History of the Reformation in the Sixteenth Century Volume V Part 30

[544] Necessity and combrance (G.o.d is record) _above strength_. Tynd.

Doctr. Tr. p. 390.

[545] Tyndale, Expositions, p. 123, (Parker Society).

[546] Arreptis sec.u.m quaternionibus impressis aufugerunt navigio per Rhenum ascendentes. (Cochl. p. 126.) Laying hold of four sheets that were printed they escaped on board a vessel, and ascended the Rhine.

When Cochlaeus and Rincke, accompanied by the officers of the senate, reached the printing office, they were surprised beyond measure. The apostate had secured the abominable papers!... Their enemy had escaped like a bird from the net of the fowler. Where was he to be found now?

He would no doubt go and place himself under the protection of some _Lutheran_ prince, whither Cochlaeus would take good care not to pursue him; but there was one resource left. These English books can do no harm in Germany; they must be prevented reaching London. He wrote to Henry VIII, to Wolsey, and to the bishop of Rochester. "Two Englishmen," said he to the king, "like the two eunuchs who desired to lay hands on Ahasuerus, are plotting wickedly against the peace of your kingdom; but I, like the faithful Mordecai,[547] will lay open their designs to you. They wish to send the New Testament in English to your people. Give orders at every seaport to prevent the introduction of this most baneful merchandise."[548] Such was the name given by this zealous follower of the pope to the word of G.o.d. An unexpected ally soon restored peace to the soul of Cochlaeus. The celebrated Dr. Eck, a champion of popery far more formidable than he was, had arrived at Cologne on his way to London, and he undertook to arouse the anger of the bishops and of the king.[549] The eyes of the greatest opponents of the Reformation seemed now to be fixed on England. Eck, who boasted of having gained the most signal triumphs over Luther, would easily get the better of the humble tutor and his New Testament.

[547] He was indebted to me no less than Ahasuerus was indebted to Mordecai. Annals of the Bible, i, p. 61.

[548] Ut quam diligentissime praecaverint in omnibus Angliae portubus, ne merx illa perniciosissima inveheretur. Cochlaeus, p. 126.

[549] Ad quem Doctor Eckius venit, dum in Angliam tenderet. Ibid. 109.

[Sidenote: TYNDALE ARRIVES AT WORMS.]

During this time Tyndale, guarding his precious bales, ascended the rapid river as quickly as he could. He pa.s.sed before the antique cities and the smiling villages scattered along the banks of the Rhine amidst scenes of picturesque beauty. The mountains, glens, and rocks, the dark forests, the ruined fortresses, the gothic churches, the boats that pa.s.sed and repa.s.sed each other, the birds of prey that soared over his head, as if they bore a mission from Cochlaeus--nothing could turn his eyes from the treasure he was carrying with him. At last, after a voyage of five or six days, he reached Worms, where Luther, four years before, had exclaimed: "Here I stand, I can do no other; may G.o.d help me!"[550] These words of the German reformer, so well known to Tyndale, were the star that had guided him to Worms. He knew that the Gospel was preached in that ancient city. "The citizens are subject to fits of Lutheranism," said Cochlaeus.[551] Tyndale arrived there, not as Luther did, surrounded by an immense crowd, but unknown, and imagining himself pursued by the myrmidons of Charles and of Henry. As he landed from the boat he cast an uneasy glance around him, and laid down his precious burden on the bank of the river.

[550] See above, book vii, chapter viii.

[551] Ascendentes Wormatiam ubi plebs pleno furore lutherisabat.

Cochlaeus, p. 126.

[Sidenote: TYNDALE'S PRAYER.]

He had had time to reflect on the dangers which threatened his work.

As his enemies would have marked the edition, some few sheets of it having fallen into their hands, he took steps to mislead the inquisitors, and began a new edition, striking out the prologue and the notes, and subst.i.tuting the more portable _octavo_ form for the original _quarto_. Peter Schaeffer, the grandson of Fust, one of the inventors of printing, lent his presses for this important work. The two editions were quietly completed about the end of the year 1525.[552]

[552] A copy of the _octavo_ edition exists in the Museum of the Baptist College at Bristol. If it is compared with the _quarto_ edition, a sensible progress will be found in the orthography. Thus we read in the latter: _prophettes_, _synners_, _mooste_, _sekynge_; in the octavo we find, _prophets_, _sinners_, _most_, _seking_. Annals of the Bible, i. p. 70.

Thus were the wicked deceived: they would have deprived the English people of the oracles of G.o.d, and _two_ editions were now ready to enter England. "Give diligence," said Tyndale to his fellow-countrymen, as he sent from Worms the Testament he had just translated, "unto the words of eternal life, by the which, if we repent and believe them, we are born anew, created afresh, and enjoy the fruits of the blood of Christ."[553] In the beginning of 1526, these books crossed the sea by way of Antwerp or Rotterdam. Tyndale was happy; but he knew that the unction of the Holy Ghost alone could enable the people of England to understand these sacred pages; and accordingly he followed them night and day with his prayers. "The scribes and Pharisees," said he, "had thrust up the sword of the word of G.o.d in a scabbard or sheath of glosses, and therein had knit it fast, so that it could neither stick nor cut.[554] Now, O G.o.d, draw this sharp sword from the scabbard.

Strike, wound, cut asunder, the soul and the flesh, so that man being divided in two, and set at variance with himself, may be in peace with thee to all eternity!"

[553] Epistle, in init.

[554] Tyndale's Works, ii, p. 378; or Expositions (Matthew), p. 131, (Park. Soc.)

CHAPTER XII.

Worms and Cambridge--St. Paul resuscitated--Latimer's Preaching--Never Man spake like this Man--Joy and Vexation at Cambridge--Sermon by Prior Buckingham--Irony--Latimer's Reply to Buckingham--The Students threatened--Latimer preaches before the Bishop--He is forbidden to preach--The most zealous of Bishops--Barnes the Restorer of Letters--Bilney undertakes to convert him--Barnes offers his Pulpit to Latimer--Fryth's Thirst for G.o.d--Christmas Eve, 1525--Storm against Barnes--Ferment in the Colleges--Germany at Cambridge--Meetings at Oxford--General Expectation.

[Sidenote: ST. PAUL REVIVED.]

While these works were accomplishing at Cologne and Worms, others were going on at Cambridge and Oxford. On the banks of the Rhine they were preparing the seed; in England they were drawing the furrows to receive it. The gospel produced a great agitation at Cambridge.

Bilney, whom we may call the father of the English Reformation, since, being the first converted by the New Testament, he had brought to the knowledge of G.o.d the energetic Latimer, and so many other witnesses of the truth,--Bilney did not at that time put himself forward, like many of those who had listened to him: his vocation was prayer. Timid before men, he was full of boldness before G.o.d, and day and night called upon him for souls. But while he was kneeling in his closet, others were at work in the world. Among these Stafford was particularly remarkable. "Paul is risen from the dead," said many as they heard him. And in fact Stafford explained with so much life the true meaning of the words of the apostle and of the four evangelists,[555] that these holy men, whose faces had been so long hidden under the dense traditions of the schools,[556] reappeared before the youth of the university such as the apostolic times had beheld them. But it was not only their _persons_ (for that would have been a trifling matter), it was their _doctrine_ which Stafford laid before his hearers. While the schoolmen of Cambridge were declaring to their pupils a reconciliation which was not yet worked out, and telling them that pardon must be purchased by the works prescribed by the church, Stafford taught that redemption was _accomplished_, that the satisfaction offered by Jesus Christ was _perfect_; and he added, that popery having revived the _kingdom of the law_, G.o.d, by the Reformation, was now reviving the _kingdom of grace_. The Cambridge students, charmed by their master's teaching, greeted him with applause, and, indulging a little too far in their enthusiasm, said to one another as they left the lecture-room: "Which is the most indebted to the other? Stafford to Paul, who left him the holy epistles; or Paul to Stafford, who has resuscitated that apostle and his holy doctrines, which the middle ages had obscured?"

[555] He set forth in his lectures the native sense. Thomas Becon, ii, p. 426.

[556] Obscured through the darkness and mists of the papists. Ibid.

[Sidenote: LATIMER'S PREACHING.]

Above Bilney and Stafford rose Latimer, who, by the power of the Holy Ghost, transfused into other hearts the learned lessons of his master.[557] Being informed of the work that Tyndale was preparing, he maintained from the Cambridge pulpits that the Bible ought to be read in the vulgar tongue.[558] "The author of Holy Scripture," said he, "is the mighty One, the Everlasting ... _G.o.d himself!_... and this Scripture partakes of the might and eternity of its author. There is neither king nor emperor that is not bound to obey it. Let us beware of those bypaths of human tradition, filled of stones, brambles, and uprooted trees. Let us follow the straight road of the word. It does not concern us what the Fathers have done, but what they should have done."[559]

[557] A private instructor to the rest of his brethren within the university. Foxe, Acts, vii, p. 438.

[558] He proved in his sermons that the Holy Scriptures ought to be read in the English tongue of all Christian people. Becon, vol. ii. p.

424. (Park. Soc.)

[559] We find his opinions upon that subject in a later sermon.

Latimer's sermons, p. 96, 97. (Park. Soc.)

A numerous congregation crowded to Latimer's preaching, and his hearers hung listening to his lips. One in particular attracted attention. He was a Norfolk youth, sixteen years of age, whose features were lighted up with understanding and piety. This poor scholar had received with eagerness the truth announced by the former cross-bearer. He did not miss one of his sermons; with a sheet of paper on his knees, and a pencil in his hand, he took down part of the discourse, trusting the remainder to his memory.[560] This was Thomas Becon, afterwards chaplain to Cranmer, archbishop of Canterbury. "If I possess the knowledge of G.o.d," said he, "I owe it (under G.o.d) to Latimer."

[560] A poor scholar of Cambridge ... but a child of sixteen years.

Becon's Works, ii. p. 424.

Latimer had hearers of many sorts. By the side of those who gave way to their enthusiasm stood men "swelling, blown full, and puffed up like unto Esop's frog, with envy and malice against him," said Becon;[561] these were the partizans of traditional catholicism, whom curiosity had attracted, or whom their evangelical friends had dragged to the church. But as Latimer spoke a marvellous transformation was worked in them; by degrees their angry features relaxed, their fierce looks grew softer; and, if these friends of the priests were asked, after their return home, what they thought of the heretic preacher, they replied, in the exaggeration of their surprise and rapture: "_Nunquam sic locutus est h.o.m.o, sicut hic h.o.m.o!_" (John vii. 46.)

[561] Becon's Works, ii. p. 425.

[Sidenote: JOY AND ANGER AT CAMBRIDGE.]

When he descended from the pulpit, Latimer hastened to practise what he had taught. He visited the narrow chambers of the poor scholars, and the dark rooms of the working cla.s.ses: "he watered with good deeds whatsoever he had before planted with G.o.dly words,"[562] said the student who collected his discourses. The disciples conversed together with joy and simplicity of heart; everywhere the breath of a new life was felt; as yet no external reforms had been effected, and yet the spiritual church of the gospel and of the Reformation was already there. And thus the recollection of these happy times was long commemorated in the adage:

When Master Stafford read, And Master Latimer preached, Then was Cambridge blessed.[563]

[562] Ibid.

[563] Becon's Works, ii. p, 425.

The priests could not remain inactive: they heard speak of grace and liberty, and would have nothing to do with either. If _grace_ is tolerated, will it not take from the hands of the clergy the manipulation of salvation, indulgences, penance, and all the rubrics of the canon law? If _liberty_ is conceded, will not the hierarchy, with all its degrees, pomps, violence, and scaffolds, be shaken? Rome desires no other liberty than that of free-will, which, exalting the natural strength of fallen man, dries up as regards mankind the springs of divine life, withers Christianity, and changes that heavenly religion into a human moralism and legal observances.

[Sidenote: THE PRIOR'S SERMON.]

The friends of popery, therefore, collected their forces to oppose the new religion. "Satan, who never sleeps," says the simple chronicler, "called up his familiar spirits, and sent them forth against the reformers." Meetings were held in the convents, but particularly in that belonging to the Greyfriars. They mustered all their forces. _An eye for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth_, said they. Latimer extols in his sermons the _blessings_ of Scripture; we must deliver a sermon also to show its _dangers_. But where was the orator to be found who could cope with him? This was a very embarra.s.sing question to the clerical party. Among the Greyfriars there was a haughty monk, adroit and skilful in little matters, and full at once of ignorance and pride: it was the prior Buckingham. No one had shown more hatred against the evangelical Christians, and no one was in truth a greater stranger to the Gospel. This was the man commissioned to set forth the dangers of the word of G.o.d. He was by no means familiar with the New Testament; he opened it however, picked out a few pa.s.sages here and there which seemed to favour his thesis; and then, arrayed in his costliest robes, with head erect and solemn step, already sure of victory, he went into the pulpit, combated the heretic, and with pompous voice stormed against the reading of the Bible;[564] it was in his eyes the fountain of all heresies and misfortunes. "If that heresy should prevail," he exclaimed, "there will be an end of everything useful among us. The ploughman, reading in the gospel that _no man having put his hand to the plough should look back_, would soon lay aside his labour.... The baker, reading that a _little leaven leaveneth the whole lump_, will in future make us nothing but very insipid bread; and the simple man finding himself commanded _to pluck out the right eye and cast it from thee_, England, after a few years, will be a frightful spectacle; it will be little better than a nation of blind and one-eyed men, sadly begging their bread from door to door."[565]

[564] With great pomp and prolixity. Gilpin's Life of Latimer, p. 8.

[565] The nation full of blind beggars. Gilpin's Life of Latimer.

p. 8.

This discourse moved that part of the audience for which it was intended. "The heretic is silenced," said the monks and clerks; but sensible people smiled, and Latimer was delighted that they had given him such an adversary. Being of a lively disposition and inclined to irony, he resolved to lash the plat.i.tudes of the pompous friar. There are some absurdities, he thought, which can only be refuted by showing how foolish they are. Does not even the grave Tertullian speak of things which are only to be laughed at, for fear of giving them importance by a serious refutation?[566] "Next Sunday I will reply to him," said Latimer.