WILLIAM TINDALE
THE BIBLE TRANSLATOR
AND CHRISTIAN MARTYR.
EDITOR’S FOREWORD.
Important messages are often translated into
many languages to make sure that they can be understood by as many people as
possible. The Bible, which is the Word of
God, contains an important message.
Although recorded long ago, the truths found in the Bible “were written for our instruction” (Rom. 15: 4), to provide us with the knowledge of eternal
salvation through faith in our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ; and with the “hope” of ‘aionian’ (age-lasting) life (Titus 1: 2) to “inherit”
the “kingdom of God,” in the “Age” to
come, (Gal. 5: 21; Eph.
5: 5; Luke 20: 35; Rev. 3: 21; 20: 4,
&c.)
It stands to reason then, that the inspired Word
of God which was written initially in both the Hebrew and Greek languages, should be made available in many other
languages.
Throughout history, God has inspired men to
translate the Holy Scriptures into many languages; but, in Tindale’s day not
everyone relished the idea!*
Pope Gregory XI issued five edicts
condemning Wycliffe, but the
Translator replied: “Englishmen learn Christ’s law best in English. Moses heard God’s law in his own tongue, so
did Christ’s apostles.”
Wycliffe had translated from the Latin Vulgate and mainly copied
the Scriptures and numberless copies of Wycliff’s translation of the Bible were
made and widely circulated, and handed down.
[*NOTE. In some respects, conditions within
Christendom today are similar to those existing in Tindale’s day. Today we have bigoted and ignorant Bible
teachers, indoctrinated with what they have heard and been taught by man’s
wisdom in Bible colleges. Some of these
people, armed with worldly qualifications and false interpretations in
order to appear faithful to their various denominational parties, Bible
schools, and sects, are wilfully neglecting and avoiding the
exposition of certain texts (as those shown above); and are misleading God’s
redeemed people into a false sense of security relative the “Prize” (1 Cor. 9: 24); the “just
recompense of Reward,” the “out-Resurrection,” which Paul sought to “attain” (Phil. 3:
11); the Rapture of those
found watchful and “able to escape” before the Great Tribulation will
set in, (Luke 21: 36; Rev. 3: 10), and the millennial
“inheritance” upon this earth (Rev. 20: 4; Heb. 4: 11; Rom. 8: 19-22, etc.) for
those “considered worthy of taking part in that age” (Luke 20: 35) – i.e., the Messianic Kingdom which must soon appear. This common apostasy being witnessed today, is
continually being practised by wilful neglect of conditional
promises of God: and by numerous spiritual and allegorical interpretations of responsibility
truths they seek to appease those in their congregations, who “distort the truth” by being unwilling to listen to “the whole will (‘counsel’ R.V.) of God” –
i.e., “the Gospel of God’s grace” and “about preaching the kingdom:”
(Heb. 10: 26-30; 1 Tim. 2: 12; 1 Cor. 6: 9, 10;
“Keep in mind: Blessed
experiences of the past are no
guarantees for equal fullness of blessings in the present and future. A Christ of only ‘yesterday’ does not help
you, but the living Christ of ‘to-day’ always does. Our vision must not be directed only
backwards – however fundamental our former experiences may be – but upwards and forwards. ‘It is not the beginning but the end that crowns the
Christian’s pilgrimage.” – Erich Sauer.]
Within 200 years, the English used by Wycliffe
was virtually obsolete, and a young
preacher near
To stem the tide of Bible reading and Tindale’s
alleged heresy, the bishop of
Thomas More promoted the burning of “heretics,” which ultimate led to William Tindale
being strangled and his body burned at the stake in October 1536. Sir Thomas
More, for his part, was later beheaded after running foul of the king. However, he was canonized by the Roman
Catholic Church in 1935, and in the year 2000, Pope John Paul II honoured More as the patron
saint of politicians.
Tindale received no such recognition; but, on the
other hand, his friend Miles Coverdale integrated Tindale’s translation into a
complete Bible – the first English translation from the original
languages! Every ploughboy could now
read God’s Word, and seek the Holy
Spirit’s help in its true interpretation.
The ten selected extracts from the numbered
pages of the following biography by Robert
Demaus, M. A., will give some insight into the
man whom God greatly used to change the world for good, at a time when apostate and
carnal religious leaders of the Church were seeking to withhold and distort
Divine truths from multitudes of God’s redeemed people.
Next to the study of the Bible itself, Christians
today need to study the writings and the lives of those faithful servants of God
who emphasised the need of running the “Race,” according
to the rules, in order to win the “Prize:” (1 Cor. 9: 24; Heb. 12: 1.)
W.H.T.
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“I hold of the
souls that are departed as much as may be proved by manifest and open
Scripture, and think the souls departed in the faith of Christ and love of the
law of God, to be in no worse case than the soul of Christ was from the time
that He delivered His Spirit into the hands of His Father until the
resurrection of His body in glory and immortality.”
-
Tindale’s Rejoinder to Joye.
“I call God to recorde
against the day we shall appear before our Lord Jesus, to geue
a reckenyng of our doynges,
that I neuer
altered one syllable of God’s Word against my conscience, nor would this day,
if all that is in the earth, whether it be pleasure, honour, riches, might be geuen me.”
– Tindale’s Letter To Frith.
“I perceived by experience how that it was impossible to establish the lay
people in any truth, except the
Scripture were plainly laid before their eyes in their mother-tongue, that
they might see the process, order, and meaning
of the text.”
-
Tindale’s Preface to the Pentateuch, 1530.
“If God spare my life, ere many years I will cause a boy that driveth
the plough shall know more of the Scripture than thou doest”
- Foxe,
edition of 1563.
“Beware
of allegories; for there is not a
more handsome or apt thing to beguile withal than an allegory; nor a more
subtle and pestilent thing in the world to persuade a false matter, than an
allegory.”
- pp.287.
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[In William Tindale’s day],
“The study of the Holy Scripture did not even form a
part of the preparatory education of those who were destined to be the
religious teachers of the people; theological
summaries, compiled by scholastic doctors took the place of the Word of God; and St.
Paul was cast into the shade by their ‘doctor sanctus,’
the ‘angel of the schools,’ ‘divus Thomas de Aquino.’ As an inevitable result, religion had
degenerated into an unprofitable round of superstitious customs and ceremonial
observances.” (pp.32.)
“In the Universities
they have ordained that no man shall look at the Scripture until he be noselled [nursed or trained] on heathen learning eight or nine years, and armed with
false principles, with which he is clean
shut out of the understanding of the Scripture.
And at his first coming unto University, he is sworn that he shall not
defame the University, whatsoever he seeth.
And when he taketh first degree,
he is sworn that he shall hold none opinions condemned by the Church; but with
such opinions be, that he shall not know.
And then, when they be admitted to study divinity, because the Scripture is locked up with such false expositions, and
with false principles of natural philosophy, that they cannot enter in, they go
about the outside, and dispute all their lives about words and vain opinions,
pertaining as much unto the healing of a man’s heel, as health of his soul:
provided yet always, lest God give His singular grace unto any person, that
none may preach except he be admitted of the Bishops.”* (pp. 45, 46.)
[* “Practice of Prelates: Works, vol. ii. P. 291.]
It was under the influence of these reflections
- (i.e., that the Holy Scriptures, and the
meaning of the passages which occurred in the services of the Church should be obscured by whimsical,
allegorical interpretations) – that
Tyndale: “perceived by experience how that it was impossible
to establish the lay people in any such truth, except the Scripture were
plainly laid before their eyes in their mother-tongue, that they might see the
process, order, and meaning of the text; for else, whatsoever truth is taught
them, these enemies of all truth quench
it again … [by] juggling with the
text, expounding it in such a sense as it is impossible to gather of the text,
if thou see the process, order, and meaning thereof.” (pp. 84.)
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1. TINDALE’S
ATTACK ON ALLEGORICAL INTERPRETATION
The most noteworthy feature in them [the five books of Moses] is
the admirable good sense with which he insists upon the necessity of adhering
to the literal meaning of Scripture, and eschewing all manner of allegorical
interpretations. This was the
characteristic of his prefaces which would make the deepest impression upon his
contemporaries; for all true interpretations of Scripture had been lost, and
the expositor perplexed his readers with whimsical allegorical conundrums. No greater service, therefore, could be
rendered to sound theology than by thus recalling men to the only true system
of exposition; and independently, therefore, of his pre-eminent merits as a translator,
Tindale is entitled to be reverenced by all Englishmen, as the founder of all
rational Scriptural interpretation in
[* The whole Preface is well worth reading: I do
not know any better exposition of the true meaning and purpose of the
ceremonies of the Jewish economy.]
“Because that few know
and use the Old Testament, and the most part think it nothing necessary but to
make allegories, which they feign every man after his own brain at all wild
adventure, without any certain rule; therefore, though I have spoken of them in
another place [in The Obedience], yet, lest the book come not to all men’s hands that shall
read this, I will speak of them here also a word or twain.
“We had need to take
heed everywhere that we be not beguiled with false allegories, whether they be
drawn out of the New Testament or the Old, either out of any other story, or of
the creatures of the world, but namely [especially] in this book [the
Pentateuch].
Here a man had need to put on all his spectacles, and to arm himself
against invisible spirits.
“First, allegories
prove nothing; and by allegories understand examples or similitudes borrowed of
strange matters, and of another thing than that thou entreatest of. As, though circumcision be
a figure of baptism, yet thou canst not prove baptism by circumcision. For this argument were very
feeble, The Israelites were circumcised, therefore we must be baptized. And in like manner, though the offering of
Isaac were a figure or ensample of the resurrection, yet is this argument
naught, Abraham would have offered Isaac, but God delivered him from death; therefore
we shall rise again: and so forth in all other.
“But the very use of
allegories is to declare [illustrate] and open
a text, that it may be the better perceived and understood. As, when I have a clear text of Christ and
the apostles, that I must be baptized, then I may borrow an example of
circumcision to express the nature, power, and fruit, or effect of
baptism. For as circumcision was unto
them a common badge, signifying that they were all soldiers of God, to war His
war, and separating them from all other nations disobedient unto God; even so
baptism is our common badge, and sure earnest, and perpetual memorial, that we
pertain unto Christ, and are separated from all that are not Christ’s. And as circumcision was a token certifying
them that they were received unto the favour of God, and their sins forgiven
them; even so baptism certifieth us that we were washed in the blood of Christ,
and received to favour for His sake: and as circumcision signified unto them
the cutting away of their own lusts, and slaying of their free-will, as they
call it, to follow the will of God; even so baptism signifieth unto us
repentance, and the mortifying of our unruly members and body of sin, to walk
in a new life, and so forth.
“And likewise, though
that the saving of Noe, and of them that were with
him in the ship, through water, is a figure, that is to say, an example and
likeness of baptism, as Peter maketh it (1
Pet. 3), yet I cannot prove baptism therewith,
save describe it only. For as the ship
saved them in the water through faith, in that they believed God, and as the
other that would not believe Noe perished; even so
baptism saveth us through the word of faith which it preacheth, when all the
world of the unbelieving perish. And
Paul (1 Cor. 10) maketh the sea and the cloud a figure of baptism; by
which, and a thousand more, I might declare it, but not prove it. Paul also in the said place maketh the rock,
out of which Moses brought water unto the children of Israel, a figure or
ensample of Christ; not to prove Christ only; even as Christ Himself (John 3) borroweth a
similitude or figure of the brazen serpent, to lead Nicodemus from his earthly
imagination into the spiritual understanding of Christ, saying: ‘As Moses lifted up a serpent in the wilderness, so must the
Son of man be lifted up, that none that believe in Him perish, but have
everlasting life.’ By which similitude the virtue of Christ’s
death is better described than thou couldst declare it with a thousand
words. For as those murmurers against
God, as soon as they repented, were healed of their deadly wounds, through
looking on the brazen serpent only, without medicine or any other help, yea,
and without any other reason but that God hath said it should be so; and not to murmur again, but to leave their
murmuring: even so all that repent, and believe in Christ, are saved from
everlasting death, of pure grace, without, and before, their good works; and
not to sin again, but to fight against sin, and henceforth to sin no more.
“Even so with the
ceremonies of this book thou canst prove nothing, save describe and declare
only the putting away of our sins through the death of Christ. For Christ is Aaron,
and Aaron’s sons, and all that offer the sacrifice to purge sin. And Christ is all manner offering that is
offered: He is the ox, the sheep, the goat, the kid, and the lamb; He is the
goat that carried all the sin of the people away into the wilderness: for as
they purged the people from their worldly uncleannesses through blood of the
sacrifices, even so doth Christ purge us from the uncleannesses of everlasting
death with His own blood; and as their worldly sins could no otherwise be
purged, than by blood of sacrifices, even so can our sins be no otherwise
forgiven than through the blood of Christ.
All the deeds in the world, save the blood of Christ, can purchase no
forgiveness of sins; for our deeds do not help our neighbour, and mortify the
flesh, and help that we sin no more: but and if we have sinned, it must be
freely forgiven through the blood of Christ, or remain for ever.
“And in like manner of
the lepers thou canst prove nothing: thou canst never conjure out confession
thence, howbeit thou hast an handsome example there to open the binding and
loosing of our priests with the key of God’s Word; for as they made no man a
leper, even so ours have no power to command any man to be in sin, or to go to
purgatory or hell. And therefore
(inasmuch as and loosing is one power), as those priests healed no man; even so
ours cannot of their invisible and dumb power drive any man’s sins away, or
deliver him from hell or feigned purgatory.
Howbeit if they preached God’s Word purely, which is the authority that
Christ gave them, then they should bind and loose, kill and make alive again,
make unclean and clean again, and send to hell and fetch thence again; so
mighty is God’s Word. For if they
preached the law of God binding, they should bind the consciences of sinners
with the bonds of the pains of Hell, and bring them unto repentance: and then
if they preached unto them the mercy that is in Christ, they should loose them
and quiet their raging consciences, and certify them of the favour of God, and
that their sins be forgiven.
“Finally, beware of
allegories; for there is not a more handsome or apt thing to beguile withal
than an allegory; nor a more subtle and pestilent thing in the world to
persuade a false matter, than an allegory.
And contrariwise; there is not a better, vehementer or mightier thing to
make a man understand withal, than an allegory.
For allegories make a man quick-witted, and print [imprint] wisdom in
him, and make it to abide, where bare words go but in at one ear, and out at
the other. As this, with such like
sayings: ‘Put salt to all your sacrifices,’ instead of this sentence, ‘Do all your deeds with discretion,’
greeteth and biteth (if it be understood) more than plain words. And when I say, instead of these words, ‘Boast not yourself of your good deeds,’ ‘Eat not the blood not the
fat of your sacrifice’; there is a great
difference between them as there is distance between heaven and earth. For the life and beauty of all good deeds is
of God, and we are but the carrion-lean; we are only the instrument whereby God
worketh only, but the power is His: as God created Paul anew, poured His wisdom
into him, gave him might, and promised him that His grace should never fail
him, &c., and all without deservings, except that murdering the saints, and
making them curse and rail on Christ, be meritorious. Now, as it is death
to eat the blood or fat of any sacrifice, is it not (think ye) damnable to rob
God of His honour, and to glorify myself with His honour?”
Those best acquainted with the theology of the
English Reformation will be the first to admit that we shall look in vain in Cranmer, Latimer, or Ridley for any such clearness of apprehension and precision of
language as are here displayed by Tindale.
Sometimes, indeed, his language is not only precise but exquisitely
beautiful, and worthy of that master of English eloquence to whom we owe our
New Testament. Would not the reader, for
example, be inclined to believe that the following sentence from Tindale’s Preface to Exodus was
one of the gems of Jeremy Taylor? “The ceremonies were not permitted only, but also commanded
by God; to lead the people in the shadows of Moses and night of the Old
Testament; until the light of Christ and day of the New Testament were
come.”
The New Testament had been issued with an
Epistle desiring the “learned to amend it aught were
found amiss”: but those who had condemned the work as full of errors had taken no steps to provide the only
proper remedy – a translation free from errors. The prelates, “those
stubborn Nimrods which so mightily fight against God,” instead of
amending whatever needed correction, had, as Tindale indignantly protests,
stirred up the civil authorities “to torment such as tell the truth, and to burn the
Word of their soul’s health, and slay whatsoever believe thereon.” In spite of their fierce declamations,
however, he declined to be provoked into any dogmatic assertion of his own
immunity from error in that work to which he had devoted his own best industry
and learning. He had done his best; but
if he had erred through lack of knowledge he was willing to be guided by those
whose scholarship was greater than his own.
He was willing that himself, and even his work, should perish, if by any
other means the cause of God could be more successfully promoted. “I submit this book,”
such is the conclusion of his General Preface, “and
all other that I have either made or translated, or shall in time to come, if
it be God’s will that I shall further labour in His harvest, unto all them that
submit themselves unto the Word of God, to be corrected of them; yea, and
moreover to be disallowed and also burnt, if it seem worthy, when they have
examined it with the Hebrew, so [provided] that they first put forth their own
translating another that is more correct.” (pp. 282-289
* *
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* *
Tindale fled to the city of
To stem the tide of Bible reading and Tindale’s
alleged heresy, the bishop of
Tyndale had not sought a controversy with this
champion of the Church; but Sir Thomas More’s book
left him no alternative. He had been
singled out by name on the very title-page of The Dialogue and had been
virtually challenged to the combat; and he had no choice except to take up the
gauntlet thus thrown down, or to acknowledge by his silence that he was unable
to defend the position which the Reformers in
Tindale with a single stroke cuts all the
intricacies of this Gordian knot; he appeals to every man, in the use of that
judgment which God hath given him, to
decide whether fact and experience confirmed what theory and assumption boasted
of demonstrating.
Whatever was gained in the controversy was
gained by Tindale. As the translator of
the New Testament, the author of The Mammon and The Obedience, he already
exercised a considerable influence over public opinion in
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2.
CONTROVERSY WITH SIR THOMAS MORE
More’s chief resentment was
directed against Tindale’s New Testament; he declares that it was “corrupted and changed from the good and wholesome doctrine
of Christ to devilish heresies of his own,” it was “clean contrary to the Gospel of Christ”; “above a thousand texts in it were wrong and falsely
translated”; it was incurably bad and could only be amended by
translating it all afresh, for, as he wittingly remarked, “it is as easy to weave a new web of cloth as to sow up every
hole in a net*.” When pressed by quod he to give a more specific answer, Sir
Thomas adduces as unpardonable heresies the substitution of congregation
for church,
seniors
for priests, love for charity, favour
for grace,
knowledge
for confession,
repentance
for penance,
troubled
for contrite; in fact, he alleged that Tindale had, in general,
neglected the use of those words which long custom had sanctioned as being
appropriately ecclesiastical, and had adopted others which had no peculiar
association with theology.
[* Dialogue, B. iii. C. viii]
To this charge Tindale’s answer was easy and
obvious; not only was he rendering in accordance with the strict signification
of the original, but the terms which he
had avoided were depraved by so many abuses that their use could only mislead
the unwary reader. The Church
had come to be synonymous with the clergy, “the
multitude of shaven, shorn, and oiled”; the priests had almost been
confounded with the old heathen priests, their real origin and their real
purpose having almost dropped out of sight; charity had ceased to be
the name of an inward, Divine grace, and denoted the only certain outward
ostentatious deeds sanctioned by the ecclesiastics; confession, penance,
grace,
contrition
were “the great juggling words wherewith, as St. Peter
prophesied, the clergy made merchandise
of the people.” In such circumstances, to continue to
employ terms which could only convey erroneous ideas to the mind of the
ignorant reader, would be to perpetuate error, which had sprung up in defiance
of ignorance of Scripture. All such
technical language, therefore, Tindale avoided, and employed instead plain
words which had not yet been introduced into the nomenclature of the Church,
and were free from any misleading ecclesiastical associations*. The subsequent revisions of the English Bible
have not in all cases followed Tindale’s views; but circumstances have altered
since his time, and there is no longer any serious apprehension of
countenancing error or superstition by the use of terms which have been so long
isolated from their former associations.
And yet it may be doubted whether even among ourselves the proper
conception of the noblest of Christian graces has not been materially lowered
and injured by styling it charity, as Sir Thomas More
recommended, and not love, as our translator originally
rendered it.
[* Sir Thomas More justly objected to seniors,
that it only called up incongruous French associations; Tindale admits his
objection, and had already, he says, substituted it fot
the genuine English elders. (pp.319-320.)] …
Tindale does not, like More, make any systematic
attempt at employing wit an auxiliary to his argument; but he had a shrewd
humour of his own, and when he does condescend to play the satire, his retorts
are occasionally very happy. Thus, in
criticizing Sir Thomas’s elaborate distinctions concerning the amount of
reverence implied in doulia, hyperdoulia,
and latria,
he asks with exquisite irony, to which of these varieties of reverence should
be referred “the worship done by More and others to my
lord the cardinal’s hat”; alluding, of course, to the ridiculous scene
which he has described in his Practice of Prelates. He shows considerable wit also in the manner
in which he twists More, a man who “was bigamus and past the grace of his neck-verse,”
with coming forward in the strange character of the champion of the celibacy of
the clergy.
There is nothing finer in More’s
Dialogue
than the ironical comments of Tindale
upon Sir Thomas’s fundamental position, that the Church could not err in its
judgments; “whatsoever, therefore, the Church,
that is to wit, the pope and his brood say, it is God’s Word; though it be not
written, nor confirmed with miracle, nor yet good living; yea, and though they
say to-day this, and to-morrow the contrary, all is good enough and God’s Word;
yea, and though one pope condemn another, nine or ten popes a-row with all
their works for heretics, as it is to see in the stories, yet all is right and
none error. And thus good night and good
rest! Christ is brought asleep, and laid
in His grave, and the door sealed to, and the men of arms about the grave to
keep Him down with pole-axes. For that
is the surest argument to help that need, and to be rid of these babbling
heretics, that no bark at the holy spirituality with Scripture, being thereto [besides] wretches of no reputation, neither cardinals nor bishops,
nor yet great beneficed men; yea, and without totquots
and pluralities, having no hold but the very Scripture, whereunto they cleave as
burs, so fast that they cannot be pulled away, save with very singeing of them
off!*”
[* Tindale’s Answer to
More, p. 102.]
His answer to Sir Thomas’s violent peroration is
equally cogent in its argument and its sarcasm.
“Look on Tyndale,” said More, “how in his wicked book of Mammonis,
and after in his malicious book of Obedience, he showed himself so
puffed up with the poison of pride, malice, and envy that it is more than
marvel that the skin can hold together. … He barketh
against the Sacraments much more than Luther. … He knoweth that all the fathers teach
that there is a fire of purgatory, which I marvel why he feareth
so little, but if he be at a plain point with himself to go straight to hell*.”[* More’s Dialogue, p. 283; edition of 1557.] To this most bitter passage in the Dialogue,
Tindale replies with calm sarcasm: “He intendeth to purge here unto the uttermost of his power;
and hopeth that death will end and finish his
purgation. And if there be any other
purging, he will commit it to God, and take it as he findeth it, when he cometh
at it; and in the meantime take no thought thereof, but for this that is
present, wherewith all saints were purged, and were taught so to be. And Tyndale marvelleth
what secret pills they take to purge themselves, which not only will not purge here with the cross of Christ, but also
buy out their purgatory there of the pope, for a groat
or a sixpence*.”
[* Tindale’s Answer to
More, p. 214.]
If More’s Dialogue
left Tindale no choice but to attempt a reply or acknowledge himself
vanquished, Tindale’s Answer placed More
precisely in the same predicament.
Tindale had shown himself not unworthy to enter the arena with the
greatest genius in England; he had defended with unquestionable ability the
opinions of the Reformers; he had restated with the most cogent clearness the
objections which More had evaded in his Dialogue; he had roughly and
effectually silenced many of the arguments of his antagonist; and, beyond a doubt,
he remained in several points of importance master of the field. (pp.326-328.) …
The chancel wall of Old Chelsea Church is still
adorned with the handsome marble monument which Sir Thomas More had, in his
lifetime, erected for himself; over it, as if in triumphant superiority, there
was placed about 1820, by some churchwarden ignorant probably of all this
history, the memorial tablet of one of the Tindale family. Could the most ingenious sculptor have
devised a plainer or more significant allegorical record of the controversy?
(pp. 334.)
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3.
TINDALE’S EXPOSITION OF 1 JOHN
The exposition of
In a single sentence, he lays down with
admirable succinctness the whole scope and purport of the Reformation which he
advocated: “We
restore the Scripture unto her right understanding [meaning] from your glosses, and we deliver the
sacraments and ceremonies unto their right use from your abuse.”
Sir Thomas More did not, of course, omit, in his
Confutation,
to censure Tindale’s Exposition, which he declares to have been “in such wise expounded that I dare say that blessed apostle
[John], rather than his holy words were in such a
sense believed of all Christian people, had lever [rather] his epistle had never been put in writing.” And Tindale had, in truth, given fresh
provocation to his old adversary by repeating once more, in the most offensive
manner, the imputation against his honesty, which he had already advanced in
his Answer. “Love not the world.”
The apostle said, “nor the things that are in the
world: if a man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him”;
Tindale, in his Exposition, thus comments upon these words of
“The love of the world quencheth
the love of God; Balaam, for the love of the world, closed his eyes at the
clear light which he well saw. For love
of the world the old Pharisees blasphemed the Holy Ghost, and persecuteth the
manifest truth, which they could not improve [disprove]. For love of the world many are this day
fallen away; and many which stood on the truth’s side, and defended it
awhile, for love of the world have
gotten them unto the contrary part, and are become the Antichrist of Rome’s Mamelukes, and are waxen the most wicked enemies unto the
truth and most cruel against it. They know the truth, but they love the
world: and when they espied that the truth could not stand with the honours
which they sought in the world, they hated it deadly, and both wittingly and willingly
persecuted it, sinning against the Holy Ghost: which sin shall not escape here
just unpunished; as it shall not be without damnation in the world to come; but
shall have an end here with confusion and shame, as had Judas Iscariot, the
traitor.
“And if pride,
covetousness, and lechery be the world, as St. John saith, ‘all that is in the world, as the lust of the flesh, the lust
of the eyes, and the pride of good, are not of the Father, but of the world,’ then turn your eyes unto the spirituality, unto the Roman
bishop, cardinals, bishops, abbots, and all other prelates, and see whether
such dignities be not of the world, and not whether the way to them be not also
of the world! To get the old abbot’s
treasure, I think it be the readiest way to be the new. How few come by promotion except they buy it,
or serve long for it, or both? To lusts,
and to be a good ambassador, is the only way to a bishopric; or to pay truly
for it. See whether pluralities, unions [holding
of many benefices], tot quots,
and changing the less benefice and bishopric for the greater (for the contrary
change, I trow, was never seen), may be without
covetousness and pride. And then, if
such things be the world, and the world not of God, how is our spirituality of
God? If pride be
seeking glory, and they that seek glory cannot believe, how can our
spirituality believe in Christ? If
covetousness turn men from the faith, how are our
spirituality in the faith? If Christ,
when the devil proffered Him the kingdoms of the world and the glory thereof,
refused them, as things impossible to stand with His kingdom, which is not of
the world; of whom are our spirituality, which have received them? If covetousness be a traitor, and taught
Judas to sell his Master, how should he not in so long time teach our
spirituality the same craft? … The rich persecute the true believers. The rich will never stand forth openly for
the Word of God. If of ten thousand
spring one Nicodemus, it is a great thing.”
All the other topics which Tindale had so often
treated in his former works are again introduced, and discussed, if not with
any fresh arguments, at least with unabated earnestness. A single specimen will show that his hand had
lost none of its cunning:-
“To speak of
worshipping the saints, and praying unto them, and of that we make them our
advocates well nigh above Christ, or altogether [above Christ], though it require a long disputation, yet it is as bright
as the day to all that know the truth; how that our fasting of their evens, and
keeping their holy days, going bare-foot, sticking up of candles in the bright
day, in the worshipping of them, to obtain their favour, our giving them so
costly jewels, offering into their boxes, clothing their images, shoeing them
with silver shoes with an ouch of crystal in the midst, to stroke the lips and
eyes of the ignorant, as a man would stroke young children’s heads to entice
them in, and rock them asleep in ignorance, are, with all like service, plain
idolatry, that is, in English, image-service. … And this is it that Paul calleth servire elementis mundi [to serve the elements of the world], to be in captivity under dumb ceremonies and vain
traditions of men’s doctrine, and to do the work for the work itself; as though
God delighted therein, for the deed itself, without all other respect [without
regard to anything else].
“But and [if] ye will know the true worshipping of saints, hearken unto
Paul, where he saith, ‘Ye shine as lights in the world, holding fast the word of life
unto my glory (or worship), against the day of Jesus Christ, that I have not
run nor laboured in vain.’ That is to wete,
the worship which all true saints now seek, and the worship that all the true
messengers of God seek this day, or ever shall seek, is to draw all to Christ with
preaching the true Word of God, and with the ensample of pure living fashioned
thereafter. Will ye therefore worship
saints truly? Then as what they
preached, and believe their doctrine; and as they followed that doctrine, so
conform your living like unto theirs; and that shall be unto their high worship
in the coming again of Christ (when all men’s deeds shall appear, and every man
shall be judged, and receive his reward, according to his deeds), how that they
not only, while they here lived, but also after their death, with the ensample
of that doctrine and living, left behind in writing and other memorials, [served?] unto the ensample of them that should follow them unto
Christ, that were born five hundred, yea, a thousand years after their death. This was their worship in the spirit at the
beginning … that we followed their ensamples in our deeds; as Christ
saith, ‘Let your light so shine before men that
they may see your good works, and glorify your Father that is in heaven.’ For preaching of the
doctrine, which is the light, hath but small effect to move the heart, if the
ensample of living do disagree.
“And that we worship
saints for fear, lest they should be displeased and angry with us, and plague
us or hurt us (as who is not afraid of St. Laurence? who
dare deny St. Anthony a fleece of wool, for fear of his terrible fire, or lest
he send the pox among our sheep?), is heathen image-service, and clean against
the first commandment, which is, ‘
* *
* * *
* *
3. JOYE’S
ATTACK ON TINDALE
The great work of the year in 1534, however, was
the entire revision of his New Testament, and the issue of a second edition,
which has been, not inappropriately, styled “Tindale’s
noblest monument.” Since the
first printing of the work at
The history of the English Bible between the
years 1526 and 1534 is still so badly ascertained that it cannot be given in
detail; but on the whole we may accept, as probably coming near to the truth,
the abstract given by one who has already been several times mentioned, and who
will occupy a promised place in this chapter – George Joye.
“Thou shalt know that
Tindale, about eight or nine years ago [Joye
is writing in December, 1534, of January, 1535],
translated and printed the New Testament in a mean great volume [he
means the octavo at
[* Joye, who left England in December, 1527, had
remained at Strasburg till about 1532, and therefore could only know some of
those facts from hearsay; it seems strange, however, that he had never heard of
the Colongne quarto, which had Concordances.
**Joye,
Apology, Arber’s Reprint, pp. 20-22]
In short, Joye, at the urgent request of the
printer, who was the widow of Christopher of Endhoven,
undertook to correct the press for the extremely moderate remuneration of fourpence-halfpenny sterling for every sheet of sixteen
leaves. It is probable, it is in fact
certain, that Joye omitted, through ignorance, some of the early surreptitious
reprints of Tindale’s New Testament; but from his statement it is evident that
besides Tindale’s own editions, four others had been issued previous to that
which Tindale himself revised in November, 1534. Unfortunately, these surreptitious editions
have not been identified*; but we are probably not exaggerating when we suppose
that on the average, every year since its first issue, a new edition had been
printed and circulated in England. And
it must be remembered that these editions were all reprints of the octavo of
[* They are scattered about, if they exist at
all, in cathedral libraries and other collections not easy of access. In such places, books of this kind are
practically lost (some of them have in fact disappeared); and it is a great
pity that they are not placed under proper charge in some accessible position]
Some writers, anxious to find excuses for the
authorities who prohibited the Bible and punished those that read it, allege
that it contained offensive notes, which no authority, lay or clerical, could
be expected to tolerate; but this is a total delusion, a defence of ancient
bigotry by modern ignorance. It must not
be forgotten, that what was prohibited, what was condemned, what was burnt, was
the simple text of Holy Scripture, without any note, or comment, or prologue of
any kind whatsoever.* The Bible-burners
of the sixteenth century would have repudiated with indignation the motives
which candid moderns have been kind enough to invent for them. In their judgment the whole question was
entirely free from those complications which modern refinement has introduced;
and they pronounce their opinion with a plainness which at once supersedes all
doubt.
[* I except, of course,
the edition of 1530, in which it is supposed that the Prologue to the Romans
was inserted.]
“The New Testament
translated into the vulgar tongue,” says one of the chief opponents of
the Reformers, “is in truth the food of death, the
fuel of sin, the vial of malice, the pretext of false liberty, the protection of
disobedience, the corruption of discipline, the depravity of morals, the
termination of concord, the death of honesty, the well-spring of vices, the
disease of virtues, the instigation of rebellion, the milk of pride, the
nourishment of contempt, the death of peace, the destruction of charity, the
enemy of unity, the murderer of truth!”
The men who cherished such sentiments as these should proscribe and burn
the Bible in the native tongue, was as natural as that men who dread contagion
should burn all infected garments.
The narrative of Joye, which we have just
quoted, was intended as a sort of explanation and defence of his conduct in
issuing a revised reprint of Tindale’s New Testament, although he was well
aware that Tindale himself had for some time been occupied in a careful
revision and correction of his own work.
Joye, indeed, took care not to connect Tindale’s name with his edition;
but it was undeniably little more than a reprint of Tindale’s, with a few changes
introduced. These, moreover, were made
without any attempt to confer the translation with the original Greek, a task
for which Joye’s scholarship was wholly inadequate. He himself acknowledges that he merely “mended” any words that he found falsely printed, and
that when he “came to some dark sentences that no
reason could be granted to them, whether it was by the ignorance of the first
translator or of the printers.” He had “the
Latin text” by him, and “made it plain.” In fact, the work had no pretension whatever
to be considered an original production, and was simply such a plagiarism as
any modern laws of copyright would interdict or punish. It was ushered into the world with a pompous
and affected title; “The New Testament as it was
written and caused to be written by them which heard it, whom also our Saviour
Christ Jesus commanded that they should preach it unto all creatures”;
and the colophon paraded it as “diligently over-seen
and corrected.” Not much
diligence, however, could be expected for fourpence-halfpenny
a sheet; and although the printers did their part well (for the work is got up
with remarkable neatness), Joye’s diligence seems to have been in proportion to
the smallness of his remuneration.*
[* Only one copy is known to be in existence,
that in the Grenville Library in the
The changes which he has thus introduced are few
in number, of the very smallest possible consequence, never in any case
suggested by the original Greek, and probably not in a single instance
effecting any improvement either in the accuracy or the clearness of the
version which he thus presumed to correct.
In the three chapters of St. Matthew, for example, which contain the
Sermon of the Mount, he only ventures to make eight changes: in two of them he
is certainly wrong; in a third he has mistaken the meaning of Tindale; in a
fourth he has misunderstood the sense of the original; a fifth is permissible
variation in the rendering of a participle; and the remaining three are
grammatical trifles, such as the substitution of shall for will,
into
for to. This may probably be taken as a fair specimen
of Joye’s work, which scarcely aspires beyond the province of an ordinary
corrector of the press, and, except in one respect, was, with all its
pretensions, simply a barefaced reprint of Tindale’s Testament.*
[* In St. Matthew 6:
24, Tindale’s New Testament had by mistake the words, “or else he will lene the one and
despise the other,” which Joye could make nothing of, and so,
conjecturally, he printed, “he will love the one,” etc. In Tindale’s own revision the error is of
course rectified, “he will lean to the one.” I do not pretend to have collated all Joye’s
book; but after examining several passages in the Gospels and the Epistles, I
am satisfied that the estimate in the text is a correct one. Westcott
gives an excellent account of it: History
of the English Bible, p. 57.]
One change, however, and
that not unimportant, Joye did venture with most intolerable arrogance to
introduce. In his intercourse with Tindale there had
been frequent discussions on the abstruse doctrinal question much controverted
in the Christian Church, - the condition
of the souls of the dead between death and judgment. In his controversy with Sir Thomas More,
Tindale had asserted, or, at least, had admitted, that “the souls of the dead lie and sleep till Doomsday,” whereas Joye maintained in common perhaps with
most members of the Church, Reformed or un-Reformed, that at death the souls
passed not into sleep, but into a higher and better life. On this point, according to Joye’s own
narrative, he and Tindale had frequently been engaged in rather sharp
discussions; and he complains that Tindale had repeatedly treated him in a
somewhat abrupt and un-courteous fashion, upbraiding him with his want of
scholarship, and ridiculing his arguments, “filliping
them forth,” as he alleges, “between his finger
and his thumb after his wonted disdainful manner.” Full of this doctrinal controversy, Joye
believed that Tindale had obscured the meaning of Scripture in several passages
by the use of the term resurrection, where it was
not the resurrection of the body that was really intended; and he therefore in
his revision struck out the term, and substituted for it the phrase, “life after this,” which was more in accordance with
his own opinions.
A single specimen will show more clearly than
any description the nature of the change thus effected; and the matter is of
much consequence in the personal history of Tindale, that it is necessary to
understand it accurately. The words of
our Lord (St. Matthew 22: 30, 31), rendered
in our Authorised Version, after Tindale, “in the resurrection
they neither marry nor are given in marriage … as touching the resurrection of the dead,
have ye not read?” &c., are translated by Joye, “in the life after this they neither marry” – and “as touching the life
of them that be dead,” &c.
Joye did not, as has been sometimes said, discard the word resurrection
altogether, neither did he intend to express any doubt as to the doctrine of
the resurrection of the body; but he confined the use of the word to those
instances in which it was unquestionably the resurrection of the body that was
intended (e. g. Acts 1: 22); and in all
other cases, in order, as he supposed, to avoid instilling prejudices into the
minds of the unweary readers, he employed such circumlocutions as “the life after this” or “the
very life.”
The doctrinal controversy thus raised does not
fall within the province of our biography; but some knowledge of the facts
involved is indispensable at this period of Tindale’s life, all the more so, as
they have been very considerably misrepresented by some previous writers*.
[* I am no admirer of Joye, but I cannot help
protesting against the treatment he has received from
From what has just been written the reader will
be prepared to anticipate the indignation which Joye’s proceedings excited the
mind of Tindale. For many months he had
engaged in a most elaborate revision of his New Testament, which must have cost
nearly as much labour as the original translation; and how, just as his work
was ready for the press, Joye’s edition appeared. Not only was the real author of the
translation thereby treated with the loss of the fruit of his long and weary
labours; not only was he dishonestly defrauded by the employment of his own
previous toil against himself; but, to add insult to injury, he saw his
translation tampered with by Joye, so as to give countenance to what he had
often condemned as the more “curious speculation”
of a stupid and ignorant man. Beyond all
question Joye had acted dishonourably; he had injured and insulted Tindale; and
no human patience could have submitted unmoved to his proceedings.
Tindale felt keenly the injury that had been
done; he gave vent to his indignation in bitter and reproachful terms; and a
personal controversy was thus excited, which was not appeased even at the time
of his apprehension. (pp. 438-446.)
* *
* * *
* *
4.
TINDALE’S LETTER TO FRITH
Frith had been, indeed, committed to the Tower;
but it almost appeared as if the danger which threatened him might be
dissipated. For rapid changes were
taking place in
Before intelligence of Frith’s apprehension had
reached the Continent, Tindale, who may have heard in Antwerp the dangers by
which his friend was threatened, wrote him a letter of affectionate caution;
warning him especially of the necessity of guarding against committing himself
by rash and dogmatic assertions of doctrinal questions that were not of fundamental
importance. Tindale’s letters,
unfortunately, have almost all perished, and the reader will, therefore, value
the more highly the few that have been preserved to us. To Frith, the dearest and most like-minded of
all his friends, he, as might have been expected, unbosoms
himself without reserve; and the letter is, accordingly, an invaluable piece of
autobiography:-
“The grace of our
Saviour Jesus, His patience, meekness, humbleness, circumspection, and wisdom, be with your heart, Amen.
“Dearly beloved brother
Jacob, mine heart’s desire in our Saviour Jesus is, that you arm yourself with
patience, and be cold, sober, wise, and circumspect: and that you keep you
a-low by the ground, avoiding high questions that pass the common capacity. But expound the law truly, and open the vail of Moses, to condemn all flesh, and prove all men
sinners, and all deeds under the law, before mercy have taken away the
condemnation thereof, to be sin and damnable: and then, as a faithful minister,
set abroach the mercy of our Lord Jesus, and let the
wounded consciences drink of the water of Him.
And then shall your preaching be with power, and not as the doctrine of
the hypocrites; and the Spirit of God shall work with you, and all consciences
shall bear record unto you, and feel that it is so. And all doctrine that casteth a mist on those
two, to shadow and hide them (I mean the law of God and mercy of Christ), that
resist you with all your power.
Sacraments without signification refuse.
If they put significations to them receive them, if you see it may help [i.e.,
may be of any spiritual advantage], though it be not
necessary.
“Of the Presence of
Christ’s body in the Sacrament, meddle as little as you can, that there appear
no division among us. Barnes [a Lutheran, and always
hot-tempered] will be hot against you. The Saxons be sore on the affirmative;
whether constant or obstinate, I remit it to God. Philip
Melanchthon is said to be with the French king [a
mistaken rumour].
There be in
“I guessed long ago,
that God would send a dazing into the head of the spiritualty, to be catched
themselves in their own subtlety; and I trust it is come to pass. And now me thinketh
I smell a Council to be taken, little for their profits in time to come. But you must understand that it is not of a
pure heart, and for love of the truth; but to avenge themselves, and to eat the
whore’s flesh, and to suck the marrow of her bones. Wherefore cleave fast to the rock of the help
of God, and commit the end of all things to Him: and if God shall call you,
that you may then use the wisdom of the worldly, as far as you perceive the
glory of God may come thereof, refuse it not: and ever among thrust in, that
the Scripture may be the mother tongue, and learning set up in the
Universities. But and if aught be
required contrary to the glory of God and His Christ, then stand fast, and
commit yourself to God; and be not overcome of man’s persuasions, which haply
shall say, we see no other way [i.e., but yielding and adjuring], to bring in the truth.
“Brother Jacob, beloved
in my heart, there liveth not in whom I have so good hope and trust, and in
whom my heart rejoiceth, and my soul comforteth herself, as in you, not the
thousand part so much of [i.e., for] your
learning and what other gifts else you have, as that you will creep a-low by
the ground, and walk in those things that the conscious may feel, and not in
the imaginations of the brain; in fear, and not in boldness; in open necessary
things, and not to pronounce of define of hid secrets, or things that neither
help or hinder, whether they be so or no; in unity, and not in seditious
opinions; insomuch that if [i.e., although] you
be sure you know, yet in things that may abide leisure, you will defer, or say
(till other agree with you), ‘Methink the text requireth this sense or understanding’;
yea, and that if [i.e., although] you be sure
that your part be good, and another hold the contrary, yet if it be a thing
that maketh no matter, you will laugh and let it pass, and refer the thing to
other men, and stick you stiffly and stubbornly in earnest and necessary
things. And I trust you be persuaded so
of me. For I call God to record against
the day we shall appear before our Lord Jesus, to give a reckoning of our
doings, that I never altered one syllable of God’s Word against my conscience,
nor would this day, if all that is in the earth, whether it be pleasure,
honour, or riches, might be given me.
Moreover, I take God to record to my conscience, that
I desire of God to myself, in this world, no more than that without which I
cannot keep His laws.
“Finally, if there were in me any gift that could help at hand, and aid you if
need required, I promise you I would not be far off, and commit the end to God:
my
soul is not faint though my body be weary. But God
hath made me evil-favoured in this world, and without grace in the sight of
men, speechless and rude, dull and slow-witted. Your part shall be to supply that lacketh in
me; remembering that as lowliness of heart shall make you high with God, even
so meekness of words shall make you sink into the hearts of men. Nature giveth grace authority; but meekness
is the glory of youth, and giveth them honour.
Abundance of love maketh me exceed in babbling.
“Sir, as concerning
purgatory, and many other things, if you be demanded, you may say, if you err,
the spirituality hath so led you; and that they have taught you to believe as
you do. For they preached you all such
things out of God’s Word, and alleged a thousand
texts; by reason of which texts you believed as they taught you. But now you find them liars, and that the
texts mean no such things, and, therefore, you can believe them no longer; but
are as ye were before they taught you, and believe no such thing; howbeit you [may
say you] are ready to believe, if they have any other way to prove it; for without proof you cannot
believe them, when you have found them with so many lies, &c. If you perceive wherein we may help, either
in being still, or doing somewhat, let us have a word, and I will do mine
uttermost.
“My Lord of London hath
a servant called John Tisen, with a red beard, and a black reddish head, and
was once my scholar; he was seen in
“The mighty God of
Jacob be with you to supplant His enemies, and give you the favour of Joseph;
and the wisdom and the spirit of Stephen be with your heart and with your
mouth, and teach your lips what they shall say, and how to answer to all
things. He is our God, if we despair in
ourselves, and trust in Him; and His is the glory. Amen.
“William Tindale.
“I hope our redemption is nigh.”
Tindale’s warning came too late. Before his letter reached
… In these circumstances
nothing remained for Frith but, if possible, to defend his opinion, and to show that what he had taught was in
accordance with the plain sense of Scripture and the writings of the early
fathers. (pp. 411-417.)
* *
* * *
* *
5. TINDALE
ON THE LORD’S SUPPER
On April 5, 1533, there appeared from the press
of “Nicholas Twonson of Nerembery,” a treatise entitled, “The Supper of the Lord. … wherein incidentally M. More’s letter
against John Frith is confuted.”
The work, indeed, was published anonymously, and was by some supposed to
be that very treatise by George Joye of which Tindale, in his letter to Frith,
had spoken in such disparaging terms.
Others, however, ascribed to book to Tindale; and Sir Thomas More, who
immediately published a refutation of it, though admitting that the work was
not characterized by the customary learning of Tindale, and branding it as “blasphemous and bedlam-rife,” yet proceeds to argue upon
the assumption that Tindale was really its author. Foxe has not
printed it with the rest of Tindale’s writings, but speaks doubtfully if it as
“a short and pithy treatise touching the Lord’s
Supper, compiled, as some do gather, by Tindale, because the method and phrase
agree with his, and the time of writing is concurrent.” On the whole, however, it seems now agreed that the work was
Tindale’s, this conviction being strengthened by the fact that Joye, whose
self-conceit was boundless, does not claim the authorship of it, as he
certainly would have done had the work been his*.
[* On the point, which is not devoid of
interest, the reader is referred to the excellent prefatory remarks of Professor Walter in Tindale’s Works,
vol. iii. pp. 218 &c., and three letters in Notes and Queries, First
Series.]
The treatise is, in reality, and exposition of
the sixth chapter of John, and is not unworthy of Tindale’s acuteness as a
controversialist; it retorts upon More with very great
logical skill; and it exposes with very
considerable force the absurdities and contradictions involved in the doctrine
of transubstantiation. To the
ordinary modern reader, however, much the most interesting and characteristic
part of the treatise is that in which Tindale sketches his ideal of the
Supper. We present it without note or
comment to the judgment of the reader:-
“This holy sacrament
therefore, would God it were restored unto the pure
use, as the apostles used it in their time!
Would God the secular princes, which should be the very pastors and head
rulers of their congregations committed unto their care, would first command or
suffer the true preachers of God’s Word to preach the Gospel purely and
plainly, with discreet liberty, and constitute over each particular parish such
curates as can and would preach the word, and that once or twice in the week,
appointing unto their flock certain days, after their discretion and zeal to
God-ward, to come together to celebrate the Lord’s Supper! At the which assembly the curate would propone and declare them, first, this text of Paul, 1 Cor. 11: ‘So oft as ye shall eat
this bread, and drink of this cup, see that ye be joyous, praise, and give
thanks, preaching the death of the Lord,’
&c. : which declared, and every one exhorted to prayer, he would preach
them purely Christ to have died and been offered upon the altar of the cross
for their redemption; which only oblation to be sufficient sacrifice, to peace
the Father’s wrath, and to purge all the sins of the world. Then to excite them with all humble
diligence, every man unto the knowledge of himself and his sins, and to believe
and trust to the forgiveness in Christ’s blood; and for this so incomparable
benefit of our redemption (which were sold bondmen to sin), to give thanks unto
God the Father for so merciful a deliverance through the death of Jesus Christ,
every one, some singing, and some saying devoutly, some or other psalm, or
prayer of thanksgiving, in the mother tongue.
Then, the bread and wine set before them, in the face of the Church,
upon the table of the Lord, purely and honestly laid, let him declare to the
people the significations of those sensible signs; what the action and deed
moveth, teacheth, and exhorteth them unto; and that the bread and wine be no
profane common signs, but holy sacraments, reverently to be considered, and
received with a deep faith and remembrance of Christ’s death, and of the
shedding of His blood for our sins; these sensible things to represent us the
very body and blood of Christ, so that while every man beholdeth with his
corporal eye those sensible sacraments, the inward eye of his faith may see,
and believe steadfastly, Christ offered and dying upon the cross for his sins,
how His body was broken and His blood shed for us, and hath given Himself whole
for us, Himself to be all ours, and whatsoever He did to save us, as to be made
for us, of His Father, our righteousness, our wisdom, holiness, redemption,
sanctification, &c.
“Then let this preacher
exhort them lovingly to draw near unto this table of the Lord, and that not
only bodily, but also, their hearts purged by faith, garnished with love and
innocency, every man to forgive each other unfeignedly, and to express, or at
leastwise to endeavour them to follow, that love which Christ did set before
our eyes at His last supper, when He offered Himself willingly to die for us
His enemies; which incomparable love to command, bring in Paul’s arguments, so
that thus this flock may come together, and be joined into one body, one
spirit, and one people. This done, let
him come down, and, accompanied honestly with other ministers, come forth
reverently unto the Lord’s table, the congregation now set round about it, and
also in their other convenient seats, the pastor exhorting them all to pray for
grace, faith, and love, which all this sacrament signifieth and putteth them in
mind of. Then let there be read apertly
and distinctly the sixth chapter of John, in their mother tongue; whereby they
may clearly understand, what it is to eat Christ’s flesh and to drink His
blood. This done, and some brief prayer
and praise sung or read, let one or other minister read the eleventh chapter of
the first [Epistle] to the Corinthians, that
the people might perceive clearly, of those words, the mystery of this Christ’s
supper, and wherefore He did institute it.
“These with such like
preparations and exhortations had, I would every man present should profess the
articles of our faith openly in our mother tongue, and confess his sins
secretly unto God; praying entirely that He would now vouchsafe to have mercy
upon him, receive his prayers, glue his heart unto Him by faith and love,
increase his faith, give him grace to forgive and to love his neighbour as
himself, to garnish his life with pureness and innocency, and to confirm him in
all goodness and virtue. Then again it
behoveth the curate to warn and exhort every man deeply to consider, and expend
[i.e. weigh] with himself, the signification
and substance of his sacrament, so that he sit not down an hypocrite and a
dissembler, since God is searcher of heart and reins, thoughts and affections,
and see that he come not to the holy table of the Lord without that faith which
he professed at his baptism, and also that love which the sacrament preacheth
and testifieth unto his heart, lest he, now found guilty of the body and blood
of the Lord (that is to wit, a dissembler with Christ’s death, and slanderous
to the congregation, the body and blood of Christ), receive his own damnation. And here let every man fall down upon his
knees, saying secretly with all devotion their Paternoster in English;
their curate, as example, kneeling down before them: which done, let him take
the bread and eft [i.e. after] the wine in the sight of the people, hearing him with a
loud voice, with godly gravity, and after a Christian religious reverence,
rehearsing distinctly the words of the Lord’s Supper in their mother tongue;
and then distribute it to the ministers, which, taking the bread with great
reverence, will divide it to the congregation, every man breaking and reaching
it forth to his next neighbour and member of the mystic body of Christ, other
ministers following with the cups, pouring forth and dealing them the wine,
altogether thus being now partakers of one bread and one cup, the thing thereby
signified and preached printed fast in their hearts. But in this meanwhile must the minister or
pastor be reading the communication that Christ had with His disciples after
His supper, beginning at the washing of
their feet; so reading till the bread and wine be eaten and drunken, and
all the action done: and then let them fall down on their knees, giving thanks
highly unto God the Father for His benefit and death of His Son, whereby now by
faith every man is assured of remission of his sins; as this blessed sacrament
had put them in mind, and preached it them in this outward action and
supper. This done, let every man commend
and give themselves whole to God, and depart*.” (pp. 419-424.)
[* Tindale’s Works, vol. iii pp. 256, &c.]
* *
* * *
* *
6.
TINDALE’S SECOND LETTER TO FRITH
Tindale, learning the fresh danger which
threatened his friend, wrote once again to comfort and strengthen
him for the terrible trial which awaited him.
It is exceedingly doubtful whether Tindale’s epistle ever reached Frith;
whether, in fact, Frith had not been martyred before it was dispatched or even
penned; but it is pervaded by the very spirit in which Frith acted, and thus
affords a most touching illustration of the perfect “like-mindedness”
by which the two friends were animated. Foxe has
entitled it, “A letter from William Tyndale, being in
“The grace and peace of
God our Father, and of Jesus Christ our Lord, be with you. Amen.
Dearly beloved brother John, I have heard say that the hypocrites, now
they have overcome that great business which letted
them [i.e., the royal divorce], or that now
they have at the least way brought it at a stay, they return to their old
nature again. The will of God be
fulfilled, and that [what] He hath ordained to
be ere the world was made, that come, and His glory reign over all.
“Dearly beloved,
howsoever the matter be, commit yourself wholly and only unto your most loving
Father and most kind Lord, and fear not
men that threat, nor trust men that speak fair: but trust Him that is true of promise, and able to make His word good. Your cause is Christ’s Gospel, a light that
must be fed with the blood of faith. The
lamp must be dressed and sniffed daily, and that oil poured in every evening
and morning, that the light go not out. Though we be sinners, yet is the cause
right. If when we be
buffeted for well-doing, we suffer patiently and endure, that is thankful with
God; for to that end we are called. For Christ also suffered for us, leaving us an example that we should
follow His steps, who did no sin.
Hereby have we perceived love, that He laid
down His life for us; therefore we ought also to lay down our lives for the
brethren. Rejoice and be glad, for great
is your reward in heaven. For we suffer
with Him, that we may also be glorified: who shall change our vile body,
that it may be fashioned like unto His glorious body, according to the working
thereby He is able even to subject all things unto Him.
“Dearly beloved, be of
good courage, and comfort your soul with
the hope of this high reward, and bear the image of Christ in your mortal
body, that it may at His coming be
made like unto His, immortal: and follow the example of all your other dear
brethren, which chose to suffer in hope
of a better resurrection. Keep your
conscience pure and undefiled, and say against that nothing. Stick at [i.e. resolutely maintain] necessary things; and remember the blasphemies of the
enemies of Christ, ‘They find none but that will adjure rather than suffer the
extremity.’ Moreover, the death of them
that come again [i.e. repent] after they have once
denied, though it be accepted with God and all that believe, yet is it not
glorious; for the hypocrites say, ‘He must needs die; denying helpeth not: but
might it have holpen, they would have denied five hundred times: but seeing it
would not help them, therefore of pure pride, and mere malice together, they
speak with their mouths that [i.e. what] their
conscience knoweth false.’ If you give yourself, cast yourself,
yield yourself, commit yourself wholly and only to your loving Father; then
shall His power be in you and make you strong, and that so strong, that you
shall feel no pain, and [in?] that shall be to
another present death: and His Spirit shall speak in you, and teach you what to
answer, according to His promise. He
shall set out His truth by you wonderfully, and work for you above all that
your heart can imagine. Yea, and you are not yet dead; though the hypocrites all,
with all they can make, have sworn your death.
Una salus vivtis nullam sperare salutem.
To look for no man’s help bringeth
the help of God to them that seem to be overcome in the eyes of the
hypocrites: yea, it shall make God to carry you through thick and thin for His
truth’s sake, in spite of all the enemies of His truth. There falleth not a hair till His hour be come: and when His hour is come, necessity carrieth us
hence, though we be not willing. But if
we be willing, then have we a reward and thanks.
“Fear not threatening,
therefore, neither be overcome of sweet words; with
which twain the hypocrites shall assail you.
Neither let the persuasions of
worldly wisdom bear rule in your heart; no, though they be your friends that
counsel. Let Bilney
be a warning to you. Let not your visor beguile your eyes.
Let not your body faint. He that endureth to the end shall be saved. If the pain be above your strength, remember,
‘Whatsoever ye shall ask in My
name, I will give it you.’ And pray to your Father in that name, and He will cease your pain, or shorten it. The Lord of peace, of hope, and of faith, be with you. Amen.
“William Tyndale.
“Two have suffered in
[* Editors have conjectured that by Riselles, Brussels is meant; and that Luke is the suburb of Brussels, now
called Laeken:
the very slightest inquiry would have informed them that Riselles
is the Flemish name of Lille,
as Luke is of Liege.]
“If, when you have read
this, you may send it toAdrian [or John Byrte], do, I pray, that he may
know that our heart is with you.
“George Joye at Candlemas, being at Barrow, printed two leaves of Genesis
in a great form, and sent one copy to the king, and another to the new Queen [Anne
Boleyn], with a letter to N. for to deliver them; and
to purchase licence, that he might so go through all the Bible. Out of that is sprung the noise of the new
Bible [report that there was to be a new translation]; and out of that is the great seeking for English books at
all printers and bookbinders in Antwerp, and for an English priest that should
print [i.e. that intended to print].
“This chanced the 9th
day of May.
“Sir, your wife is well
content with the will of God, and would not, for her sake, have the glory of
God hindered.
“William Tyndale,”
(pp. 428-432.)
* *
* * *
* *
7. TINDALE
AS A REVISER
But before entering upon the narrative of this
personal dispute, the work of Tindale deserves a more detailed notice. Tindale’s first version had been made under
considerable difficulties, as we have formerly seen; and he was himself aware
that it was susceptible of many improvements.
Not only might the text be improved by more accurate, more clear, or
more concise, renderings; but, in his own estimation, it was desirable to give
the work completeness by separate introductions to each of the books, and by
greater attention to the marginal glosses, with which, as with a brief
commentary, it was equipped. All this
was accomplished with great pains in the edition of 1534. He had diligently gone over the whole of his
translation, not only comparing it once again with the Greek text of Erasmus,
but bringing to bear upon it that enlarged experience of Hebrew which he had
acquired in his translation of the Old Testament, and which he now saw to be of
no small service in illustrating the Hellenistic of the New. In his “Epistle to
the Reader,” he states the general principles on which he proceeded, and
they are not unworthy of consideration.
“Here hast thou, most
dear reader, the New Testament or covenant made with God in Christ’s blood,
which I have looked over again, now at the last, with all diligence, and
compared it unto the Greek, and have weeded out of it many faults, which lack
of help at the beginning, and oversight, did sow therein. If aught seem changed, or not altogether
agreeing with the Greek, let the finder of the fault consider the Hebrew phrase
or manner of speech left in the Greek words; whose preterperfect
tense and present tense is often both one, and the future tense is the
operative mood also, and the future tense oft the imperative mood in the active
voice, and in the passive ever. Likewise
person for person, number for number, and an interrogation for a conditional,
and such like, is with the Hebrews a common usage*. I have also in many places set light in the
margin to understand the text by. If any
man find faults either with the translation or ought beside (which
is easier for many to do than so well to have translated it themselves of their
own pregnant wits at the beginning, without an ensample), to the same
it shall be lawful to translate it themselves, and to put what they lust
thereto. If I shall perceive, either by
myself or by my information of other, that aught be
escaped me, or might more plainly be translated, I will shortly after cause it
to be mended. Howbeit,
in many places methinketh it better to put a declaration in the margin, than to
run too far from to text. And in
many places, where the text seemeth at the first chop hard to be understood,
yet the circumstances before and after, and often reading together, make it
plain enough.”
[* And yet this is the person who is supposed
not to have known anything about Hebrew!]
The diligent correction promised in these words
was faithfully and laboriously carried out, in such a manner as amply to
justify the declaration of the title-page, that it was “corrected and compared with the Greek”.” The corrections introduced may be reckoned by
thousands, and in the great majority of cases their obvious tendency is to
bring the English version into closer correspondence with the Greek
original. Tindale’s scholarship comes
out in very marked contrast with the carelessness and ignorance of his
rival. In the Sermon on the Mount, as we
have just seen, Joye introduced eight changes in all, half of them mistakes,
and none of them improvements; Tindale has made no fewer than forty-one changes
in the same chapters, the merit of which is sufficiently indicated by the fact
that, after several subsequent revisions, many of them still exist in the
Authorized Version.
A specimen of Tindale’s “revision and correction” will make palpable to the reader the
enormous difference between his well-considered alterations and Joye’s trifling
and heedless changes. In
In Tindale’s version of 1534, it is thus
amended, and brought nearer the Greek:- “Ye are the salt of the earth, but and if the salt have lost her saltness, what can be salted therewith*? It is thenceforth
good for nothing but to be cast out and be trodden under foot of men.”
[* On this reading see any critical edition of
the New Testament.]
Again, in verse 16,
the previous reading, “See that your
light so shine before men,” is changed into the more literal and more
beautiful, “Let your light so shine before men.” And similarly in the succeeding verse the
incorrect rendering, “Ye shall not think that I am come
to destroy the law,” is more accurately translated, “Think not that I am come”; and the phrase, “Heavenly Father,” in verse
45 and 48 of the old rendering, is
replaced by the more euphonious as well as more accurate, “Father which is in heaven.”
In the sixth chapter,
the first translation had omitted the Doxology at the end of the Lord’s Prayer;
the revised version, founding upon a collation of other printed texts, has
inserted it; and several minor improvements are also introduced; thus, e.g., “Consider the lilies” for “behold
the lilies”’ “what ye shall put on” for “what raiment ye shall wear.” And in the seventh
chapter, among other alterations, he effected a considerable improvement
in the force of the last words of the sermon, by bringing the English into
closer approximation to the Greek: “It was overthrown,
and great was the fall of it,” had been the version of 1525; for which
Tindale now substituted the simple rendering which we now use, and which
retains the thetorical figure of the original: “and it fell, and great was the fall thereof.”
These changes may be taken as a specimen of the
revision to which Tindale submitted his former translation; and only those who
have some slight acquaintance with the difficulties that beset the revision of
a finished work can fully appreciate the amount of care and labour which
Tindale must have bestowed upon his task.
(pp. 446-450.)
* *
* * *
* *
8.
TINDALE’S REJOINDER TO JOYE
Such a work, with the accompanying prologues,
glosses, and translations from the Old Testament, must have fully occupied all
Tindale’s energies during the year 1534; and it is not surprising, therefore,
that he should have been extremely indignant at the proceedings of Joye in
attempting to deprive him of the fruit of his labours, by filling the market
with a cheaper and inferior translation, and so curtailing the circulation of
the new and improved version. His conduct
appeared to Tindale so dishonourable, and his changes in the New Testament so
dangerous, that he added to his revised edition, a second preface, directed
especially against Joye; and it was the publication of this preface which led
to the prolonged and bitter controversy to which we shall now briefly advert.
“Thou shalt understand,
most dear reader,” so runs the address, “when I
had taken in hand to look over the New Testament again, and to compare it with
the Greek, and to mend whatsoever I could find amiss, and had almost finished
the labour, George Joye secretly took in hand to correct it also, by what
occasion his conscience knoweth, and prevented [anticipated] me, in so much that his
correction was printed in great number, ere mine began [to be printed]. When it was spied and word brought me, though
it seemed to divers others that George Joye had not used the office of an
honest man, seeing he knew that I was in correcting it myself, neither did walk
after the rules of the love and softness which Christ and His disciples teach
us, how that we should do nothing of strife to move debate, or of vain-glory,
or of covetousness; yet I took the thing in worth as I have done divers other
in time past, as one that have more experience of the nature and disposition of
that man’s complexion, and supposed that a little spice of covetousness and
vain-glory (two blind guides) had been the only cause that moved him to do so;
about which things I strive with no man, and so followed after, and corrected
forth, and caused this to be printed without surmise or looking on his
correction. But when the printing of
mine was almost finished, one brought me a copy [of Joy’s edition], and showed me so many places in such wise altered that I
was astonied [astounded], and wondered not a little
what fury had driven him to make such change, and to call it a diligent
correction.”
The changes which thus excited Tindale’s
indignation were not, indeed, so numerous as he seems
to have imagined; but, under the circumstances which have been already
narrated, they were extremely irritating and offensive. Joys had had the assurance to reprint
Tindale’s translation almost verbatim, while at the same time
announcing his work as a ‘dilligent correction’; and not content with thus robbing the
Translator of the fruit of his toil, had the further assurance to change the
renderings in a few verses, so as to favour his own opinions on the question
which he had so often debated with Tindale, the condition of the soul after death. Against this double injury Tindale protests
with great vehemence. With obvious and
unanswerable rhetoric he urged that Joye should have put his own name to a
translation which so materially misrepresented the opinions of its actual
author; he claimed no monopoly of the right to translate the Scriptures into
English, but it was not lawful, he submitted, “nor yet
expedient for the edifying of the unity of the faith of Christ, that whosoever
will, shall by his own authority take another man’s translation, and put
out and in, and change at pleasure, and call it a correction.”
As to the character of the changes, he proceeds
to remark somewhat sarcastically, “George Joye hath
had a long time marvellous imaginations about this word resurrection, that it
should be taken for the state of souls after their departing from their bodies,
and hath also, though he hath been reasoned with thereof and desired to cease,
yet sown his doctrine by secret letters on that side the sea [in
England], and caused great division among the
brethren, insomuch that John Fryth, being in prison in
the Tower of London, a little before his death, wrote that we should warn him
and desire him to cease, and would have thus written against him, had I not
withstood him. Thereto I have been since
informed that no small number through his curiosity [whimsical
speculations] utterly deny the resurrection of the
flesh and body, affirming that the soul,
when she is departed, is the spiritual body of the resurrection, and other
resurrection shall there none be.
And I have talked with some of them myself, so doted in that folly, that
it were as good persuade a post, as to pluck that madness out of their
brains. And of this is all George Joy’s
unquiet curiosity the whole occasion; whether he be of
the sad faction also, or not, to that let him answer himself.”
His own opinions on the subject Tindale sets
forth at length in the noble and earnest protestation which has been repeatedly
printed:-
“Concerning the
resurrection, I protest before God and our Saviour Jesus Christ, and before the
universal congregation that believeth in Him, that I believe, according to the
open and manifest Scriptures and Catholic faith, that Christ is risen again in
the flesh which He received of His mother the Blessed Virgin Mary, and body
wherein He died: and that we shall all, both good and bad, rise both flesh and
body, and appear together before the judgment-seat of Christ, to receive every
man according to his deeds: and that the
bodies of all that believe and continue in the true faith of Christ shall be
endued with like immortality and glory as is the body of Christ.
“And I protest before God, and our
Saviour Christ, and all that believe in Him, that I hold of the souls that are departed as much as may be proved by manifest
and open Scripture, and think the souls departed in the faith of Christ and
love of the law of God, to be in no worse case than the soul of Christ was from
the time that He delivered His Spirit into the hands of His Father until the
resurrection of His body in glory and immortality. Nevertheless I confess openly that I am not persuaded that they be already in the full glory that Christ is in, or the elect
angels of God are in; neither is it any article of my faith: for if it so were,
I see not but then the preaching of the resurrection of the flesh were a thing
in vain. Notwithstanding yet I am
ready to believe it if it may be proved
with open Scripture: and I have desired George Joye to take open texts that
seem to make for that purpose, as this is, ‘To-day thou shalt be with Me in Paradise’; to make
thereof what he could; for I receive not
in the Scripture the private interpretation of any man’s brain, without open
testimony of any Scripture agreeing thereto.
“Moreover, I take God
(which alone seeth the heart) to record to my conscience, beseeching Him that
my part be not in the blood of Christ if I wrote of all that I have written
throughout all my book aught of an evil purpose, of envy or malice to any man,
or to stir up any false doctrine or opinion in the Church , or to be author of
any sect, or to draw disciples after me, or that I would be esteemed or had in
price above the least child that is born; save only of pity and compassion I
had and yet have on the blindness of my brethren, and to bring them into the
knowledge of Christ, and to make every one of them, if it were possible, as
perfect as an angel of heaven; and to weed out all that is not planted of our
Heavenly Father, and to bring down all that lifteth
up itself against the knowledge of the salvation that is in the blood of
Christ. Also my part be not in Christ if
mine heart be not to follow and live according as I teach; and also if mine
heart weep not night and day for mine own sin and other man’s indifferently,
beseeching God to convert us all, and to take His wrath from us, and to be
merciful as well to all other man as to mine own soul; caring for the wealth [welfare] of the realm I was born in, for the King and all that are
thereof, as a tender-hearted mother would do for her only son.
“As concerning all I
have translated or otherwise written, I beseech all men to read it for that
purpose I wrote it, even to bring them to the knowledge of the Scripture; and
as far as the Scripture approveth it so far to allow
it; and if in any place the Word of God disallow it, there to refuse it, as I
do before our Saviour Christ and His congregation. And where they find faults let them show me
if they be nigh, or write to me if they be far off; or write openly against it
and improve [disprove] it; and I promise them,
if I shall perceive that their reasons conclude [are conclusive], I will confess mine ignorance openly.”
If Tindale’s animadversions upon Joye were
severe, it will be admitted that the severity was not undeserved; the conduct
of Joye would have been base even in an enemy of the Reformation, but in one who professed to be a friend, it was
altogether inexcusable. Tindale’s
remarks, naturally enough, stung him to the quick, and he prepared a defence of
himself, which he proposed to publish to the world as widely, if possible, as
the attack had been circulated. Mutual
friends intervened, and attempted to arrest a controversy which was sure to be
seized by the Romanists as a proof of the inevitable discord which attended all
session from the pale of their communion.
It was agreed accordingly that Joye should not publish his defence, and
that Tindale should, in subsequent editions of His New Testament, modify the
assertions of his damnatory epistle.
From some cause, of which we have only Joye’s partial account, this
agreement was not carried into execution; Joye’s defence was printed; and the
minds of all lovers of the Reformation were scandalized by this public quarrel
between two who for some years had been among the recognized leaders of the
Reformation. (pp. 462-464.)
* *
* * *
* *
9.
TINDALE’S SIGNED PRISON LETTER
We are now able to add, for the first time in
this country, information of the highest interest from the pen of Tindale
himself. The admirers of the great
Translator have long regretted that not a single letter or document of any kind
has been ascertained to be in existence, that was
unquestionably written with Tindale’s own hand.
The industry of a foreign investigator has at length been successful in
discovering an original letter which was written by Tindale himself, and which
at once invests the whole narrative of his imprisonment with that “touch of nature” that appeals irresistibly to human
sympathies*. It would be unfair to the
reader to withhold from him Tindale’s own original Latin; and we therefore place it here in the text with a literal rendering subjoined. The letter, it may be premised, has neither date nor
superscription, but there is not the
slightest doubt that it was written at Vilvorde in
the winter if 1535, and that it was addressed to the Governor of the castle,
who was no other than the very Marquis of Gergen-op-Zoom
with whom Cromwell had already interceded in Tindale’s favour**.
[* The letter has been found in the Archives of
the Council of Brabant, by the learned and indefatigable M. Galesloot. With the kind permission of the
ever-courteous M. Gachard,
the precious document has been photographed at the expense of Mr. Fry, of
** Antoine
de Berges, Marquis of Bergen-op-Zoom, was
appointed Governor in 1530. Adolphe Van Wesele
was Lieutenant of the castle.]
“Credo non latere te, vir praestantissime, quid de me statutm
sit. Quam ob rem, tuam dominationem
rogatum habeo, idque per Dominum Jesum, ut si
mihi per hiemem hic manendum sit, solicites, apud dominum commissariumm
si forte digrari velit, de rebus meis
quash abet, mittere calidiorem
birettum; frigus enim patior in capite nimium, oppressus perpetuo catarro qui sub testitudine [sic] nonnihil augetur. Calidiorem quoque tunicam, nam, haec quam
habeo admodum tenuis est. Item pannum
ad caligas reficiendas. Doplois [sic in
original mistake for diplos] detrita est;
camiseae detritae sunt etiam. Camiseam laneam habet, si
mittere velit. Habeo quoque apud eum
caligas ex crassiori panno ad superius induendum; noctuna biretta calidiora habet etiam: utque vesperi
lucernam habere licit; tediosum quidem est per tenebras solitarie sedere, Maxime autem omnium
tuam clementiam rogo atque obsecro
ut ex animo agree velit apud dominum
commissarium quatenus dignari velit mihi
concedere Bibliam Hebraicam, Grammaticam Hebraicam, et Vocabularium Hebraicum, ut eo studio tempus conteram. Sie tibi obtingat quod
maxime optas modo cum animae tuae salute fiat: Verum si aluid consilium
de me ceptum [sic] est, ante hiemem perficieudum,
patiens ero, Dei expectans voluntatem, ad bloriam gratiae Domini mei Jesu
Christi, Cuius Spiritustuum
simper regat pectus.
Amen. W. Tindalus.”
“I believe, right
worshipful, that you are not ignorant of what has been determined concerning me
[by the Council of Brabant]; therefore I
entreat your lordship and that by the Lord Jesus, that if I am to remain here [in
Vilvorde] during the winter,
you will request the Procureur to be kind enough to
send me from my goods which he has in his possession, a warmer cap, for I
suffer extremely from cold in the head, being afflicted with a perpetual
catarrh, which is considerably increased in this cell. A warmer coat also, for that which I have is
very thin: also a piece of cloth to patch my leggings: my overcoat is worn out;
my shirts are also worn out. He has a
woollen shirt of mine, if he will be kind enough to send it. I have also with him leggings of thicker
cloth for putting on above; he also has warmer caps for wearing at night. I wish also his permission to have a lamp in
the evening, for it is wearisome to sit alone in the dark. But above all, I entreat and beseech your
clemency to be urgent with the Procureur that he may
kindly permit me to have my Hebrew Grammar, and Hebrew Dictionary, that I may
spend time with that study. And
in return, may you obtain your dearest wish, provided always that it be consistent with the salvation of your soul. But if, before the end of the winter, a
different decision be reached concerning me, I shall be patient, abiding the
will of God to the glory of the grace of my Lord Jesus Christ, whose Spirit, I pray, may ever direct your heart. Amen. – W. Tindale.”
The picture presented in this letter, of the
illustrious Martyr, sitting cold and dark and solitary in the damp cells of Vilvorde during the long cheerless nights of winter, and
earnestly soliciting the favour of light, and the warm clothing, and above all,
of books to solace him, must surely have reminded the reader of the great
Apostle of the Gentiles sending for his “cloke and his books,
but especially the parchments,” to defend himself against the damp and
the tedium of his gloomy Mamertine dungeon; and it
appeals irresistibly to the sympathies of every man who is not utterly
destitute of human feelings.
It adds not a little to the interest of this
letter, that it silences forever the idle objection so repeated by writers who
take no trouble to examine into facts, that Tindale was absolutely ignorant of
Hebrew, and was incapable either of reading or of rendering the Old Testament
in its original language. To scholars,
indeed, that question had long ago been set at rest by the examination of
Tindale’s Version of the Pentateuch; and the testimony of Hermann Buschius was scarcely needed to
assure them, that Tindale was quite sufficiently versed in Hebrew for the work
that he had undertaken. Surely, however,
after this pathetic request in the Translator’s own words, the groundless
calumny will disappear for ever from our literature.
We take for granted that the modest requests of Tindale
were acceded to; this much, at least, the Marquis of Bergen could scarcely
refuse to one for whom Cromwell had interceded; and until the actual business
of the trial commenced and occupied all his energies, we may suppose that
Tindale was engaged on what had been the labour of his life, the translation of
Holy Scripture into the English language.
The Venerable Bede,
dictating his translation of St. John on his deathbed, has been deemed a
subject worthy of the highest art, a theme for the highest flights of poetry;
will no genius be fired to commemorate in verse or on canvas the only worthy
pendant which our literary annals present, Tindale in the gloomy vaults at Vilvorde, toiling bravely to finish his great work? How much he was able to accomplish of his
task in the dreary confinement of his prison we have no means of ascertaining
with any very definite precision; but there seems no reason whatever for
disbelieving the uniform tradition which
affirms, that before his death he had completed the translation of the Old
Testament to the end of the Books of Chronicles. This part of his work, it is said, was
transmitted to his former associate in Antwerp, John Rogers, and was printed by him along with the previous
translations by Tindale of the Pentateuch and the New Testament, in which is usually known as Matthews’s Bible*. Of all this, direct proof cannot be given;
but the presumption in its favour, from evidence both internal and external, is
sufficiently strong to warrant its implicit reception.
[* See Westcott on the subject; I have not
entered into the examination of any of the alleged posthumous works of
Tindale.]
The trial of Tindale was, we believe, not begun
till the commencement of 1536, and it had been unusually protracted. The process of written attack and defence
must of necessity have occupied a considerable time; and it may have been
midsummer before the trial was concluded.
The verdict had been foreseen by the judges from the commencement, and
was inevitable; but before pronouncing it, we cannot doubt that the question
was once again submitted to the supreme authorities; that not only the Regent
Mary of Hungary, but the emperor also, were asked to decide whether in this
instance the statutes against heretics were to be enforced with full rigour, or
whether the prerogative of mercy was to be exercised. Charles and Mary were not ignorant of the
interest which Henry and Cromwell felt in Tindale; and with them it rested to
decide whether the prisoner was to be set free, or to die the death of a
heretic. They weighed the case doubtless
with care, and took into consideration the comparative advantages of the two
courses of conduct that were open to them.
To pardon a convicted heretic would offend the clergy, and would
stultify the legislation of many years against heresy: to give him up to death
was to run the risk of offending Henry, or at least of disobliging Henry’s
potent minister. As a question of
interest, the decision was only too likely to be unfavourable to Tindale, and
the consciences of the two supreme authorities would still further incline the
verdict against him. No words of mercy
came from those with whom the prerogative of mercy was lodged; and nothing
remained for the Council of Brabant but to act as the law required*. (pp. 537-541.)
[* I have searched in vain for the
correspondence which must have passed between Mary and
Charles, but it may yet be discovered and throw light upon this most
interesting subject.]
* *
* * *
* *
10. TINDALE
EXECUTED ON OCTOBER 6, 1536.
According to Foxe, Tindale had a respite of
nearly two months between his condemnation and his martyrdom; and one hopes
that, after the solemn mummeries of degradation were duly accomplished,
the calm interval of preparation was not interrupted by the officious
ministrations of the priests and confessors who were usually intruded upon
condemned heretics, to convince them, if possible, at the last moment, of their
errors, and to induce them to recant.
Tindale, it must have been manifest, was not likely to be influenced by
such agents, and one would gladly believe, therefore, that he was spared this
annoyance, and that he was permitted to prepare himself in peace for that dread
ordeal of which he had before said to Frith, “Let not
your body faint; he that endureth to the
end shall be saved; if the pain be above your strength, remember, ‘Whatsoever ye shall
ask in My name I will give it you,’ and pray for your Father in that name, and He
shall ease your pain or shorten it.”
The death which he had to face was not, however,
quite so terrible as that of Frith; by the laws of the emperor Anabaptists
alone were burned alive; and though Tindale’s body was to be consumed, it would
not be till after he had been reft of life by a mode
of death much more speedily than the painful one of burning. He was to be strangled, and his body was then
burned. Friday, October 6, was fixed as
the day of his execution. The place was,
doubtless, some spot on that side of the castle next the town, where it could
easily be witnessed from the churchyard and from the walls that ran in front of
what is now the Rue des Moines Blancs.
No record of the martyrdom has been given by any
eye-witnesses; but the description given by Ensinas of an execution precisely similar may
be here quoted, as probably in almost all its details applicable to the
case of Tindale.
“A space was enclosed
with palisades, and all were excluded except those who had to play a part in
the martyrdom. In the midst of the
enclosure was erected a large piece of wood in the shape of a cross as high as
a man, and firmly fixed in the ground to the same depth. On the top was an iron chain fixed to the
wood, and a hole in which a rope of hemp was inserted: and near the foot was
piled an immense heap of brushwood. When
all was ready the Procureur-General and the rest of
the judges were conducted to the place that was prepared for them in the
immediate neighbourhood of the fatal spot.
Finally, the prisoner was led out, and was permitted to engage for a few
moments in prayer.”
“He cried,” says Foxe, in
the sole detail he was given of Tindale’s death, “at
the stake with a fervent zeal and a loud voice, ‘Lord, open the King of
“This prayer finished,
he was immediately led by the executioner to the stake; his feet were bound to
the stake; the iron chain which hung from the tip was fastened round his neck,
along with the hemp rope loosely tied in a noose. The faggots were piled around with quantities
of straw, and heaped up till the victim almost seemed enclosed in a little
hut. Then, at a signal from the Prucureur, the executioner stepped behind and tightened the rope with great force, so as
in a few moments to strangle the victim.
When life was extinct, the Procureur seized a
torch and kindled the pile, which blazed forth with fury, and in a very short
space completely consumed the body*.” (* Wicked Mammon and Obedience.)
“If they shall burn me,”
he said eight years before, “they shall do none
other thing than that I look for.”
“There is none other way into the kingdom of life than
through persecution and suffering of pain, and of very death, after the
ensample of Christ*.”
And now after a long interval the
death which he had so long before anticipated had overtaken him; the untiring
malice of his enemies had at length succeeded in cutting short his life; but
the work was beyond their power. The spot where his ashes rest is unknown; but that work for which
he lived and died has, like the seed in the parable, grown up into the
mightiest trees. There is
scarcely a corner of the habitable globe into which English energy has not
penetrated; and wherever the English language is heard, there the words in
which Tindale gave his Holy Scripture to his countrymen are repeated with
heart-felt reverence as the holiest and yet the most familiar of all
words. They are the first that the
opening intellect of the child receives with wondering faith from the lips of
its mother; they are the last that tremble on the tongue of the dying as he
commends his soul to God. Assuredly it
will not tend to diminish the reverence with which the universal
English-speaking people regard their Bible, if they read a little more
carefully the life of the heroic and simple-minded man to whose labour the
English Bible was chiefly owing, and whose spirit
still seems to reside in its grave, impressive sentences.
No laboured peroration is needed to set forth
the character and virtues of Tindale. This biography mush have been unsuccessful indeed, if it has
not presented a portrait which the reader has long ago recognized as that of a
true Christian hero. Heroic
is, in truth, the appropriate epithet for the character of Tindale; and heroic
is the noblest and highest sense of that somewhat misused word. One feels instinctively that he was no
ordinary commonplace man, no mere scholar, or active, energetic priest. He was no shrewd man of the world, but was ignorant as a child of the ordinary
arts by which favour is propitiated and popularity so frequently won. His simplicity, his earnestness, his noble
unselfishness, his love of truth, his independence, his clearness and force of
mind, his invincible energy and power, - these mark him out as a true hero, one
of those great men specially raised up and qualified for a noble work, whose
lives always constitute a landmark in the annals of human history.
Of the excellence of his moral character,
fortunately, no defence has ever been required.
The Procureur-General is reported to have
described him as “a learned, good, and godly man”;
and friends and enemies, in his own time and in subsequent ages, have with one unvarying consent repeated the same encomium. No voice of scandal has ever been raised
against him; and there are no black spots in his life which it is the duty of a
biographer to attempt to whitewash.
The extent of his influence upon the Reformation
in
This, however, was after all but a subordinate
part of Tindale’s work; that with which his name will be forever associated,
and for which his memory will be for ever revered, is his translation of Holy
Scripture. Of all English-speaking people,
who is able adequately to treat? And
this English Bible, it must once more be repeated, is the work of Tindale; is
for the greater part exactly what he made it, and in every part speaks in that
style which he infused into it. That
exquisite felicity of language which has made it dear to the hearts of all
classes, which has constituted it a true national treasure, it owes to
Tindale. His translation was no dead
piece of learned labour; it was instinct with the life of the man that produced
it; it was the Word of God transmitted
through the agency of one whom that Word was not an
outward letter, but the very life of his soul. It is on this account that the individuality
of Tindale is inseparably associated with the English Bible; its tone and spirit
have, in a certain sense, come from him; no revision has ever presumed to touch
what Tindale has stamped on it; no progress of scholarship is ever likely to
efface from it that which makes it truly Tindale’s work.
It has been reserved for some of his own
countrymen to impugn the scholarship of the great Translator. Perhaps, their discovery that the translation
whose pre-eminent merit it is that it so closely represents the original, may
be esteemed the highest and most curious achievement of literary stupidity in
our times. But to state such a
preposterous objection is to refute it.
Such calumnies can do no injury to the memory of Tindale: they prove
nothing but the ignorance and the recklessness of those who make them. Truth alone can stand the test of time and of
research; and the more thoroughly that the life of Tindale is examined, the
more has he hitherto been found to be deserving of the love and veneration of
his countrymen. The
more that his character and work are investigated, the more conspicuous is his
Christian heroism. There is
nothing to alloy the admiration with which we regard him, no taint of weakness,
no suspicion of selfishness, no parade of pride. Humble and irreproachable in his life,
zealous and devoted in his work, beloved by his friends, respected by his
enemies, faithful unto death, where among the army of martyrs shall we find a
nobler than William Tindale?
- (pp. 542-548.)
-------