HATED BY THE CARDINAL, BUT WORKING FOR GOD
“Many are the sayings of the wise,
Extolling patience as the truest fortitude,
But with the afflicted in his pangs their sound
Little prevails,... unless he feel within
Some source of consolation from above,
Secret ref refreshings that repair his strength,
And fainting spirits uphold.”
—MILTON.
“When such men use great plainness of speech we must not complain much, since they purchase it at a high price-THEIR LIFEBLOOD."—DAVIES.
LEAVES WORMS FOR MARBURG—FARTHER FROM ROME, YET NEARER TO THE TRUTH—"THE WICKED MAMMON," AND "THE OBEDIENCE OF A CHRISTIAN MAN"—READ BY KING HENRY—"THE PRACTICE OF PRELATES"—NOTES ON THE PENTATEUCH,
TYNDALE, it is supposed, reached Worms after his hurried flight to Cologne about October 1525, and there he remained for two years. Until the following April or May, he would be fully occupied with the labor which the issuing of the three thousand octavo and the three thousand quarto Testaments from the press involved. Immediately that this was accomplished, he parted cheerfully from his troublesome friend William Roye.
It has also been supposed that during his residence in Worms, Tyndale gave himself to the study of Hebrew, as a qualification for his work of translation.
In the year 1528 he left Worms for Marburg, which, under the rule of Landgrave Philip, was one of the most eminent of the Protestant cities of Germany. Here the work of the Reformation had been more thorough than in any other part of the Empire, as the Landgrave himself was a believer in Zwinglia's doctrine. Here Tyndale was both in safety, and yet in the society of learned men, who were able to assist him in his arduous enterprise. For the Landgrave had done his very utmost to attract men of piety and letters to his capital, and the reformed flocked to it as to a second metropolis of religion, and as next to Wittemberg. Here Tyndale met with the heroic Patrick Hamilton and other young men from Scotland, and here, also, he conversed with Barnes, who was then a fugitive from the Papal persecution which still raged in England. Sir Thomas More declared that Barnes then induced Tyndale to abandon the Lutheran view of the Sacrament, and his testimony is probably correct. In his Confutation he says:—
“Friar Barnes was of Zwinglia's sect against the sacrament of the altar, believing that it is nothing but bare bread. But Tyndale was yet at that time not fully fallen so far in that point, but though he were bad enough beside, he was yet not content with Friar Barnes for holding of that heresy. But within a while after, as he that is falling is soon put over, the Friar made the fool mad outright, and brought him down into the deepest dungeon of that devilish heresy wherein he sitteth now fast bounden in the chair of pestilence with the chain of pertinacity.”
The diction and the spirit are certainly not to be commended, but Sir Thomas More sometimes endeavored to compensate for a bad cause by virulent abuse. We shall have occasion to refer again to some of his coarse expressions with regard to the Reformers, and, therefore, we now only notice the fact that, while at Marburg, Tyndale adopted the Zwinglian view of the Sacrament. But a better companion than Barnes now came to comfort and sustain him; he was John Fryth, whom Tyndale called. "his own son in the faith.”
In him Tyndale found. a man after his own heart, and the intercourse of the two friends was probably a mutual joy.
About the time of Fryth's arrival in Marburg, Tyndale issued a book which created as great a sensation in England as his Testament had done. This was the book which is generally known as "The Wicked Mammon," or more fully, "The Parable of the Wicked Mammon." "The Wicked Mammon” is really an exposition of the parable of the Unjust Steward. Tyndale's main purpose in the book, however, was to set forth the cardinal doctrine of Justification by Faith, but in doing so he naturally assailed the gross errors of Rome.
In his preface Tyndale boldly declares the Pope to be Antichrist, an assertion which required much courage at the time, and said:—
“We had spied out Antichrist long ago if we had looked in the doctrine of Christ and His apostles; where, because the least seeth himself now to be sought for, he roareth and seeketh new holes to hide himself in; and changeth himself into a thousand fashions with all manner of vileness, falsehood, subtlety, and craft. Because that his excommunications are come to light, he maketh it treason unto the King to be acquainted with Christ. If Christ and they may not reign together, one hope we have —that Christ shall live forever. The old Antichrists brought Christ unto Pilate, saying, By our law He ought to die; ' and when Pilate bade them judge Him after their law, they answered, It is not lawful for us to kill any man; ' which they did to the intent that they which regarded not the shame of their false communications should yet fear to confess Christ, because that the temporal sword had condemned Him. They do all things of a good zeal, they say; they love you so well, that they had rather burn you than that you should have fellowship with Christ. They are jealous over your armies, as saith St. Paul. They would divide you from Christ and His Holy Testament, and join you to the Pope to believe in his testament and promise.”
The New Testament had been issued without Tyndale's name upon it, but at length the secret of his authorship had leaked out. Now with a sublime scorn both for the prelates and for their malice, Tyndale continues:—
“Some men will ask peradventure why I take the labor to make this work, inasmuch as they will burn it, seeing they burnt the Gospel? I answer, In burning the New Testament they did none other thing than that I looked for; NO MORE SHALL THEY DO IF THEY BURN ME ALSO; IF IT BE GOD'S. WILL, IT SHALL SO BE.”
Then Tyndale concludes his preface thus:—"Nevertheless, in translating the New Testament I did my duty, and so do I now, and will do as much more as God hath ordained me to do. And as I offered that to all men to correct it whosoever could, even so I do this. Whosoever, therefore, readeth this, compare it unto the Scriptures. If God's Word bear record unto it, and thou feelest in thine heart that it is so, be of good comfort and give God thanks. If God's Word condemn it, then hold it accused, and so do with other doctrines; as Paul counselleth his Galatians. Believe not every spirit suddenly, but judge them by the Word of God, which is the trial of all doctrine, and lasteth forever. Amen!”
“That precious thing which must be in the heart ere a man can work any good work," says Tyndale, "is the Word of God which in the Gospel preacheth, proffereth, and bringeth unto all that repent and believe the favor of God in Christ. Whoso heareth the Word and believeth it, the same is thereby righteous. Therefore it is called the Word of life, the Word of grace, the Word of health, the Word of redemption, the Word of forgiveness, and the Word of peace. For of what nature soever the Word of God is, of the same nature must the hearts be which believe thereon and cleave thereunto. Now is the Word living, pure, righteous, and true; and even so maketh it the hearts of them that believe thereon.”
Upon the duty of every man to help and to love his neighbor Tyndale is very emphatic, and his teachings are beautifully illustrated by his own self-denying life:—
“It is a wonderful love wherewith a man loveth himself. As glad as I would be to receive pardon of mine own life (if I had deserved death), so glad ought I to be to defend my neighbor's life, without respect of my life or my goods. A man ought neither to spare his goods, nor yet himself, for his brother's sake, after the example of Christ.”
He even goes so far as to say: " If thy neighbor need, and thou help him not, being able, thou withholdest his duty from him, and art a thief before God.... Every Christian man to another is Christ Himself, and thy neighbor's need hath as good right in thy goods as hath Christ Himself, which is heir and lord of all. And look what thou owest to Christ, that thou owest to thy neighbor's need. To thy neighbor owest thou thine heart, thyself, and all that thou hast and canst do.... Thus is every man that needeth thine help thy father, mother, sister, and brother in Christ; even as every man that doeth the will of the Father is father, mother, sister, and brother unto Christ.”
Probably no Christian teacher in that age would have dared to have written such words as the following; for the spirit of national hostility was very strong, and the persecuting mania was terribly prevalent:—
“Moreover, if any be an infidel and a false Christian, and forsake his household, his wife, children, and such as cannot help themselves, then art thou bound, if thou have therewith, even as much as to thine own household. And they have as good right in thy goods as thou thyself; and if thou withdraw mercy from them, and hast wherewith to help them, then art thou a thief. If thou show mercy, so doest thou thy duty and art a faithful minister in the household of Christ; and of Christ shalt thou have thy reward and thanks.”
Such doctrine was far in advance of the age, but it is interesting to notice how thus, as in some other things, Tyndale was far ahead of his contemporaries.
Simultaneously with "The 'Wicked Mammon,”
Tyndale issued another work, which was almost of as much importance to the Reformation as was his Bible. It is entitled "The Obedience of a Christian Man," and is both a defense of the Reformers from the charge of sedition, and also a call to them to persist in the path of duty in spite of persecution. "Adversity I receive at the hand of God is a wholesome medicine, though it be somewhat bitter," said Tyndale.
“O Peter, Peter!" he exclaims when speaking of the sins of the clergy, "thou wast too long a fisher; thou wast never brought up at the Arches, neither wast Master of the Rolls, nor yet Chancellor of England.... The parson sheareth, the vicar shaveth, the parish priest pilleth, the friar scrapeth, and the pardoner pareth; we lack but a butcher to pull the skin.”
He concludes with these noble words: “Remember that Christ is the end of all things. He only is our resting-place, He is our peace. For as there is no salvation in any other name, so there is no peace in any other name. Thou shalt never have rest in thy soul, neither shall the worm of conscience ever cease to gnaw thine heart, till thou come at Christ; till thou hear the glad tidings, how that God for His sake hath forgiven thee all freely. If thou trust in thy works, there is no rest. Thou shalt think, I have not done enough.... If thou trust in confession then shalt thou think, Have I told all?... Likewise in our holy pardons and pilgrimages gettest thou no rest. As pertaining to good deeds, therefore, do the best thou canst, and desire God to give strength to do better daily; but in Christ put thy trust, and in the pardon and promises that God hath made thee for His sake; and on that rock build thine house and there dwell.”
Such words were well calculated to stimulate and to comfort the persecuted, and it is, therefore, no wonder that they introduced an element into English religious life that was most important and unhappily infrequent before. Bilney, for example, had recanted, but after suffering long and acute distress of mind, "lie came at length to some quiet of conscience, being fully resolved to give over his life for the confession of that truth which before he had denounced. He took his leave in Trinity Hall of certain of his friends, and said he would go up to Jerusalem.... And so, setting forth on his journey toward the celestial Jerusalem, he departed from thence to the anchoress in Norwich, and there gave her a New Testament of Tyndale's translation and ' The Obedience of a Christian Man,' whereupon he was apprehended and carried to prison, there to remain till the blind Bishop Nixe sent up for a writ to burn him.”
Of Bainham, who was another who had abjured, Foxe says that he “was never quiet in mind or conscience until the time he had uttered his fall to all his acquaintance and asked God and all the world forgiveness. And the next Sunday after he came to St. Austin's with the New Testament in his hand in English and The Obedience of a Christian Man ' in his bosom, and stood up there before all the people in his pew, there declaring openly, with weeping tears, that he had denied God. After this he was strengthened above the cruel death by fire with remarkable courage.”
This book came into the hands of the King of England himself, and Strype thus relates the incident: " Upon the Lady Anne Boleyn waited a fair young gentlewoman named Mrs. Gaynsford; and in her service was also retained Mr. George Zouch, father to Sir John Zouch. This gentleman, of a comely, sweet person, was a suitor in way of marriage to the said young lady; and, among other love-tricks, once he plucked from her a book in English called Tyndale's Obedience,' which the Lady Anne had lent her to read. About which time the Cardinal had given commandment to the prelates, and especially to Dr. Simpson, Dean of the King's Chapel, that they should keep a vigilant eye over all people for such books that they come not abroad; that so, as much as might be, they might not come to the King's reading. But this which he most feared fell out upon this occasion. For Mr. Zouch was so ravished with the Spirit of God, speaking now as well in the heart of the reader as first it did in the heart of the maker of the book, that he was never well but when he was reading of that book. Mrs. Gaynsford wept because she could not get the book from her wooer, and he was as ready to weep to deliver it. But see the providence of God; Mr. Zouch, standing in the chapel before Dr. Simpson, ever reading upon this book, and the Dean, never having his eye off the book in the gentleman's hand, called to him, and then snatched the book out of his hand, asked his name, and whose man he was. And the book he delivered to the Cardinal. In the meantime the Lady Anne asketh her woman for the book. She on her knees told all the circumstances. The Lady Anne showed herself not sorry nor angry with either of the two. But said she, Well, it shall be the dearest book that ever the Dean or Cardinal took away.' The noble woman goes to the King, and upon her knees she desireth the King's help for her book. Upon the King's token the book was restored. And now bringing the book to him, she besought his Grace most tenderly to read it. The King did so, and delighted in the book; for saith he, This book is for me and all Kings to read.' And in a little time the King, by the help of this virtuous lady, had his eyes opened to the truth, to search the truth, to advance God's religion and glory, to abhor the pope's doctrine, his lies, his pomp and pride, to deliver his subjects out of the Egyptian darkness, the Babylonian bonds, that the pope had brought him and his subjects under.”
Wyatt repeats this story with some interesting variations, for he says that Anne was “but newly come from the King, when the Cardinal came in with the book in his hands to make complaints of certain points in it that he knew the King would not like of. And withal to take occasion with him against those that countenanced such books in general, and especially women, and as might be thought with mind to go farther against the Queen more directly, if he had perceived the King agreeable to his meaning. But the King, that somewhat afore disliked the Cardinal, finding the notes the Queen had made, all turned the more to hasten his ruin which was also furthered on all sides.”
So that the Cardinal in reality digged a pit and then stumbled into it; and Henry for once in his life read and admired the faithful setting forth of truth! Alas that Tyndale's own obedience should be unto death! But so it proved to be with him.
In 1530 Tyndale left Marburg and returned once more to Hamburg. During the same year he also published another book, which he entitled "The Practice of Prelates.”
In this book occurs the famous similitude, which we here subjoin:—
“And to see how our holy father the pope came up, mark the ensample of an ivy-tree: first it springeth out of the earth, and then awhile creepeth along by the ground till it findeth a great tree; then it joineth itself beneath alow into the body of the tree, and creepeth up a little, and a little, fair and softly. And, at the beginning, while it is yet thin and small, that the burthen is not perceived, it seemeth glorious to garnish the tree in the winter, and to bear off the tempests of the weather. But in the mean season it thrusteth roots into the bark of the tree to hold fast withal, and ceaseth not to climb up till it be at the top, and above all. And then it sendeth his branches along by the branches of the tree, and overgroweth all, and waxeth great, heavy, and thick; and sucketh the moisture so sore out of the tree and his branches, that it choketh and stifleth them. And then the foul stinking ivy waxeth mighty in the stump of the tree, and becometh a seat and a nest for all unclean birds, and for blind owls which hawk in the dark, and dare not come at the light.
“Even so the bishop of Rome, now called pope, at the beginning crope along upon the earth, and every man trod upon him in this world. But as soon as there came a Christian emperor, he joined himself into his feet and kissed them, and crope up a little with begging, now this privilege, now that; now this city, now that; to find poor people withal, and the necessary ministers of God's Word. And he entitled the emperor with choosing the pope and other bishops, and promoted in the spirituality, not whom virtue and learning, but whom the favor of great men, commendeth; to flatter, to get friends and defenders, withal.
“And the alms of the congregation, which was the food and patrimony of the poor and necessary preachers, that he called St. Peter's patrimony, St. Peter's rents, St. Peter's lands, St. Peter's right; to cast a vain fear, and an heathenish superstitiousness into the hearts of men, that no man should dare meddle whatsoever came once into their hands, for fear of St. Peter, though they ministered it never so evil; and that they which should think it none alms to give them any more (because they had too much already) should yet give St. Peter somewhat (as Nebuchadnezzar gave his god Baal), to purchase an advocate and an intercessor of St. Peter, and that St. Teter should, at the first knock, let them in.
“And thus, with flattering and feigning, and vain superstition, under the name of St. Peter, he crept up and fastened his roots in the heart of the emperor, and with his sword climbed up above all his fellowships, and brought them under his feet. And as he subdued them with the emperor's sword, even so by subtlety and help of them (after that they were sworn faithful) he climbed above the emperor, and subdued him also, and made stoop unto his feet, and kiss them another while. Yea, pope Cœlestinus crowned the emperor Henry the Fifth, holding the crown between his feet. And when he had put the crown on, he smote it off with his feet again, saying that he had might to make emperors, and put them down again.
“And he made a constitution that no layman should meddle with their matters, nor be in their councils, or wit what they did; and that the pope only should call the council, and the empire should but defend the pope, provided always that the council should be in one of the pope's towns, and where the pope's power was greater than the emperor's; then, under a pretense of condemning some heresy, he called a general council, where he made one a patriarch, another cardinal, another legate, another primate, another archbishop, another bishop, another dean, another archdeacon, and so forth, as we now see. And as the pope played with the emperor, so did his branches, his members, the bishops, play in every kingdom, dukedom, and lordship: inasmuch that the very heirs of them, by whom they came up, hold now their lands of them, and take them for their chief lords. And as the emperor is sworn to the pope, even so every king is sworn to the bishops and prelates of his realm; and they are the chiefest in all parliaments; yea, they and their money, and they that be sworn to them, and come up by them, rule altogether.
“And thus the pope, the father of all hypocrites, hath with falsehood and guile perverted the order of the world, and turned the roots of the trees upward, and hath put down the kingdom of Christ, and set up the kingdom of the devil, whose vicar he is; and hath put down the ministers of Christ, and hath set up the ministers of Satan, disguised, yet in names, and garments, like unto the angels of light and ministers of righteousness. For Christ's kingdom is not of the world; and the pope's kingdom is all the world.”
But Tyndale was not only active in his attack upon error; he was not less indefatigable in promulgating truth. For on the 17th of January in the same year, 1530, he issued from the press his translation of the Pentateuch. The notes in the margin in this translation are even more vigorous than those in the New Testament. Thus Tyndale says: "To bless a man's neighbor is to pray for him and to wish him good, and not to wag two fingers over him." "If we answer not our prelates, when they be angry even as they would have it, we must to the fire without redemption or forswear God." Upon Ex. 34:2020But the firstling of an ass thou shalt redeem with a lamb: and if thou redeem him not, then shalt thou break his neck. All the firstborn of thy sons thou shalt redeem. And none shall appear before me empty. (Exodus 34:20), "None shall appear before Me empty," Tyndale says, "That is a good text for the pope." To Balaam's question, "How shall I curse when God hath not cursed?" Tyndale notes, "The pope can tell how.”
Such words are not to be considered without due reflection as to the circumstances under which they were written. Tyndale had been long an exile, and he knew that plots had been again and again laid to entrap him. Although for a time he might hope to elude his persecutors, he well knew that eventually he must fall a victim to their cruelty, as many others had done before him. And he believed himself to be called of God for the purpose of combating the gigantic form of error that, like Apollyon, "straddled right across" the King's highway and withstood the pilgrims in the way to the Celestial City. Yet, although some may not approve of the notes, the counsel that is given in the prologue to Genesis will be read by all spiritual Christians with unqualified approval:—
“Though a man had a precious jewel and rich, yet if he moist not the value thereof, nor wherefore it served, he were neither the better nor richer of a straw. Even so, though we read the Scripture, and babble of it never so much, yet if we know not the use of it, and wherefore it was given, and what is therein to be sought, it profiteth us nothing at all. It is not enough, therefore, to read and talk of it only, but we must also desire God, day and night instantly, to open our eyes, and to make us understand and feel wherefore the Scripture was given, that we may apply the medicine of Scripture, every man to his own sores; unless that we intend to be idle disputers and brawlers about vain words, ever gnawing upon the bitter bark without, and never attaining to the sweet pith within.”