for ever. It also extends the prohibition to the same books in "Douch" (German) and French. This proceeding justifies the character given of his persecutors by Tyndale: he calls them "fleshly-minded hypocrites, as making the Scripture theire own possession and merchandize, and so shutting up the kingdom of heaven, which is God's word, neither entring themselves, nor suffering them that would."*

Every effort of human wit, in addition to such cruel laws, was exhausted against these books. The usual intimidation was the fear of burning, both here and hereafter. More indulged his readers with a peep into the regions of terror, to frighten the poor Papists from inquiries after truth. "Tewkesbury would not have been martyred yf Tyndales vngracyouse bokes had neuer come in hys hande, for whych the pore wreche lyeth now in hell, and cryeth out on him; and Tyndall, yf he do not amende in tyme, he is lyke to fynde hym when they come togyther, an hote fyrebronde burnynge at hys bakke, that all the water in the worlde wyll neuer be able to quench. Then haue we Jonas made out by Tyndale, a boke that whoso delyte therein, shall stande in parell that Jonas was neuer so swalowed vppe wyth the whale, as by the delyte of that booke a mannes soule maye be so swalowed vppe by the deuyll, that he shall neuer haue the grace to gete out agayne."‡

This prologue is of considerable length, and is ironically severe, by showing the wicked conduct of the Jewish priests in our Lord's days, and the parallel conduct of the Roman Catholic teachers. It contains a clear exhibition of Tyndale's religious sentiments. "If thou find ought amisse, when thou seist thy selfe in the glasse of God's Worde, thynke it compendious wisdome, to amende the same betymes, monished and warned by the ensample of other men, rather than to tary vntil thou be beaten also." He calls the whale's belly a new schole in which Jonas lost much of his dross-and exhibits him as a warning. "And wyth Jonas let them that wayte on vanities, and seke God here

• Prologue to Jonas.

+ Preface to the Confutation of Tyndale.

This treatise is published in every edition of Tyndale's Bible. The original edition is of extreme rarity.

and there, and in euery templ, saue in theyr hertes;-go and seke the testament of God in thyne hart"-" and when the rage of thy conscience is ceased, offer thanksgeuing and paye the vowe of thy baptisme, that God only saueth of his only mercy-ascribe the cause of thy tribulacion vnto thyne owne synne, and the cause of thy delyuerance vnto the mercye of God."

The Lord Chancellor takes advantage also of the superstitious fears of the ignorant. It happened that at this period the country suffered under a severe famine, attended by great mortality. This the enlightened More attributes to Tyndale's heretical books; and he predicts that for this heresy the Almighty would send wars, sickness, and mortality.*

At other times, ridicule and raillery are tried, to aid the support of the tottering hierarchy-" Neuer was made a more folyshe frantyque boke than the Wycked Mammon." "Then haue ye an exposycyon also vppon the VII chapyter of Corinthyes, by whyche prestes, freres, monkes, and nonnes be taught that euangelical lyberty, that they may runne out a caterwawynge, and so wow and wedde.”+

Tyndale had now settled at Antwerp, as chaplain to the company of English merchants. Wherever he went, his unaffected piety and amiable manners secured the esteem of all who knew him; and although he sustained a public character, his abode was for some time veiled from his powerful enemies, who had long doomed the persecuted exile to death. He was thus shielded for four years against all their machinations.

During this perilous time he compiled a short treatise on the sacrament, severely condemning the absurdities and idolatry of the mass; but, fearing that it might offend some weak disciples, he withheld it from the press, and it was not printed until after his martyrdom.

With respect to all his tracts and treatises, Fox quaintly but justly says, they are no lesse delectable than also most fruitfull to be read."

Preface to the Confutation.

† More indulged in very indelicate jokes upon the vicious conduct and profligate concubinage of the clergy, but their getting married excited his unbounded abhorrence and anger.

THE emissaries of Henry, Cardinal Wolsey, and the Lord Chancellor, were at this time using their utmost efforts to bring Tyndale to England, that, by cutting short his life, the light of Scripture might be, as they vainly hoped, extinguished. The principal agent employed to effect this, was the British envoy in the Low Countries, Stephen Vaughan. The first communication from him which I have been able to discover, is a letter to his master, Henry VIII., dated January 26, 1530, from the town of Barrough, near Antwerp. From this it appears that Tyndale had not taken up his residence in the Low Countries at that time, so that, to open a correspondence with him, letters were addressed to three dif ferent cities in Germany. He was aware of the determined aim of his enemies to destroy him, and, like a hunted hart, concealed himself from his pursuers. The Envoy, having addressed his Majesty on political affairs, thus introduces the subject of our memoir. "I have written three sondry letters vnto Willyam Tyndall, and the same sent for the more suretie to iii several places; to Frankforde, Hamborough, and Marleborough. I

These papers are in the British Museum. I have published every word contained in them relative to Tyndale.

then nott assured in which of the same he was and had veray good hope, after I harde say in Englande that he wolde, upon the promise of your magestie and of your most gracious salue conducte, be content to repayre and cum into England, that I shulde partly therwith, and partly with such other perswasions as I then devised in my said letters, and fynally, with a promyse which I made hym, that whatsoever suretie he wolde reasonably desire for his safe coming in and going out of your Realme, my friends shulde labour to have the same graunted by your magistie. that now the brute and fame of suche thinges (as sithe my wrytyng to hym) hathe chaunced within your Realme, shulde provoke the man not only to be mynded to the contrary of that, whereunto I had thought without difficultie to have easily brought him, but also to suspect my perswasions to be made to his more parell and daungier, then, as I thynke if he were verily perswaded and put before you, your most gracious benygnytie and piteous. regarde naturall custome alwayse had towardes your humble subjectes considered, and specially to those, which knowlaging theyr offences, shall humbly requyre your most gracious pardon, he shall never have nede so doe or feare. Lyke as your magestie, as well by his letters written with his owen hande, sent to me for answer of my sayde letters, as also by the copie of another letter of his answering some other person whom your magestie had commanded to perswade by like meanys, may playnly apperceyue-whiche letters like as together I receyued from these parties, so sende I herwith enclosed to your highnes." This communication was accompanied by a letter to Lord Cromwell, in which he says, "It is vnlikely to gett Tyndall into England when he dayly hereth so many thinges from thense whiche feareth hym. After his booke answering my lord chancillor's boke be put fourthe, I thinke he wyll wryte no more. THE MAN IS OF A GRETTER KNOWLEGE THEN THE KYNGE HIGHNES DOTH TAKE HIM FOR, whiche well appereth by his workes. Wolde god he were in Englande."

The letters from Tyndale sent to the King by his envoy, have not yet been found. Should they still exist, their contents must be very deeply interesting.

Among the state papers is preserved part of a well written and affecting letter from one of the King's emissaries, who, in a very singular, and even romantic manner, obtained an interview with Tyndale. The courtier found himself most unexpectedly in the presence of his long-sought victim, who awed him with his dignified purity and truth, so that, in answering him, he tells his royal master that he did it as his poor wit would serve him. The letter bears every mark of explicit sincerity, and it displays in lively colours the sufferings of this great man. One to whom the nation is so deeply indebted, was living in painful and perilous concealment, afflicted with hunger, cold, and every privation, aggravated by the difficulties thrown in his way to prevent the circulation of the Scriptures. He deeply partook of the sorrows of David, whose tears flowed because the law of God was despised. Still, the great object for which he cherished life, was not yet accomplished. The Bible had not been printed and circulated in the English language. The king's agent thus writes:

"Please it your maiestie to be advertised, how that of late I obteyned a copie of one parte of tyndalles boke, answerynge to the boke put forth by my lord chancellor, whereof immediatly I gave knoledge to my Lord Thomas Cromwell, and him required thereof to advertyse your Highness as aperteyned; which copie beyng rudely writyn enterlynyd and difficult to be red, me thowght uncomly and not mete in so vile aray to be sent to the hands of your Riall maieste. The Regard whereof moved me to write it ageyne that it myght come to your most gracious hands the more legible and easy to your redyng, which parte I have herewith sent vnto your hyghnes, thynkyng that the matter therein conteynyd (for the modest order thereof) In regard of his former wrytyng, will somewhat better like you then some other of his works which he hath with lesse advisement, more Rashenses and ruder spirite put forthe before this tyme. this part which your grace receives nowe is but a third or fourth part of his hole worke, but comprehendeth in effect the substance and pithe of the other parts where he

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