History of the Reformation in the Sixteenth Century Volume V Part 53

x.x.xii.

[948] Sensuum suadela eam abrumpere cupiat consuetudinem. Ibid. p.

x.x.xiii.

[949] Qui nullam aut certe diminutam hic Romani pontificis auctoritatem. Ibid.

[950] Dubitare non debes si quidem volueris recordare tua erga nos merita. State Papers, vii, p. 178.

[Sidenote: WOLSEY'S EARNESTNESS.]

Wolsey had not reached the term of his misfortunes. Gardiner and Bryan had just returned to London: they declared that to demand an avocation to Rome was to lose their cause. Accordingly Wolsey, who turned to every wind, ordered Da Casale, in case Clement should p.r.o.nounce the avocation, to appeal from the pope, the false head of the church, _to the true vicar of Jesus Christ_.[951] This was almost in Luther's style. Who was this true vicar? Probably a pope nominated by the influence of England.

[951] A non vicario ad verum vicarium Jesu Christi. Ibid. p. 191.

[Sidenote: WOLSEY'S GRIEF.]

But this proceeding did not a.s.sure the cardinal: he was losing his judgment. A short time before this Du Bellay, who had just returned from Paris, whither he had gone to retain France on the side of England, had been invited to Richmond by Wolsey. As the two prelates were walking in the park, on that hill whence the eye ranges over the fertile and undulating fields through which the winding Thames pours its tranquil waters, the unhappy cardinal observed to the bishop: "My trouble is the greatest that ever was!... I have excited and carried on this matter of the divorce, to dissolve the union between the two houses of Spain and England, by sowing misunderstanding between them, as if I had no part in it.[952] You know it was in the interest of France; I therefore entreat the king your master and her majesty to do every thing that may forward the divorce. I shall esteem such a favour more than if they made me pope; but if they refuse me, my ruin is inevitable." And then giving way to despair, he exclaimed: "Alas!

would that I were going to be buried to-morrow!"

[952] Du Bellay to Montmorency, 22nd May. Le Grand, Preuves, p. 319.

The wretched man was drinking the bitter cup his perfidies had prepared for him. All seemed to conspire against Henry, and Bennet was recalled shortly after. It was said at court and in the city: "Since the pope sacrifices us to the emperor, let us sacrifice the pope."

Clement VII, intimidated by the threats of Charles V, and tottering upon his throne, madly repelled with his foot the bark of England.

Europe was all attention, and began to think that the proud vessel of Albion, cutting the cable that bound her to the pontiffs, would boldly spread her canva.s.s to the winds, and ever after sail the sea alone, wafted onwards by the breeze that comes from heaven.

The influence of Rome over Europe is in great measure political. It loses a kingdom by a royal quarrel, and might in this same way lose ten.

CHAPTER VII.

Discussion Between the Evangelicals and the Catholics--Union of Learning and Life--The Laity--Tewkesbury--His Appearance before the Bishop's Court--He is tortured--Two Cla.s.ses of Opponents--A Theological Duel--Scripture and the Church--Emanc.i.p.ation of the Mind--Mission to the Low Countries--Tyndale's Embarra.s.sment--Tonstall wishes to buy the Books--Packington's Stratagem--Tyndale departs for Antwerp--His s.h.i.+pwreck--Arrival at Hamburg--Meets Coverdale.

[Sidenote: EVANGELICALS AND CATHOLICS.]

Other circ.u.mstances from day to day rendered the emanc.i.p.ation of the church more necessary. If behind these political debates there had not been found a Christian people, resolved never to temporize with error, it is probable that England, after a few years of independence, would have fallen back into the bosom of Rome. The affair of the divorce was not the only one agitating men's minds; the religious controversies, which for some years filled the continent, were always more animated at Oxford and Cambridge. The _Evangelicals_ and the _Catholics_ (not very catholic indeed) warmly discussed the great questions which the progress of events brought before the world. The former maintained that the primitive church of the apostles and the actual church of the papacy were not identical; the latter affirmed, on the contrary, the ident.i.ty of popery and apostolic Christianity.

Other Romish doctors in later times, finding this position somewhat embarra.s.sing, have a.s.serted that Catholicism existed only _in the germ_ in the apostolic church, and had subsequently developed itself.

But a thousand abuses, a thousand errors may creep into a church under cover of this theory. A plant springs from the seed and grows up in accordance with immutable laws; whilst a doctrine cannot be transformed in the mind of man without falling under the influence of sin. It is true that the disciples of popery have supposed a constant action of the Divine Spirit in the Catholic church, which excludes every influence of error. To stamp on the development of the church the character of truth, they have stamped on the church itself the character of infallibility; _quod erat demonstrandum_. Their reasoning is a mere begging of the question. To know whether the Romish development is identical with the Gospel, we must examine it by Scripture.

It was not university men alone who occupied themselves with Christian truth. The separation which has been remarked in other times between the opinions of the people and of the learned, did not now exist. What the doctors taught, the citizens practised; Oxford and London embraced each other. The theologians knew that learning has need of life, and the citizens believed that life has need of that learning which derives the doctrine from the wells of the Scriptures of G.o.d. It was the harmony between these two elements, the one theological, the other practical, which const.i.tuted the strength of the English reformation.

[Sidenote: TEWKESBURY BEFORE THE BISHOPS.]

The evangelical life in the capital alarmed the clergy more than the evangelical doctrine in the colleges. Since Monmouth had escaped, they must strike another. Among the London merchants was John Tewkesbury, one of the oldest friends of the Scriptures in England. As early as 1512 he had become possessor of a ma.n.u.script copy of the Bible, and had attentively studied it; when Tyndale's New Testament appeared, he read it with avidity; and, finally, _The Wicked Mammon_ had completed the work of his conversion. Being a man of heart and understanding, clever in all he undertook, a ready and fluent speaker, and liking to get to the bottom of every thing, Tewkesbury like Monmouth became very influential in the city, and one of the most learned in Scripture of any of the evangelicals. These generous Christians, being determined to consecrate to G.o.d the good things they had received from him, were the first among that long series of laymen who were destined to be more useful to the truth than many ministers and bishops. They found time to interest themselves about the most trifling details of the kingdom of G.o.d; and in the history of the Reformation in Britain their names should be inscribed beside those of Latimer and Tyndale.

The activity of these laymen could not escape the cardinal's notice.

Clement VII was abandoning England: it was necessary for the English bishops, by crus.h.i.+ng the heretics, to show that they would not abandon the popedom. We can understand the zeal of these prelates, and without excusing their persecutions, we are disposed to extenuate their crime.

The bishops determined to ruin Tewkesbury. One day in April 1529, as he was busy among his peltries, the officers entered his warehouse, arrested him, and led him away to the bishop of London's chapel, where, besides the ordinary (Tonstall), the bishops of Ely, St. Asaph, Bath, and Lincoln, with the abbot of Westminster, were on the bench.

The composition of this tribunal indicated the importance of his case.

The emanc.i.p.ation of the laity, thought these judges, is perhaps a more dangerous heresy than justification by faith.

[Sidenote: MORE'S ATTACK ON TYNDALE.]

"John Tewkesbury," said the bishop of London, "I exhort you to trust less to your own wit and learning, and more unto the doctrine of the holy mother the church." Tewkesbury made answer, that in his judgment he held no other doctrine than that of the church of Christ. Tonstall then broached the princ.i.p.al charge, that of having read the Wicked Mammon, and after quoting several pa.s.sages, he exclaimed: "Renounce these errors."--"I find no fault in the book," replied Tewkesbury. "It has enlightened my conscience and consoled my heart. But it is not my Gospel. I have studied the Holy Scriptures these seventeen years, and as a man sees the spots of his face in a gla.s.s, so by reading them I have learnt the faults of my soul.[953] If there is a disagreement between you and the New Testament, put yourselves in harmony with it, rather than desire to put that in accord with you." The bishops were surprised that a leather-seller should speak so well, and quote Scripture so happily that they were unable to resist him.[954] Annoyed at being catechised by a layman, the bishops of Bath, St. Asaph, and Lincoln thought they could conquer him more easily by the rack than by their arguments. He was taken to the Tower, where they ordered him to be put to the torture. His limbs were crushed, which was contrary to the laws of England, and the violence of the rack tore from him a cry of agony to which the priests replied by a shout of exultation. The inflexible merchant had promised at last to renounce Tyndale's Wicked Mammon. Tewkesbury left the Tower "almost a cripple,"[955] and returned to his house to lament the fatal word which the question had extorted from him, and to prepare in the silence of faith to confess in the burning pile the precious name of Christ Jesus.

[953] Foxe, iv. p. 690.

[954] Ibid. p. 689.

[955] Ibid.

We must, however, acknowledge that the "question" was not Rome's only argument. The gospel had two cla.s.ses of opponents in the sixteenth century, as in the first ages of the church. Some attacked it with the torture, others with their writings. Sir Thomas More, a few years later, was to have recourse to the first of these arguments; but for the moment he took up his pen. He had first studied the writings of the Fathers of the church and of the Reformers, but rather as an advocate than as a theologian; and then, armed at all points, he rushed into the arena of polemics, and in his attacks dealt those "technical convictions and that malevolent subtlety," says one of his greatest admirers,[956] "from which the honestest men of his profession are not free." Jests and sarcasms had fallen from his pen in his discussion with Tyndale, as in his controversy with Luther.

Shortly after Tewkesbury's affair (in June, 1529) there appeared _A Dialogue of Sir Thomas More, Knt., touching the pestilent Sect of Luther and Tyndale, by the one begun in Saxony, and by the other laboured to be brought into England_.[957]

[956] Nisard, Hommes ill.u.s.tres de la renaissance. _Revue des Deux Mondes._

[957] The Dialogue consisted of 250 pages, and was printed by John Rastell, More's brother-in-law. Tyndale's answer did not appear until later; we have thought it our duty to introduce it here.

[Sidenote: A THEOLOGICAL DUEL.]

Tyndale soon became informed of More's publication, and a remarkable combat ensued between these two representatives of the two doctrines that were destined to divide Christendom--Tyndale the champion of Scripture, and More the champion of the church. More having called his book a _dialogue_, Tyndale adopted this form in his reply,[958] and the two combatants valiantly crossed their swords, though wide seas lay between them. This theological duel is not without importance in the history of the Reformation. The struggles of diplomacy, of sacerdotalism, and of royalty were not enough; there must be struggles of doctrine. Rome had set the hierarchy above the faith; the Reformation was to restore faith to its place above the hierarchy.

[958] Answer to Sir Thomas More's Dialogue.

MORE. Christ said not, the Holy Ghost shall _write_, but shall _teach_. Whatsoever the church says, it is the word of G.o.d, though it be not in Scripture.

TYNDALE. What! Christ and the apostles not spoken of _Scriptures!...

These are written_, says St. John, _that ye believe and through belief have life_. (1 John ii, 1; Rom. xv, 4; Matthew xxii, 29.)[959]

[959] Ibid. p. 101.

[Sidenote: APOSTLES AND REFORMERS.]

MORE. The apostles have taught by _mouth_ many things they did not _write_, because they should not come into the hands of the heathen for mocking.

TYNDALE. I pray you what thing more to be mocked by the heathen could they teach than the resurrection; and that Christ was G.o.d and man, and died between two thieves? And yet all these things the apostles _wrote_. And again, purgatory, penance, and satisfaction for sin, and praying to saints, are marvellous agreeable unto the superst.i.tion of the heathen people, so that they need not to abstain from writing of them for fear lest the heathen should have mocked them.[960]

[960] Ibid. p. 28, 29.

MORE. We must not examine the teaching of the church by Scripture, but understand Scripture by means of what the church says.

TYNDALE. What! Does the air give light to the sun, or the sun to the air? Is the church before the Gospel, or the Gospel before the church?

Is not the father older than the son? _G.o.d begat us with his own will, with the word of truth_, says St. James (i, 18.) If he who begetteth is before him who is begotten, the _word_ is before the _church_, or, to speak more correctly, before the _congregation_.

MORE. Why do you say _congregation_ and not _church_?

TYNDALE. Because by that word _church_, you understand nothing but a mult.i.tude of shorn and oiled, which we now call the spirituality or clergy; while the word of right is common unto all the congregation of them that believe in Christ.[961]