Lecture the Sirth.

THE STATE OF THE POPULAR MIND-WILLIAM TYNDALE-MILES COVERDALE-JOHN FOX-JOHN LELAND-GEORGE CAVENDISH-LORD BERNERS--JOHN BELLENDENSIR JOHN CHEKE-THOMAS WILSON--ROGER ASCHAM.

NE of the most striking features of the popular mind of England during the reign of Henry the Eighth, was a disposition to throw off the oppressive yoke of the Romish Church; and the measures which were taken to effect this great object, were wonderfully facilitated by the insufferable pride and pomp of the prelates of that church, and the shameful debaucheries of the monks. The latter had become so notorious that even the advocates themselves of popery did not attempt to deny it; and, accordingly, when it was pressed upon the consciousness of Sir Thomas More, his only reply was, 'Our mater is not of the lyuynge but of the doctryne.' This, it was early perceived, could be done so effectually in no other way as by affording to the people the means of reading the Scriptures in their vernacular language. To the attainment of this great end, the life of Tyndale was therefore devoted.

WILLIAM TYNDALE, the son of John Tyndale, of baronial dignity, was born at Hunt's Court in Gloucestershire, in 1477. From childhood he was destined for the church, and at a very early age he, accordingly, became a diligent student in the university at Oxford. He continued at Oxford till his proficiency in the Greek and Latin languages enabled him to read the New Testament to his fellow-students in Magdalen Hall, and also to those of Magdalen College. In this manner he laid the foundation of that skill in the learned languages so essential to the successful accomplishment of the great enterprise upon which he was soon to enter. Having taken his degrees at Oxford, Tyndale, for some reason not now known, entered the university of Cambridge, where he also took a degree, immediately after which he was ordained, and on the eleventh of March, 1502, was set apart as priest to the nunnery of Lambley in the diocess of Carlisle. He took the vows and became a friar in the monastery of Greenwich, in 1508. For some years previous to taking the vows, he had not only read the Scriptures to

his fellow-students, but by presenting, in an English dress, various portions. of the New Testament, evinced his early zeal for the noble enterprise which has perpetuated his name.

How long Tyndale remained with the Greenwich community is uncertain; but having returned to his native county, he exchanged the life of a friar for that of tutor and chaplain in the family of Sir John Welch, a knight of Gloucestershire, whose liberal table was certain to procure him the frequent visits of the neighboring prelates and clergy. Luther, at this time, having become, from his bold defiance of the Pope, the all-absorbing topic, the chaplain was often betrayed into disputes with his patron's guests on the new heresy. When mortified at the ignorance of his authorized guides, he would warmly urge upon them the study of the New Testament. This led them, in Fuller's witty phrase, 'to prefer resigning Squire Welch's good cheer, rather than to have the sour sauce of Master Tyndale's company.' At this display of Tyndale's independence and conscientious integrity, Sir John Welch's lady expressed strong disapprobation; but Tyndale took no other notice of her displeasure, than to translate and to dedicate to herself and Sir John Erasmus Enchiridion,' the attentive reading of which resulted in the happy conversion of both. He was now firmly scated anew in their regard; but the hostility of the beneficed clergy had been thoroughly aroused, and was not quieted until he was cited to appear before the ordinary. With a deep sense of his danger, it was his earnest prayer on the way, that God would strengthen him to contend firmly, at all hazards, for the truth of his word. His persecutors had assembled strong; but whether from the influence of his protecting knight, or the secret providence of God, their courage failed, and he escaped without accusation. The ordinary, however, ‘rated him like a dog."1

Tyndale now found it necessary, for better security, to leave the service of Sir John Welch, and he, therefore, made application to Tonstall, bishop of London, to become one of his chaplains; but while the fate of his application was pending, he happened to fall in company with a popish divine, with whom he argued the necessity of a vernacular translation of the Bible so conclusively, that the priest, unable to answer him, exclaimed, We had better be without God's law than the Pope's.' This audacity so fired the spirit of Tyndale that he indignantly replied, 'I defy the Pope and all his laws; and if God give me life, ere many years the plow-boys shall know more of the Scriptures than you do-a pledge which he afterward amply redeemed.

Having failed in his application for a chaplaincy under the protection of the bishop of London, Tyndale found an asylum in the house of Humphrey Munmouth, a wealthy alderman of London, with whom he continued to reside for about six months. The design of translating the New Testament into the English language, had now become the settled purpose of his life; and finding that his native country would no longer afford him even a

1 Offor.

temporary retreat in which to effect this purpose, he left England in 1523, and for conscience' sake became a voluntary exile from his native land for the remainder of his life. Having arrived at Hamburgh in Germany, he immediately passed thence into Saxony, and after a conference with Luther, who had just then published the New Testament in the German language. he at once completed and published at Wyttemburg in 1526, the first transla tion of the New Testament ever made from the original Greek into the English language. The sensation produced in England by this publication was intense; and notwithstanding every effort that the strength of the government could put forth, or the rage of the clergy invent to suppress it, still the word of God in the vernacular tongue, ' grew and prevailed.'

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From this period Tyndale became the object of such deep hatred by the Romish clergy, that they hunted him from place to place without intermission, until 1530, when he found, for a few years, comparative repose as chaplain to a company of English merchants at Antwerp, in Holland. During his sojourn in this city, he literally went about doing good.' 'He was,' says Mr. Offor, the almoner of his more wealthy countrymen. Saturday and Sunday were his days of relaxation from severe study: on the former, he visited the sick and dying foreigners, and on Sunday, both before and after divine service, he visited and relieved his fellow-exiles. Persecution for conscience' sake, swept like a pestilence over his native land; and carried along with it, the worthiest of her sons. Many fled to Antwerp as their asylum in the greatest distress; and found from Tyndale's generous sympathy, both refreshment to the spirit, and assistance in purse; he, in his charities, appearing like an angel of mercy; in preaching, like an apostle.'

At length, however, in 1534, he was treacherously apprehended through the agency of one Philips, an emissary of the English king, and immediately conveyed to a prison at Vilvoord, a small village situated between Brussels and Malines. During the greater part of his imprisonment, which lasted two years, he was treated by his jailor with great kindness; and he, therefore, improved the lenity thus extended to him by redeeming the pledge long before given to the priest of Gloucestershire that 'the plow-boys should have the New Testament to read.' With this view he caused to be printed in 1535, an edition of his version, in a provincial orthography, probably that of his native county, peculiarly adapted to agricultural laborers. The formalities of a trial were at length gone through with, and he was condemned, by virtue of a decree made at Augsburgh, against what was called heresy. In September 1536, he suffered the dreadful sentence of death by strangulation, immediately after which his body was bound to a stake and burned; and in his dying moments he uttered the fervent ejaculation, Lord, open the king of England's eyes.'

Besides the New Testament from the Greek, Tyndale translated the Pentateuch and other portions of the Old Testament from the Hebrew. He also wrote many tracts of a controversial character, in vindication of his con duct in endeavoring to give the Scriptures to the laity; the principal of

which are The Wicked Mammon, The Practice of Prelates, The Revelation of Anti-Christ, The Sum of Scripture, The Book of Beggars, and The Obedience of a Christian Man. In the latter of these works, which is considered the most valuable of his original compositions, he maintains, at some length, the necessity of a free circulation of the Scriptures in the vernacular language of every country; and after his Christian salutation, proceeds: Let it not make thee dispayre, neither yet discorage thee (oh reader) that it is forbidden thee in payne of lyfe and goodes, or that it is made breakynge of the kynges peace, or treason vnto his highnes to reade ye worde of thy soules health. But much rather be bold in the Lorde, and comfort thy soule. For as much as thou art sure and haste an euydent token thorow suche persecutyon, that it is the true worde of God, which worde euer hated of the worlde.' But the literary performance of Tyndale which should embalm his name in the heart of every Christian reader of the English language, is his translation of the New Testament. From this great work we extract the Lord's Prayer in the original spelling, and the third chapter of St. Matthew's Gospel, in the spelling of Offor's edition published in 1836.

THE LORD'S PRAYER.

Oure Father which arte in heven, halowed be thy name. Let thy kingdom come. Thy wyll be fulfilled as well in erth, as hit ys in heven. Geve vs this daye oure dayly breade. And forgeve vs oure treaspases, even as we forgeve them which treaspas vs Leede vs not into temptacion, but delyvre vs from yvell. Amen.

THE THIRD CHAPTER OF ST. MATTHEW'S GOSPEL.

In those dayes Jhon the baptiser cam and preached in the wildernes off iury saynge: Repente the kingdome of heven is at honde. This is he of whom it is spoken be the prophet Esay, which sayeth: The voyce off a cryer in wyldernes prepare the lordes way, and make hys pathes strayght.

This Jhon had his garment off camels heer, and a gerdeli off a skynne about his loynes. Hys meate was locustes and wyld hony. Then went out to hym Jerusalem, and all Jury, and all the region rounde aboute Jordan, and were baptised of hym in Jordon, knoledging their synnes.

When he sawe many of the pharises and off the saduces come to his baptism, he sayde vnto them: O generacion of vipers, who hath taught you to fle from the vengeaunce to come? brynge forthe therefore the frutes belongynge to repentaunce. And se that ye ons thinke not to saye in yourselves, we have Abraham to oure father. For I say vnto you, that God is able off these stones, to rayse up chyldren vnto Abraham. Even nowe is the ax put vnto the rote of the trees: soo that every tree which bringeth not fforthe goode frute, shal be hewne downe, and cast into the fyre.

I Baptise you in water in token of repentaunce, but he that cometh after me, is myghtier than I: whose shues I am not worthy to beare, he shal baptise you with the holy gost, and with fyre, which hath also his fan in his hond, and will pourge his floore, and gadre the wheet into his garner, and will burne the chaffe with everlastynge fyre.

Then cam Jesus from Galile into Jordon, to Jhon, ffor to be baptised off hym. But Jhon fforbade him, sayinge: I ought to be baptised off the: and commest thou to me? Jesus answered and sayde to hym: Lett hyt be so nowe. For thus hyt becommeth vs to fulfyll all rightewesnes. Then he suffred hym. And Jesus as sone as he was

baptised, came strayght out of the water: And lo heven was open vnto hym: and he saw the spirite of God descend lyke a dove, and lyght vpon hym. And lo there came a voice from heven sayng: thys ys my deare sonne in whom is my delyte.

In translating the Pentateuch, Tyndale was assisted by Miles Coverdale, who, in 1535, while Tyndale was in prison at Velvoord, published the first English translation of the whole Scriptures, with this title:--Biblia, the Bible; That is, the Holy Scriptures of the Olde and New Testament, faithfully translated out of the Doutche and Latyn into English.

COVERDALE was born in Yorkshire, in 1487, and educated at the university of Cambridge. He early became a Protestant, in consequence of which he left England for the continent. In 1551, he was made bishop of Exeter, but on the accession of Mary he again retired to the continent, where he remained until Elizabeth ascended the throne. He then returned to England, and lived in retirement until his death, which occurred in 1568, in his sixtyeighth year.

The translations of Tyndale and Coverdale were soon followed by others, so that the desire of the people for Scriptural knowledge was amply gratified. The dissemination of so many copies of the sacred volume, where neither the Bible nor any considerable number of other books had previously been in use, produced very remarkable effects. The people being now allowed to read the Scriptures for themselves, and to form their own judgment with regard to their meaning, perused them with such avidity, that their minds thence received that impulse for reading which is generally allowed to have been one of the causes of the flourishing literary era which so soon followed.

JOHN Fox, another of the theologians of this period, whose adoption of the principles of the Reformation brought them into difficulty, was born at Boston in Lincolnshire, in 1517. He was of respectable though not distinguished parentage, and having lost his father in infancy, his mother, by a second marriage, placed him under the care of a step-father; by whom, however, his early education was so carefully attended to, that he entered the university of Oxford at the age of sixteen. He took the degree of bachelor of arts in 1538, and for ability and learning was so distinguished that he was immediately after chosen fellow of the Magdalen College, and received thence his master's degree, in 1543.

Fox early discovered a genius for poetry, and while at the university, and before he had commenced the study of divinity, he wrote, in the Latin language, several comedies, the subjects of all of which were taken from Scripture. One of the comedies, De Christo Triumphante, was translated into English during the reign of Elizabeth by Richard Day, and has since been repeatedly bpulished under the title of Christ Jesus Triumphant, wherein is described the glorious triumph and conquest of Christ over sin, death, and the law.

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