time Wolsey was in London, consumed by ambition, and
counting the days and hours. At length a despatch from Ghent, dated
the 22nd January, reached him with these words: "On the 9th of
January, the cardinal of Tortosa was elected!"... Wolsey was almost
distracted. To gain Charles, he had sacrificed the alliance of Francis
I; there was no stratagem that he had not employed, and yet Charles,
in spite of his engagements, had procured the election of his
tutor!... The emperor knew what must be the cardinal's anger, and
endeavoured to appease it: "The new pope," he wrote, "is old and
sickly;[437] he cannot hold his office long.... Beg the cardinal of
York for my sake to _take great care of his health_."
[437] The new elect is both old, sickly ... so that he shall not have
the office long. Cotton MSS. Galba, B. vii, p. 6.
Charles did more than this: he visited London in person, under
pretence of his betrothal with Mary of England, and, in the treaty
then drawn up, he consented to the insertion of an article by virtue
of which Henry VIII and the mighty emperor, bound themselves, if
either should infringe the treaty, to appear before Wolsey and to
submit to his decisions.[438] The cardinal, gratified by such
condescension, grew calm; and at the same time he was soothed with the
most flattering hopes. "Charles's imbecile preceptor," they told him,
"has arrived at the Vatican, attended only by his female cook; you
shall soon make your entrance there surrounded by all your grandeur."
To be certain of his game, Wolsey made secret approaches to Francis I,
and then waited for the death of the pope.[439]
[438] Both princes appearing before the cardinal of York as judge.
Art. xiii, Herbert, p. 118.
[439] Mortem etiam Adriani expectat. Sanders, p. 8.
CHAPTER VIII.
Character of Tyndale--He arrives in London--He preaches--The
Cloth and the Ell--The bishop of London gives Audience to
Tyndale--He is dismissed--A Christian Merchant of
London--Spirit of Love in the Reformation--Tyndale in
Monmouth's House--Fryth helps him to translate the New
Testament--Importunities of the Bishop of
Lincoln--Persecution in London--Tyndale's Resolution--He
departs--His Indignation against the Prelates--His Hopes.
[Sidenote: CHARACTER OF TYNDALE.]
While the cardinal was intriguing to attain his selfish ends, Tyndale
was humbly carrying out the great idea of giving the Scriptures of God
to England.
[Sidenote: HE PREACHES SALVATION THROUGH CHRIST.]
After bidding a sad farewell to the manor-house of Sodbury, the
learned tutor had departed for London. This occurred about the end of
1522 or the beginning of 1523. He had left the university--he had
forsaken the house of his protector; his wandering career was about to
commence, but a thick veil hid from him all its sorrows. Tyndale, a
man simple in his habits, sober, daring, and generous, fearing neither
fatigue nor danger, inflexible in his duty, anointed with the Spirit
of God, overflowing with love for his brethren, emancipated from human
traditions, the servant of God alone, and loving nought but Jesus
Christ, imaginative, quick at repartee, and of touching
eloquence--such a man might have shone in the foremost ranks; but he
preferred a retired life in some poor corner, provided he could give
his countrymen the Scriptures of God. Where could he find this calm
retreat? was the question he put to himself as he was making his
solitary way to London. The metropolitan see was then filled by
Cuthbert Tonstall, who was more of a statesman and a scholar than of
a churchman, "the first of English men in Greek and Latin literature,"
said Erasmus. This eulogy of the learned Dutchman occurred to
Tyndale's memory.[440] It was the Greek Testament of Erasmus that led
me to Christ, said he to himself; why should not the house of
Erasmus's friend offer me a shelter that I may translate it.... At
last he reached London, and, a stranger in that crowded city, he
wandered along the streets, a prey by turns to hope and fear.
[440] As I thus thought, the bishop of London came to my remembrance.
Tyndale, Doctr. Tr. p. 395.
Being recommended by Sir John Walsh to Sir Harry Guildford, the king's
comptroller, and by him to several priests, Tyndale began to preach
almost immediately, especially at St. Dunstan's, and bore into the
heart of the capital the truth which had been banished from the banks
of the Severn. The _word_ of God was with him the basis of salvation,
and the _grace_ of God its essence. His inventive mind presented the
truths he proclaimed in a striking manner. He said on one
occasion:--"It is the blood of Christ that opens the gates of heaven,
and not thy works. I am wrong.... Yes, if thou wilt have it so, by thy
good works shalt thou be saved.--Yet, understand me well,--not by
those which thou has done, but by those which Christ has done for
thee. Christ is in thee and thou in him, knit together inseparably.
Thou canst not be damned, except Christ be damned with thee; neither
can Christ be saved except thou be saved with him."[441] This lucid
view of justification by faith places Tyndale among the reformers. He
did not take his seat on a bishop's throne, or wear a silken cope; but
he mounted the scaffold, and was clothed with a garment of flames. In
the service of a crucified Saviour this latter distinction is higher
than the former.
[441] Ibid. p. 79.
Yet the translation was his chief business; he spoke to his
acquaintances about it, and some of them opposed his project. "The
teachings of the doctors," said some of the city tradesmen, "can alone
make us understand Scripture." "That is to say," replied Tyndale, "I
must measure the _yard_ by the _cloth_.[442] Look here," continued he,
using a practical argument, "here are in your shop twenty pieces of
stuff of different lengths.... Do you measure the yard by these
pieces, or the pieces by the yard?... The universal standard is
Scripture." This comparison was easily fixed in the minds of the petty
tradesmen of the capital.
[442] Ibid. p. 153.
[Sidenote: IS RECOMMENDED TO TONSTALL.]
Desirous of carrying out his project, Tyndale aspired to become the
bishop's chaplain;[443] his ambition was more modest than Wolsey's.
The hellenist possessed qualities which could not fail to please the
most learned of Englishmen in Greek literature: Tonstall and Tyndale
both liked and read the same authors. The ex-tutor determined to plead
his cause through the elegant and harmonious disciple of Radicus and
Gorgias: "Here is one of Isocrates' orations that I have translated
into Latin," said he to Sir Harry Guildford; "I should be pleased to
become chaplain to his lordship the bishop of London; will you beg him
to accept this trifle. Isocrates ought to be an excellent
recommendation to a scholar; will you be good enough to add yours."
Guildford spoke to the bishop, placed the translation in his hands,
and Tonstall replied with that benevolence which he showed to every
one. "Your business is in a fair way," said the comptroller to
Tyndale; "write a letter to his lordship, and deliver it
yourself."[444]
[443] He laboured to be his chaplain. Foxe, Acts, iv. p. 617.
[444] He willed me to write an epistle to my lord, and to go to him
myself. Ibid.
Tyndale's hopes now began to be realized. He wrote his letter in the
best style, and then, commending himself to God, proceeded to the
episcopal palace. He fortunately knew one of the bishop's officers,
William Hebilthwayte, to whom he gave the letter. Hebilthwayte carried
it to his lordship, while Tyndale waited. His heart throbbed with
anxiety: shall he find at last the long hoped for asylum? The bishop's
answer might decide the whole course of his life. If the door is
opened,--if the translator of the Scriptures should be settled in the
episcopal palace, why should not his London patron receive the truth
like his patron at Sodbury? and, in that case, what a future for the
church and for the kingdom!... The Reformation was knocking at the
door of the hierarchy of England, and the latter was about to utter
its yea or its nay. After a few moments' absence Hebilthwayte
returned: "I am going to conduct you to his lordship." Tyndale fancied
himself that he had attained his wishes.
[Sidenote: THE BISHOP'S REPLY.]
The bishop was too kind-hearted to refuse an audience to a man who
called upon him with the triple recommendation of Isocrates, of the
comptroller, and of the king's old companion in arms. He received
Tyndale with kindness, a little tempered however with coldness, as if
he were a man whose acquaintanceship might compromise him. Tyndale
having made known his wishes, the bishop hastened to reply: "Alas! my
house is full.[445] I have now more people than I can employ." Tyndale
was discomfited by this answer. The bishop of London was a learned
man, but wanting in courage and consistency; he gave his right hand to
the friends of letters and of the Gospel, and his left hand to the
friends of the priests; and then endeavoured to walk with both. But
when he had to choose between the two parties, clerical interests
prevailed. There was no lack of bishops, priests, and laymen about
him, who intimidated him by their clamours. After taking a few steps
forward, he suddenly recoiled. Still Tyndale ventured to hazard a
word; but the prelate was cold as before. The humanists, who laughed
at the ignorance of the monks, hesitated to touch an ecclesiastical
system which lavished on them such rich sinecures. They accepted the
new ideas in theory, but not in practice. They were very willing to
discuss them at table, but not to proclaim them from the pulpit; and
covering the Greek Testament with applause, they tore it in pieces
when rendered into the vulgar tongue. "If you will look well about
London," said Tonstall coldly to the poor priest; "you will not fail
to meet with some suitable employment." This was all Tyndale could
obtain. Hebilthwayte waited on him to the door, and the hellenist
departed sad and desponding.
[445] My lord answered me, his home was full. Tyndale, Doctr. Tr. p.
395.
His expectations were disappointed. Driven from the banks of the
Severn, without a home in the capital, what would become of the
translation of the Scriptures? "Alas!" he said; "I was deceived
...[446] there is nothing to be looked for from the bishops.... Christ
was smitten on the cheek before the bishop, Paul was buffeted before
the bishop[447] ... and a bishop has just turned me away." His
dejection did not last long: there was an elastic principle in his
soul. "I hunger for the word of God," said he, "I will translate it,
whatever they may say or do. God will not suffer me to perish. He
never made a mouth but he made food for it, nor a body, but he made
raiment also."[448]
[446] I was beguiled. Tyndale, Doctr. Tr. p. 395.
[447] Expositions, p. 59.
[448] Tynd. and Fryth's Works, ii, p. 349.
[Sidenote: THE LONDON MERCHANT.]
This trustfulness was not misplaced. It was the privilege of a layman
to give what the bishop refused. Among Tyndale's hearers at St.
Dunstan's was a rich merchant named Humphrey Monmouth, who had visited
Rome, and to whom (as well as to his companions) the pope had been so
kind as to give certain Roman curiosities, such as indulgences, _a
culpâ et a pœnâ_. Ships laden with his manufactures every year quitted
London for foreign countries. He had formerly attended Colet's
preaching at St. Paul's, and from the year 1515 he had known the word
of God.[449] He was one of the gentlest and most obliging men in
England; he kept open house for the friends of learning and of the
Gospel, and his library contained the newest publications. In putting
on Jesus Christ, Monmouth had particularly striven to put on his
character; he helped generously with his purse both priests and men of
letters; he gave forty pounds sterling to the chaplain of the bishop
of London, the same to the king's, to the provincial of the
Augustines, and to others besides. Latimer, who sometimes dined with
him, once related in the pulpit an anecdote characteristic of the
friends of the Reformation in England. Among the regular guests at
Monmouth's table was one of his poorest neighbours, a zealous
Romanist, to whom his generous host often used to lend money. One day
when the pious merchant was extolling Scripture and blaming popery,
his neighbour turned pale, rose from the table, and left the room. "I
will never set foot in his house again," he said to his friends, "and
I will never borrow another shilling of him."[450] He next went to the
bishop and laid an information against his benefactor. Monmouth
forgave him, and tried to bring him back; but the neighbour constantly
turned out of his way. Once, however, they met in a street so narrow
that he could not escape. "I will pass by without looking at him,"
said the Romanist turning away his head. But Monmouth went straight to
him, took him by the hand, and said affectionately: "Neighbour, what
wrong have I done you?" and he continued to speak to him with so much
love, that the poor man fell on his knees, burst into tears, and
begged his forgiveness.[451] Such was the spirit which, at the very
outset, animated the work of the Reformation in England: it was
acceptable to God, and found favour with the people.
[449] The rich man began to be a Scripture man. Latimer's Sermons, p.
440 (Park. Soc.)
[450] Latimer's Works, i. p. 441. He would borrow no [more] money of
him.
[451] Ibid.
Monmouth being edified by Tyndale's sermons, inquired into his means
of living. "I have none,"[452] replied he, "but I hope to enter into
the bishop's service." This was before his visit to Tonstall. When
Tyndale saw all his hopes frustrated, he went to Monmouth and told him
everything. "Come and live with me," said the wealthy merchant, "and
there labour." God did to Tyndale according to his faith. Simple,
frugal, devoted to work, he studied night and day;[453] and wishing to
guard his mind against "being overcharged with surfeiting," he refused
the delicacies of his patron's table, and would take nothing but
sodden meat and small beer.[454] It would even seem that he carried
simplicity in dress almost too far.[455] By his conversation and his
works, he shed over the house of his patron the mild light of the
Christian virtues, and Monmouth loved him more and more every day.
[452] Foxe, Acts, iv, p. 617.
[453] Strype, Records, i. p. 664.
[454] Strype, Records, i. p. 664. He would eat but sodden meat and
drink but small single beer.
[455] He was never seen in that house to wear linen about him. Ibid.
[Sidenote: FRYTH JOINS TYNDALE.]
Tyndale was advancing in his work when John Fryth, the mathematician
of King's College, Cambridge, arrived in London. It is probable that
Tyndale, feeling the want of an associate, had invited him. United
like Luther and Melancthon, the two friends held many precious
conversations together. "I will consecrate my life wholly to the
church of Jesus Christ," said Fryth.[456] "To be a good man, you must
give great part of yourself to your parents, a greater part to your
country; but the greatest of all to the church of the Lord." "The
people should know the word of God,"[457] they said both. "The
interpretation of the gospel, without the intervention of councils or
popes, is sufficient to create a saving faith in the heart." They shut
themselves up in the little room in Monmouth's house, and translated
chapter after chapter from the Greek into plain English. The bishop of
London knew nothing of the work going on a few yards from him, and
everything was succeeding to Tyndale's wishes when it was interrupted
by an unforeseen circumstance.
[456] Tyndale and Fryth's Works, iii, p. 73, 74.
[457] That the poor people might also read and see the simple plain
word of God. Foxe, Acts, v, p. 118.
[Sidenote: LEARNING AND THE SCAFFOLD.]
Longland, the persecutor of the Lincolnshire Christians, did not
confine his activity within the limits of his diocese; he besieged the
king, the cardinal, and the queen with his cruel importunities, using
Wolsey's influence with Henry, and Henry's with Wolsey. "His majesty,"
he wrote to the cardinal, "shows in this holy dispute as much goodness
as zeal ... yet, be pleased to urge him to overthrow God's enemies."
And then turning to the king, the confessor said, to spur him on: "The
cardinal is about to fulminate the greater excommunication against all
who possess Luther's works or hold his opinions, and to make the
booksellers sign a bond before the magistrates, not to sell
_heretical_ books." "Wonderful!" replied Henry with a sneer, "they
will fear the magisterial bond, I think, more than the _clerical_
excommunication." And yet the consequences of the "clerical"
excommunication were to be very positive; whosoever persevered in his
offence was to be pursued by the law _ad ignem_, even to the
fire.[458] At last the confessor applied to the queen: "We cannot be
sure of restraining the press," he said to her. "These wretched books
come to us from Germany, France, and the Low Countries; and are even
printed in the very midst of us. Madam, we must train and prepare
skilful men, such as are able to discuss the controverted points, so
that the laity, struck on the one hand by well developed arguments,
and frightened by the fear of punishment on the other, may be kept in
obedience."[459] In the bishop's system, "fire" was to be the
complement of Roman learning. The essential idea of Jesuitism is
already visible in this conception of Henry the Eighth's confessor.
That system is the natural development of Romanism.
[458] Anderson's Annals of the Bible, i. p. 42.
[459] Anderson, Bible Annals, i. p. 42, 43. Herbert says (p. 147) "to
suspend the laity betwixt fear and controversies."
Tonstall, urged forward by Longland, and desirous of showing himself
as holy a churchman as he had once been a skilful statesman and
elegant scholar--Tonstall, the friend of Erasmus, began to persecute.
He would have feared to shed blood, like Longland; but there are
measures which torture the mind and not the body, and which the most
moderate men fear not to make use of. John Higgins, Henry Chambers,
Thomas Eaglestone, a priest named Edmund Spilman, and some other
Christians in London, used to meet and read portions of the Bible in
English, and even asserted publicly that "Luther had more learning in
his little finger than all the doctors in England."[460] The bishop
ordered these rebels to be arrested: he flattered and alarmed them,
threatening them with a cruel death (which he would hardly have
inflicted on them), and by these skilful practices reduced them to
silence.
[460] Foxe, Acts, v. p. 179.
Tyndale, who witnessed this persecution, feared lest the stake should
interrupt his labour. If those who read a few fragments of Scripture
are threatened with death, what will he not have to endure who is
translating the whole? His friends entreated him to withdraw from the
bishop's pursuit. "Alas!" he exclaimed, "is there then no place where
I can translate the Bible?... It is not the bishop's house alone that
is closed against me, but all England."[461]
[461] But also that there was no place to do it in all England. Tynd.
Doctr. Tr. 396.
[Sidenote: HIS INDIGNATION AGAINST THE PRELATES.]
He then made a great sacrifice. Since there is no place in his own
country where he can translate the word of God, he will go and seek
one among the nations of the continent. It is true the people are
unknown to him; he is without resources; perhaps persecution and even
death await him there.... It matters not! some time must elapse before
it is known what he is doing, and perhaps he will have been able to
translate the Bible. He turned his eyes towards Germany. "God does
not destine us to a quiet life here below," he said.[462] "If he calls
us to peace on the part of Jesus Christ, he calls us to war on the
part of the world."
[462] We be not called to a soft living. Tynd. Doct. Tr. 249.
There lay at that moment in the river Thames a vessel loading for
Hamburg. Monmouth gave Tyndale ten pounds sterling for his voyage, and
other friends contributed a like amount. He left the half of this sum
in the hands of his benefactor to provide for his future wants, and
prepared to quit London, where he had spent a year. Rejected by his
fellow-countrymen, persecuted by the clergy, and carrying with him
only his New Testament and his ten pounds, he went on board the ship,
shaking off the dust of his feet, according to his Master's precept,
and that dust fell back on the priests of England. He was indignant
(says the chronicler) against those coarse monks, covetous priests,
and pompous prelates,[463] who were waging an impious war against God.
"What a trade is that of the priests!" he said in one of his later
writings; "they want money for every thing: money for baptism, money
for churchings, for weddings, for buryings, for images, brotherhoods,
penances, soul-masses, bells, organs, chalices, copes, surplices,
ewers, censers, and all manner of ornaments. Poor sheep! The parson
shears, the vicar shaves, the parish priest polls, the friar scrapes,
the indulgence seller pares ... all that you want is a butcher to flay
you and take away your skin.[464] He will not leave you long. Why are
your prelates dressed in red? Because they are ready to shed the blood
of whomsoever seeketh the word of God.[465] Scourge of states,
devastators of kingdoms, the priests take away not only Holy
Scripture, but also prosperity and peace; but of their councils is no
layman; reigning over all, they obey nobody; and making all concur to
their own greatness, they conspire against every kingdom."[466]
[463] Marking especially the demeanour of the preachers, and beholding
the pomp of the prelates. Foxe, Acts, v. p. 118.
[464] Doct. Tr. p. 238. Obedience of a Chr. Man.
[465] Ibid. p. 251.
[466] Ibid. p. 191.
No kingdom was to be more familiar than England with the conspiracies
of the papacy of which Tyndale spoke; and yet none was to free itself
more irrevocably from the power of Rome.
Yet Tyndale was leaving the shores of his native land, and as he
turned his eyes towards the new countries, hope revived in his heart.
He was going to be free, and he would use his liberty to deliver the
word of God, so long held captive. "The priests," he said one day,
"when they had slain Christ, set poleaxes to keep him in his
sepulchre, that he should not rise again, even so have our priests
buried the testament of God, and all their study is to keep it down,
that it rise not again.[467] But the hour of the Lord is come, and
nothing can hinder the word of God, as nothing could hinder Jesus
Christ of old from issuing from the tomb." Indeed that poor man, then
sailing towards Germany, was to send back, even from the banks of the
Elbe, the eternal Gospel to his countrymen.
[467] Tyndale, Doct. Tr. p. 251.
CHAPTER IX.
Bilney at Cambridge--Conversions--The University
Cross-Bearer--A Leicestershire Farmer--A Party of
Students--Superstitious Practices--An obstinate Papist--The
Sophists--Latimer attacks Stafford--Bilney's
Resolution--Latimer hears Bilney's Confession--Confessor
converted--New Life in Latimer--Bilney preaches
Grace--Nature of the Ministry--Latimer's Character and
Teaching--Works of Charity--Three Classes of
Adversaries--Clark and Dalaber.
[Sidenote: BILNEY AT CAMBRIDGE.]