The Reign of Henry the Eighth Part 37

[488] The suspicious eyes of the Bishops discovered Tyndal's visit, and the result which was to be expected from it.

On Dec. 2nd, 1525, Edward Lee, afterwards Archbishop of York, then king's almoner, and on a mission into Spain, wrote from Bordeaux to warn Henry.

The letter is instructive:

"Please your Highness to understand that I am certainly informed as I pa.s.sed in this country, that an Englishman, your subject, at the solicitation and instance of Luther, with whom he is, hath translated the New Testament into English; and within few days intendeth to return with the same imprinted into England. I need not to advertise your Grace what infection and danger may ensue hereby if it be not withstanded. This is the next way to fulfil your realm with Lutherians. For all Luther's perverse opinions be grounded upon bare words of Scripture, not well taken, ne understanded, which your Grace hath opened in sundry places of your royal book. All our forefathers, governors of the Church of England, hath with all diligence forbid and eschewed publication of English Bibles, as appeareth in const.i.tutions provincial of the Church of England. Nowe, sure, as G.o.d hath endued your Grace with Christian courage to sett forth the standard against these Philistines and to vanquish them, so I doubt not but that he will a.s.sist your Grace to prosecute and perform the same--that is, to undertread them that they shall not now lift up their heads; which they endeavour by means of English Bibles. They know what hurt such books hath done in your realm in times past."--Edward Lee to Henry VIII.: ELLIS, third series, vol. ii. p. 71.

[489] Answer of the Bishops: _Rolls House MS._ See cap. 3.

[490] Answer of the Bishops, vol. i. cap. 3.

[491] See, particularly, _State Papers_, vol. vii. p. 302.

[492] Proceedings of the Christian Brethren: _Rolls House MS._

[493] See the letter of Bishop Fox to Wolsey: STRYPE'S _Memorials_, vol. i.

Appendix.

[494] Particulars of Persons who had dispersed Anabaptist and Lutheran Tracts: _Rolls House MS._

[495] Dr. Taylor to Wolsey: _Rolls House MS._ Clark to Wolsey: _State Papers_, vol. vii. pp. 80, 81.

[496] ELLIS, third series, vol. ii. p. 189.

[497] Memoirs of Latimer prefixed to _Sermons_, pp. 3, 4; and see STRYPE'S _Memorials_, vol. i.

[498] FOXE, vol. v. p. 416.

[499] Tunstall, Bishop of London, has had the credit hitherto of this ingenious folly, the effect of which, as Sir Thomas More warned him, could only be to supply Tyndal with money.--HALL, 762, 763. The following letter from the Bishop of Norwich to Warham shows that Tunstall was only acting in canonical obedience to the resolution of his metropolitan:--

"In right humble manner I commend me unto your good Lords.h.i.+p, doing the same to understand that I lately received your letters, dated at your manor of Lambeth, the 26th day of the month of May, by the which I do perceive that your Grace hath lately gotten into your hands all the books of the New Testament, translated into English, and printed beyond the sea; as well those with the glosses joined unto them as those without the glosses.

"Surely, in myn opinion, you have done therein a gracious and a blessed deed; and G.o.d, I doubt not, shall highly reward you therefore. And when, in your said letters, ye write that, insomuch as this matter and the danger thereof, if remedy had not been provided, should not only have touched you, but all the bishops within your province; and that it is no reason that the holle charge and cost thereof should rest only in you; but that they and every of them, for their part, should advance and contribute certain sums of money towards the same: I for my part will be contented to advance in this behalf, and to make payment thereof unto your servant, Master William Potkyn.

"Pleaseth it you to understand, I am well contented to give and advance in this behalf ten marks, and shall cause the same to be delivered shortly; the which sum I think sufficient for my part, if every bishop within your province make like contribution, after the rate and substance of their benefices. Nevertheless, if your Grace think this sum not sufficient for my part in this matter, your further pleasure known, I shall be as glad to conform myself thereunto in this, or any other matter concerning the church, as any your subject within your province; as knows Almighty G.o.d, who long preserve you. At Hoxne in Suffolk, the 14th day of June, 1527.

Your humble obedience and bedeman,

"R. NORWICEN."

[500] FOXE, vol. iv.

[501] The papal bull, and the king's licence to proceed upon it, are printed in _Rymer_, vol. vi. part ii. pp. 8 and 17. The latter is explicit on Wolsey's personal liberality in establis.h.i.+ng this foundation. Ultro et ex propria liberalitate et munificentia, nec sine gravissimo suo sumptu et impensis, collegium fundare conatur.

[502] Would G.o.d my Lord his Grace had never been motioned to call any Cambridge man to his most towardly college. It were a gracious deed if they were tried and purged and restored unto their mother from whence they came, if they be worthy to come thither again. We were clear without blot or suspicion till they came, and some of them, as Master Dean hath known a long time, hath had a shrewd name.--Dr. London to Archbishop Warham: _Rolls House MS._

[503] Dr. London to Warham: _Rolls House MS._

[504] DALABER'S _Narrative._

[505] Clark seems to have taken pupils in the long vacation. Dalaber at least read with him all one summer in the country.--Dr. London to Warham: _Rolls House MS._

[506] The Vicar of Bristol to the Master of Lincoln College, Oxford: _Rolls House MS._

[507] Dr. London to Warham: _Rolls House MS._

[508] Radley himself was one of the singers at Christchurch: London to Warham. _MS._

[509] Dr. London to Warham: _Rolls House MS._

[510] On the site of the present Worcester College. It lay beyond the walls of the town, and was then some distance from it across the fields.

[511] Christchurch, where Dalaber occasionally sung in the quire. Vide infra.

[512] Some part of which let us read with him. "I send you forth as sheep in the midst of wolves; be ye therefore wise as serpents and harmless as doves. But beware of men, for they will deliver you up to the councils, and they will scourge you in their synagogues; and ye shall be brought before governors and kings for my sake, for a testimony against them and the gentiles. But when they deliver you up, take no thought how or what ye shall speak, for it shall be given you in that same hour what ye shall speak; for it is not ye that speak, but the Spirit of your Father which speaketh in you. And the brother shall deliver up the brother to death; and the father the child; and the children shall rise up against their parents, and cause them to be put to death. And ye shall be hated of all men for my name's sake: but he that endureth to the end shall be saved. Whosoever shall confess me before men, him will I confess also before my Father which is in heaven. Whosoever shall deny me before men, him will I also deny before my Father which is in heaven. Think not that I am come to send peace on earth; I came not to send peace, but a sword. For I am come to set a man at variance against his father, and the daughter against her mother, and the daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law. And a man's foes shall be they of his own household. He that loveth father or mother more than me is not worthy of me. He that loveth son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me. He that taketh not his cross and followeth after me is not worthy of me. He that findeth his life shall lose it, and he that loseth his life for my sake shall find it."

[513] Rector of Lincoln.

[514] Warden of New College.

[515] The last prayer.

[516] Dr. Maitland, who has an indifferent opinion of the early Protestants, especially on the point of veracity, brings forward this a.s.sertion of Dalaber as an ill.u.s.tration of what he considers their recklessness. It seems obvious, however, that a falsehood of this kind is something different in kind from what we commonly mean by unveracity, and has no affinity with it. I do not see my way to a conclusion; but I am satisfied that Dr. Maitland's strictures are unjust. If Garret was taken, he was in danger of a cruel death, and his escape could only be made possible by throwing the bloodhounds off the scent. A refusal to answer would not have been sufficient; and the general laws by which our conduct is ordinarily to be directed, cannot be made so universal in their application as to meet all contingencies. It is a law that we may not strike or kill other men, but occasions rise in which we may innocently do both. I may kill a man in defence of my own life or my friend's life, or even of my friend's property; and surely the circ.u.mstances which dispense with obedience to one law may dispense equally with obedience to another.

_If_ I may kill a man to prevent him from robbing my friend, why may I not deceive a man to save my friend from being barbarously murdered? It is possible that the highest morality would forbid me to do either. I am unable to see why, if the first be permissible, the second should be a crime. Rahab of Jericho did the same thing which Dalaber did, and on that very ground was placed in the catalogue of saints.

[517] A cell in the Tower, the nature of which we need not inquire into.

[518] FOXE, vol. v. p. 421.

[519] Dr. London to the Bishop of Lincoln: _Rolls House MS._

[520] Ibid.

[521] Dr. Forman, rector of All Hallows, who had himself been in trouble for heterodoxy.

[522] Dr. London to the Bishop of Lincoln, Feb. 20, 1528: _Rolls House MS._

[523] Now c.o.kethorpe Park, three miles from Stanton Harcourt, and about twelve from Oxford. The village has disappeared.

[524] Vicar of All Saints, Bristol, to the Rector of Lincoln: _Rolls House MS._

[525] The Vicar of All Saints to the Rector of Lincoln: _Rolls House MS._

[526] Dr. London to the Bishop of Lincoln: _Rolls House MS._

[527] Long extracts from it are printed in FOXE, vol. iv.

[528] Another of the brethren, afterwards Bishop of St. David's, and one of the Marian victims.

[529] Bishop of Lincoln to Wolsey, March 5, 1527-8: _Rolls House MS._: and see ELLIS, third series, vol. ii. p. 77.