ance when they came, which before they had." This they marked, and supposing the change to have arisen from Tyndale's influence, they refrained, and at last utterly withdrew. They had grown weary of our Translator's doctrine, and now bore a secret grudge in their hearts against him.

A crisis was evidently approaching. The priests of the country, clustering together, began to storm at ale-houses and other places; and all with one consent, against one man. Whether the existing Chancellor of the diocese of Worcester had ever feasted at Little Sodbury, does not appear; but it cannot be long before Tyndale will have to stand before him. Fortunately the tutor has left on record his own reflections. as to this period of his life.

"A thousand books,” says he, "had they lever (rather) to be put forth against their abominable doings and doctrine, than that the Scripture should come to light. For as long as they may keep that down, they will so darken the right way with the mist of their sophistry, and so tangle them that either rebuke or despise their abominations, with arguments of philosophy, and with worldly similitudes, and apparent reasons of natural wisdom; and with wresting the Scriptures unto their own purpose, clean contrary unto the process, order, and meaning of the text; and so delude them in descanting upon it with allegories; and amaze them, expounding it in many senses before the unlearned lay people, (when it hath but one simple literal sense, whose light the owls cannot abide), that though thou feel in thine heart, and art sure, how that all is false that they say, yet couldst thou not solve their subtile riddles.

"Which thing only moved me to translate the New Testament. Because I had 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: for else, whatsoever truth is taught them, these enemies of all truth quench it againpartly with the smoke of their bottomless pit, (whereof thou readest in Apocalypse, chap. ix.) that is with apparent reasons of sophistry, and traditions of their own making; and partly in juggling with the text, expounding it in such a sense as is impossible to gather of the text itself."

Accordingly, "not long after this," says John Foxe, "there was a sitting of the (Italian) Bishop's Chancellor appointed, and warning was given to the Priests to appear, amongst whom Master Tyndale was also warned to be there. Whether he had any misdoubt by their threatenings, or knowledge given him that they would lay some things to his charge, is uncertain; but certain this is, as he himself declared, that he doubted their privy accusations; so that he, by the way, in going thitherward, cried in his mind heartily to God, to give him strength to stand fast in the truth of his word." But let us hear Tyndale's own expressions.

VOL. I.

“When I was so turmoiled in the country where I was, that I could no longer dwell there, the process whereof were too long here to rehearse, I thiswise thought in myself,-this I suffer, because the priests of the country be unlearned, as God knoweth, there are a full ignorant sort, which have seen no more Latin than that they read in their Portesses and Missals, which yet many of them can scarcely read. And therefore, because they are thus unlearned, thought I, when they come together to the ale-house, which is their preaching place, they affirm that my sayings are heresy. Besides they add to, of their own heads, that which I never spake, as the manner is, and accused me secretly to the Chancellor, and other the Bishop's Officers."

Here then was Tyndale, in the year 1522, brought to answer for himself; and having already had so many discussions with dignitaries on Sodbury Hill, as well as arguments with the priests in other places, one might have supposed that something decisive was on the eve of accomplishment; but it turned out an entire failure.

"When I came before the Chancellor, he threatened me grievously, and reviled me, and rated me as though I had been a dog; and laid to my charge whereof there could be none accuser brought forth, as their manner is not to bring forth the accuser; and yet, all the Priests of the country were there the same day."

Tyndale's future footsteps will frequently discover him to have been a man, who, in the history of his country stood literally alone; and here, it should seem, this peculiar feature had already begun to discover itself. As standing before the Chancellor of any diocese, we read of no second individual, in whose appearance there were so many curious coincidences. The reader will now recollect the thoroughly Italianised character of the district, as formerly described, and the questions very naturally present themselves-Who was this Chancellor? Who the Cardinal that had recently appointed him? Who was the non-resident Italian Bishop? nay, and who the reigning Pontiff himself, the fountain of all this oppressive authority? The Pontiff was Adrian VI., who, to appease Wolsey, had recently made him "Legate a latere" for life; the Bishop was Julio di Medici, the future Clement VII., and who, without even visiting England, had been made Bishop of Worcester by Leo X. The man who had lately appointed the Chancellor to the diocese was Wolsey himself, who farmed the whole district for his Italian brother; and the Chancellor, who had raised himself to this unenviable notoriety by so treating the man destined by Divine Providence to overcome all above him, as far as Rome itself was concerned; was a creature of the English Cardinal, a Dr. Thomas Parker, who

lived to know more of Tyndale's power and talents, than he then could comprehend. Had such men only known who was then within the Chancellor's grasp, with what eager joy would they have put an end to all his noble intentions ?25

Escaping, however, out of Parker's hands, the Tutor departed homeward, and once more entered the hospitable abode of Little Sodbury, but more than ever firmly resolved.

It is some alleviation to find that every man in the country was not of the same opinion with the reigning, if not furious Chancellor. "Not far off," continues Foxe, "there dwelt a certain doctor, that had been an old chancellor before to a bishop, who had been of old familiar acquaintance with Master Tyndale, and also favoured him well. To him Tyndale went and opened his mind on divers questions of the Scripture, for to him he durst be bold to disclose his heart. To whom the doctor said- Do you not know that the Pope is very Anti

25 Owing to the inaccuracy of several authors, there is some danger of this Chancellor being mistaken for Dr. Thomas Bell, the future Bishop of Worcester, as they have represented him to be Chancellor from 1518 to 1526. This is a mistake. Bell, who in 1518, had succeeded Haniball, now resident in Rome as Wolsey's correspondent, had been superseded by the appointment of Parker, to act for Julio di Medici, and he continued to act as Chancellor or Vicar-General from 1522 to 1535.-See Wood's Fasti, by Bliss, p. 70-80, and Green's Hist. of Worcester. No, Parker was evidently a man of great passion. He had commenced with Tyndale, and afterwards displayed his fury on another memorable occasion. This was actually the same man who dug up, and then burnt to ashes, the body of William Tracy, Esq. of Todington in Gloucestershire. This cost him a great sum, as will appear in our history under 1531; but he was not removed till 1535, when Hugh Latimer became Bishop. Parker died at Salisbury in 1538.

christ, whom the Scripture speaketh of? But beware what you say; for if you shall be perceived to be of that opinion, it will cost you your life; adding, I have been an officer of his; but I have given it up, and defy him and all his works."" 26

66

It was not long after this that Tyndale, happening to be in the company of a reputed learned divine, and in conversation having brought him to a point, from which there was no escape, he broke out with this exclamation, "We were better to be without God's laws, than the Pope's!" This was an ebullition in perfect harmony with the state of the country at the moment, but it was more than the piety of Tyndale could bear. “I defy the Pope,” said he, in reply, " and all his laws; and if God spare my life, ere many years, I will cause a boy that driveth the plough, to know more of the Scripture than you do!" It was one of those significant bursts of zeal, which will sometimes escape from a great and determined mind. It meant even more than met the ear, for, by this time, Tyndale might have said, with Jeremiah of old, and perhaps did so, "His word was in mine heart, as a burning fire shut up in my bones, and I was weary with forbearing, and I could not stay."

Just so, th' Omnipotent, who turns-the system of a world's concerns,
From mere minutiæ can educe-events of most important use;—
But who can tell how vast the plan-which this day's incident began?

After this, as might have been anticipated, the murmuring of the priests increased more and more. Such language must have flown over the country, as on the wings of the wind. Tyndale, they insisted, was "a heretic in sophistry, a heretic in logic, and now also a heretic in divinity." To this they added that "he bare himself bold of the gentlemen there in that country, but that, notwithstanding, he should be otherwise spoken to." 27

It was now evident that Tyndale could no longer remain, with safety, in the county of Gloucester, or within the Italian diocese of Worcester. He has therefore been represented, by Foxe, as thus addressing his Master: "Sir, I perceive that I shall not be suffered to tarry long here in this country, neither

26 Who could this "old familiar" be, if not William Latimer the Greek Scholar? He retired to Saintberry and Weston-Sub-Edge as Rector, and these were both in Gloucester County.

27 It must be remembered that Tyndale himself was the son of a respectable family, only eight miles distant; that he was now under the roof of Henry's Champion, and not to mention other gentlemen, that Sir John's brother-in-law, Sir Anthony Poyntz, was this year High Sheriff of the County.

shall you be able, though you would, to keep me out of the hands of the spirituality; and also what displeasure might grow thereby to you by keeping me, God knoweth; for the which I should be right sorry." Searching about, therefore, not so much for an avenue to escape, as for some convenient place to accomplish the determined purpose of his heart, by translating the Scriptures, he now actually first thought of Tunstal, Bishop of London, one of the future burners of his New Testament! From Sir John Walsh's intimate knowledge of the Court, there was no difficulty in procuring the best access to him; and so Tyndale must bid farewell for ever to his interesting abode on Sodbury Hill. It was his first and last, or only attempt throughout life to procure a Patron, and he will, himself, now describe his own movements.

28

"The Bishop of London came to my remembrance, whom Erasmus (whose

28 Before our leaving the House, however, which was then left by Tyndale with such intentions for his country's benefit and future glory, its history to the present day must not be withheld from the reader. Of its present aspect the reader has already seen three correct views. Sir John Walsh survived to the year 1546, when he was succeeded by Maurice Walsh, Esq., the pupil of Tyndale, then in his seventh year, when his Tutor left Sodbury. He married the daughter of Nicholas Vaux Lord Harrowden; but in 1556 a storm fell on this house. The lightning having entered at the parlour door, forced its way out at a window on the opposite side of the room, supposed to have been that part of the building which is seen on the left; one of the children was killed on the spot, and the father himself, with six others, were so much hurt that they all died in less than two months! An heir, however, survived, Sir Nicholas Walsh, and, as named after his grandfather Lord Harrowden, probably the eldest son. The manor, as well as that of Old Sodbury, continued in the family till 1608, when both were purchased by Thomas Stephens, Esq., Attorney-General to the Princes Henry and Charles. His eldest son, Edward, was High Sheriff in 1634. In prospect of this he had repaired the Manor House where Tyndale once lived, and hence, on the chimney-piece of the great room or Dining Hall, we have the family arms, having on one side the initials of his father and mother, T. S: E. S., on the other those of himself and his lady, E., and the date "A.D. 1633." Both houses were held by this family till 1728, when, through Sir Henry Winchcombe, they became the property, and Little Sodbury the abode of David Hartley, M.D., the author of Observations on Man. His great-grandson, Winchcombe Henry Howard Hartley, Esq., of Bucklebury House and of Little Sodbury, being the present proprietor. See Rudder, Alkyns, Burke's Commoners, &c.

At the back of this ancient Manor there was a room styled the Library, which the writer, with a friend, once visited; and with not a little interest, as the apartment in which Tyndale may have often sat, with his pupils around him; and, as Dr. Hartley is described by his son, to have been "methodical in the order and disposition of his books and papers, the companions of his thoughts," here, also, he may have mused the hours away. But on a subsequent visit this part of the house had been taken down, in apprehension of its falling! Surely it is to be hoped, although the house at present be inhabited by the Farmer on the Estate, and a new erection is said to be proceeding on still higher ground, that not one stone more will be removed. There is an interest said to be attached to Bucklebury House, Herts, in consequence of its being the occasional residence of the well known Lord Bolingbroke, but, in the eye of thousands, this is not to be mentioned in comparison with that which must ever be associated with the Farmer's present abode. Should this note ever meet the eye of the present respectable proprietor, we have no doubt that verbum sapienti sat est.

Upon our first approach to this house, in 1839, enquiring, by way of experiment, of a little girl who answered the door-whether she had ever heard of a man named Tyndale, who lived long ago? "Yes, Sir," she replied, "he lived in this house, and translated the Bible here." And in this the child was saying nothing more than our eminent antiquary Camden had said, for so even he imagined—“ The learned William Tyndale lived here as Tutor, &c., and here translated the Bible." It is, however, quite possible that Sir John may have heard him read here some specimen of what he was bent upon accomplishing.