History of the Reformation in the Sixteenth Century Volume V Part 18

Had they not the apostolical succession of the clergy? No hostile landing in England could, in their eyes, be more fatal than that of the New Testament. The whole nation must rise to repel this impudent invasion. There is, perhaps, no country in Europe, where the Reformation was received by so unexpected a storm.

[295] Ut nusquam non blaterent in Erasmum, in compotationibus, in foris, in conciliabulis, in pharmacopoliis, in curribus, in tonstrinis, in fornicibus......Ibid. p. 746.

CHAPTER II.

Effects of the New Testament in the Universities--Conversations--A Cambridge Fellow--Bilney buys the New Testament--The first Pa.s.sage--His Conversion--Protestantism, the Fruit of the Gospel--The Vale of the Severn--William Tyndale--Evangelization at Oxford--Bilney teaches at Cambridge--Fryth--Is Conversion Possible?--True Consecration--The Reformation has begun.

[Sidenote: THE NEW TESTAMENT IN THE UNIVERSITIES.]

While this rude blast was rus.h.i.+ng over England, and roaring in the long galleries of its convents, the still small voice of the Word was making its way into the peaceful homes of praying men and the ancient halls of Oxford and Cambridge. In private chambers, in the lecture-rooms and refectories, students, and even masters of arts, were to be seen reading the Greek and Latin Testament. Animated groups were discussing the principles of the Reformation. When Christ came on earth (said some) He gave the word, and when He ascended up into heaven He gave the Holy Spirit. These are the two forces which created the church--and these are the forces that must regenerate it.--No (replied the partizans of Rome), it was the teaching of the apostles at first, and it is the teaching of the priests now.--The apostles (rejoined the friends of the Testament of Erasmus)--yes, it is true--the apostles were during their ministry a living Scripture; but their oral teaching would infallibly have been altered by pa.s.sing from mouth to mouth. G.o.d willed, therefore, that these precious lessons should be preserved to us in their writings, and thus become the ever-undefiled source of truth and salvation. To set the Scriptures in the foremost place, as your pretended reformers are doing (replied the schoolmen of Oxford and Cambridge); is to propagate heresy! And what are the reformers doing (asked their apologists) except what Christ did before them? The sayings of the prophets existed in the time of Jesus only as _Scripture_, and it was to this written Word that our Lord appealed when he founded his kingdom.[296] And now in like manner the teaching of the apostles exists only as Scripture, and it is to this written word that we appeal in order to re-establish the kingdom of our Lord in its primitive condition. The night is far spent, the day is at hand; all is in motion--in the lofty halls of our colleges, in the mansions of the rich and n.o.ble, and in the lowly dwellings of the poor. If we want to scatter the darkness, must we light the shrivelled wick of some old lamp? Ought we not rather to open the doors and shutters and admit freely into the house the great light which G.o.d has placed in the heavens?

[296] Matth. xxii. 29; xxvi. 24, 54; Mark, xiv. 49; Luke, xviii. 31; xxiv. 27, 44, 45; John, v. 39, 46; x. 35; xvii. 12, etc.

[Sidenote: THOMAS BILNEY.]

There was in Trinity Hall, Cambridge, a young doctor much given to the study of the canon law, of serious turn of mind and bashful disposition, and whose tender conscience strove, although ineffectually, to fulfil the commandments of G.o.d. Anxious about his salvation, Thomas Bilney applied to the priests, whom he looked upon as physicians of the soul. Kneeling before his confessor, with humble look and pale face, he told him all his sins, and even those of which he doubted.[297] The priest prescribed at one time fasting, at another prolonged vigils, and then ma.s.ses and indulgences which cost him dearly.[298] The poor doctor went through all these practices with great devotion, but found no consolation in them. Being weak and slender, his body wasted away by degrees;[299] his understanding grew weaker, his imagination faded, and his purse became empty. "Alas!"

said he with anguish, "my last state is worse than the first." From time to time an idea crossed his mind: "May not the priests be seeking their own interest, and not the salvation of my soul."[300] But immediately rejecting the rash doubt, he fell back under the iron hand of the clergy.

[297] In ignaros medicos, indoctos confessionum auditores. (Th.

Bilnaeus Tonstallo Episcopo; Foxe, iv. p. 633.) To ignorant physicians, unlearned confessors.

[298] Indicebant enim mihi jejunia, vigilias, indulgentiarum et missarum emptiones. Ibid.

[299] Ut parum mihi virium (alioqui natura imbecilli) reliquum fuerit.

(Ibid.) So that being naturally weak at any rate, too little strength was left to me.

[300] Sua potius quaerebant quam salutem animae meae languentis. (Ibid.) They were seeking their own interest, rather than the salvation of my fainting soul.

[Sidenote: BEGINNING OF THE REFORMATION.]

One day Bilney heard his friends talking about a new book: it was the Greek Testament printed with a translation which was highly praised for its elegant Latinity.[301] Attracted by the beauty of the style rather than by the divinity of the subject,[302] he stretched out his hand; but just as he was going to take the volume, fear came upon him and he withdrew it hastily. In fact the confessors strictly prohibited Greek and Hebrew books, "the sources of all heresies;" and Erasmus's Testament was particularly forbidden. Yet Bilney regretted so great a sacrifice; was it not the Testament of Jesus Christ? Might not G.o.d have placed therein some word which perhaps might heal his soul? He stepped forward, and then again shrank back.... At last he took courage. Urged, said he, by the hand of G.o.d, he walked out of the college, slipped into the house where the volume was sold in secret, bought it with fear and trembling, and then hastened back and shut himself up in his room.[303]

[301] c.u.m ab eo latinius redditum accepi. Ibid.

[302] Latinitate potius quam verbo Dei, allectus. Ibid.

[303] Emebam providentia (sine dubio) divina. (Foxe, iv. p. 633.) I bought it doubtless, under the guidance of divine providence.

He opened it--his eyes caught these words: _This is a faithful saying, and worthy of all acceptation, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners; of whom I am chief_.[304] He laid down the book, and meditated on the astonis.h.i.+ng declaration. "What! St. Paul the chief of sinners, and yet St. Paul is sure of being saved!" He read the verse again and again. "O a.s.sertion of St. Paul, how sweet art thou to my soul!" he exclaimed.[305] This declaration continually haunted him, and in this manner G.o.d instructed him in the secret of his heart.[306]

He could not tell what had happened to him;[307] it seemed as if a refres.h.i.+ng wind were blowing over his soul, or as if a rich treasure had been placed in his hands. The Holy Spirit took what was Christ's, and announced it to him. "I also am like Paul," exclaimed he with emotion, "and more than Paul, the greatest of sinners!... But Christ saves sinners. At last I have heard of Jesus."[308]

[304] 1 Tim. i, 15.

[305] O mihi suavissimam Pauli sententiam! Foxe, iv, p. 633.

[306] Hac una sententia, Deo intus in corde meo docente. (Ibid.) By this one sentence, G.o.d teaching inwardly in my heart.

[307] Quod tunc fieri ignorabam. (Ibid.) Because then I knew not what was being done.

[308] Tandem de Jesu audiebam. Ibid.

His doubts were ended--he was saved. Then took place in him a wonderful transformation. An unknown joy pervaded him;[309] his conscience until then sore with the wounds of sin was healed;[310]

instead of despair he felt an inward peace pa.s.sing all understanding.[311]

"Jesus Christ," exclaimed he, "Yes, Jesus Christ saves!"... Such is the character of the Reformation: it is Jesus Christ who saves and not the church. "I see it all," said Bilney; "my vigils, my fasts, my pilgrimages, my purchase of ma.s.ses and indulgences, were destroying instead of saving me.[312] All these efforts were, as St. Augustine says, a hasty running out of the right way."[313]

[309] Sic exhilaravit pectus meum. Ibid.

[310] Peccatorum conscientia saucium ac pene desperabundum. Ibid.

[311] Nescio quantam intus tranquillitatem sentire. Ibid.

[312] Didici omnes meos conatus, etc. Ibid.

[313] Quod ait Augustinus, celerem cursum extra viam. Ibid.

Bilney never grew tired of reading his New Testament. He no longer lent an attentive ear to the teaching of the schoolmen; he heard Jesus at Capernaum, Peter in the temple, Paul on Mars' hill, and felt within himself that Christ possesses the words of eternal life. A witness to Jesus Christ had just been born by the same power which had transformed Paul, Apollos, and Timothy. The Reformation of England was beginning. Bilney was united to the Son of G.o.d, not by a remote succession, but by an immediate generation. Leaving to the disciples of the pope the entangled chain of their imaginary succession, whose links it is impossible to disengage, he attached himself closely to Christ. The word of the first century gave birth to the sixteenth.

Protestantism does not descend from the Gospel in the fiftieth generation like the Romish church of the Council of Trent, or in the sixtieth like some modern doctors: it is the direct legitimate son--the son of the master.

[Sidenote: THE VALE OF THE SEVERN.]

G.o.d's action was not limited to one spot. The first rays of the sun from on high gilded with their fires at once the gothic colleges of Oxford and the antique schools of Cambridge.

Along the banks of the Severn extends a picturesque country, bounded by the forest of Dean, and sprinkled with villages, steeples, and ancient castles. In the sixteenth century it was particularly admired by priests and friars, and a familiar oath among them was: "As sure as G.o.d's in Glo'ster!" The papal birds of prey had swooped upon it. For fifty years, from 1484 to 1534, four Italian bishops, placed in succession over the diocese, had surrendered it to the pope, to the monks, and to immorality. Thieves in particular were the objects of the tenderest favours of the hierarchy. John de Giglis, collector of the apostolical chamber, had received from the sovereign pontiff authority to pardon murder and theft, on condition that the criminal shared his profits with the pontifical commissioners.[314]

[314] Annals of the English Bible, i. p. 12.

[Sidenote: EVANGELIZATION AT OXFORD.]

In this valley, at the foot of Stinchcomb hill, to the south-west of Gloucester, there dwelt, during the latter half of the fifteenth century, a family which had taken refuge there during the wars of the Roses, and a.s.sumed the name of Hutchins. In the reign of Henry VII, the Lancasterian party having the upper hand, they resumed their name of Tyndale, which had been borne of yore by many n.o.ble barons.[315] In 1484, about a year after the birth of Luther, and about the time that Zwingle first saw light in the mountains of the Tockenburg, these partisans of the _red rose_ were blessed with a son, whom they called William. His youth was pa.s.sed in the fields surrounding his native village of North Nibley, beneath the shadows of Berkeley Castle, or beside the rapid waters of the Severn, and in the midst of friars and pontifical collectors. He was sent very early to Oxford,[316] where he learnt grammar and philosophy in the school of St. Mary Magdalene, adjoining the college of that name. He made rapid progress, particularly in languages, under the first cla.s.sical scholars in England--Grocyn, W. Latimer, and Linacre--and took his degrees.[317] A more excellent master than these doctors--the Holy Spirit speaking in Scripture--was soon to teach him a science which it is not in the power of man to impart.

[315] Bigland's Glo'ster, p. 293. Annals of the English Bible, i. p.

19.

[316] From a child. Foxe, Acts and Mon. v. p. 115.

[317] Proceeding in degrees of the schools. Ibid.

Oxford, where Erasmus had so many friends, was the city in which his New Testament met with the warmest welcome. The young Gloucesters.h.i.+re student, inwardly impelled towards the study of sacred literature, read the celebrated book which was then attracting the attention of Christendom. At first he regarded it only as a work of learning, or at most as a manual of piety, whose beauties were calculated to excite religious feelings; but erelong he found it to be something more. The more he read it, the more was he struck by the truth and energy of the word. The strange book spoke to him of G.o.d, of Christ, and of regeneration, with a simplicity and authority which completely subdued him. William had found a master whom he had not sought at Oxford--this was G.o.d himself. The pages he held in his hand were the divine revelation so long mislaid. Possessing a n.o.ble soul, a bold spirit, and indefatigable activity, he did not keep this treasure to himself.

He uttered that cry, more suited to a Christian than to Archimedes: e?reka, _I have found it_. It was not long before several of the younger members of the university, attracted by the purity of his life and the charms of his conversation,[318] gathered round him, and read with him the Greek and Latin gospels of Erasmus.[319] "A certain well-informed young man," wrote Erasmus in a letter wherein he speaks of the publication of his New Testament, "began to lecture with success on Greek literature at Oxford."[320] He was probably speaking of Tyndale.

[318] His manners and conversation being correspondent to the Scriptures. Ibid.

[319] Read privily to certain students and fellows, instructing them in the knowledge and truth of the Scriptures. Ibid.

[320] Oxoniae c.u.m juvenis quidam non vulgariter doctus. (Erasm. Ep. p.