Book of Fire (53 page)

Tyndale’s original writings include the prefaces and prologues to his translations, the
Exposicion of the fyrst Epistle of Seynt Jhon
and
An exposicion upon the v, vi, vii chapters of Mathew
, and the
Parable of the Wicked Mammon, The Obedience of a Christen Man, The Practyse of prelates
and
An Answere unto Sir Thomas Mores dialoge.
Three volumes of the original works were edited for the Parker Society by the divine and antiquary Henry Walter;
Doctrinal Treatises and Introductions
(Cambridge, 1848);
Expositions and Notes
with
The Practice of Prelates
(Cambridge, 1849); and
An Answer to Sir Thomas More’s Dialogue
(Cambridge, 1850).

The first brief narrative of Tyndale’s life appeared in 1548 in Edward Hall’s
The Vnion of the Noble and Illustre Famelies of Lancastre and Yorke.
John Bale included a short note in Latin on ‘Guilhelmus Tyndale’ in his
Illustrium Maioris Britanniae Scriptorum
of 1548. John Foxe published detailed accounts of Tyndale in different versions in his
Actes and Monuments.
Commonly known as
Foxe’s Book of Martyrs,
four editions (1563, 1570, 1576 and 1583) appeared during Foxe’s lifetime. The work became a Protestant classic and many abridged and edited versions were published over the following three centuries.
The Life and
Story of the true Servant and Martyr of God, William Tyndale
is from pp. 114–34 of
Acts and Monuments
, edited by S. Cattley, vol. 5 (London, 1837). This includes detail of Phillips’s behaviour in Antwerp and his betrayal of Tyndale. Reference is also made to the eight-volume edition of 1877, edited and revised by J. Pratt and introduced by the ecclesiastical historian John Stoughton.

The major Victorian biography,
William Tindale
by Robert Demaus, was published in 1871 by The Religious Tract Society of St Paul’s Churchyard in London, a few yards from the site of the fires on which many of Tyndale’s Testaments were burnt. Demaus was himself senior curate of St Luke’s, Chelsea, close to the site of Thomas More’s house. J. F. Mozley’s
William Tyndale
(London, 1937) is the painstaking between-wars work, which had the field largely to itself until David Daniell’s
William Tyndale
(New Haven and London, 1994).

Professor Daniell is a brilliant if solitary champion for Tyndale. He edited and introduced modern spelling versions of
Tyndale’s Old Testament, being the Pentateuch of 1530, Joshua to 2 Chronicles of 1537, and Jonah
(New Haven and London, 1992), the 1534
New Testament
(New Haven and London, 1989) and Tyndale’s
The Obedience of A Christian Man
(London, 2000). Professor Daniell also wrote the preface to the 1526
New Testament,
in its original spelling, which was edited by W. R. Cooper (London, 2000). A reprint of Tyndale’s 1534
New Testament
in the original spelling was introduced by Isaac Foot and edited by N. Hardy Willis (Cambridge, 1938). A facsimile of the Cologne fragment,
The Beginning of the New Testament Translated by William Tyndale 1525,
edited by A. W. Pollard, was published at Oxford in 1926.

The Oxford University
Register of Congregation 1505–17
refers to ‘Willelmus Hychyns’ and to his receipt of his BA and MA degrees. See also
The History of the University of Oxford
, vol. II,
Late Medieval Oxford
(Oxford, 1992), edited by J. I. Catto and R. Evans. In a brief study,
William Tyndale
(London, 1996),
Andrew J. Brown suggests that Tyndale was born rather earlier than supposed, by April 1491, and that he grew up in the part of Gloucestershire that lies to the west of the Severn, and not in a village – like Nibley or Slimbridge – that is to the east of the river.

The
Calendar of Letters and Papers
,
Foreign and Domestic
,
of the Reign of Henry VIII
, twenty-one volumes, edited by J. S. Brewer, J. Gairdner, R. H. Brodie et al. (London, 1862–1932), more simply known as
L&P
, is a consummate source of detail for the period. In particular, it details the attempts made to track down and then to win over Tyndale, and gives flesh to the strange figure of Henry Phillips. References (year/letter or paper number) include: the ‘articles ministered against Humfrey Munmouthe of the parish of All Saints Barking’ in vol. IV, pt. ii 1528/4260, and Monmouth’s Petition to Wolsey in ibid. 1528/4282; and John Hackett to Wolsey: 1528/4511 The agent and friar John West to Hackett is ibid. 1528/4693, while Hackett complains to Wolsey that the burgesses of Antwerp demand Harman’s release in ibid. 1528/4714. Herman Rinck to Wolsey is ibid. 1528/4810; Hackett to West ibid. 1528/5078; and West to Wolsey asking for funds to go to the Frankfurt Fair vol. IV, pt. iii 1529/5402. Stephen Vaughan wrote to Henry VIII in vol. V 1531/65/153/201/246, and to Cromwell ibid. 1531/247/248/303. Charles V wrote to Henry VIII refusing the latter’s request to extradite Tyndale in 1531/354. Vaughan wrote further to Cromwell, fearing that More had terrified Constantine into giving evidence against him in ibid. 1531/532/533/574.

The interrogation of Bainham is ibid. 1531/583. Sir Thomas Elyot wrote to the Duke of Norfolk on the difficulty of catching Tyndale in ibid. 1532/869 and to Cromwell ibid. 1532/1554. Tyndale’s letter to Frith, a copy of which More obtained, is vol. VI 1533/403/458. Vaughan wrote to Cromwell of More’s relations with Peto in Antwerp, mentioning that Peto had money out from England, in ibid. 1533/934. Thomas Poyntz to John Poyntz, his
brother, is vol. IX 1535/182, to Cromwell ibid. 1535/405, and Poyntz’s petition to the king vol. X 1536/222. Vaughan’s last despairing letter of 13 April 1536 – ‘if now you sende but your lettre … elles it wilbe to late’ – is ibid. 1536/663. The begging letters of Henry Phillips to his mother, father, brothers and Dr Brerewood, the chancellor of Exeter, are in vol. IX 1535/1138–1144. The letter from Sir G. de Casalis to Cromwell on ‘an Englishman named Philip’ at Rome claiming to be ‘a kinsman of Thos. More’ is vol. X 1536/796. Ambassador Hutton to Cromwell on Phillips’s supposed trip to Cornwall is vol. XII 1537/1293; Henry Phillips to Thyomas Bryerwod (Brerewood) vol. XIII, pt. ii 1538/99; Thomas Theabold (Tebold) to Cromwell ibid. 1538/507 and to Cranmer ibid. 1538/509; Ambassador Wriothesley to Cromwell on his going to Louvain to search for Phillips vol. XIV, pt. i 1539/233; Wriothesley on Phillips pleading for forgiveness ibid. 1539/247; Edward Carne to Cromwell on the Phillips escape ibid. 1539/248; Wriothesley to Cromwell on the escape, adding that he has been robbed ibid. 1539/264.

The
Biographical Register of the University of Oxford 1501–1540,
edited by A. B. Emden (Oxford, 1974), also contains the
L&P
references to Phillips – variously as Pfelepes, Philippes, Phylleppes and Phyllyps – on a volume basis.

The
Calendar of Letters
,
Despatches and State Papers relating to negotiations between England and Spain
, seventeen volumes, edited by G. A. Bergenroth et al. (London, 1862–1965) includes ambassadors’ dispatches, the correspondence of Catherine of Aragon and references to the divorce, as does the
Calendar of State Papers and Manuscripts relating to English Affairs preserved in the Archives of Venice and in the other Libraries of Northern Italy
, seven volumes, edited by L. Rawdon-Brown et al. (London, 1864–1947).

*

As to Tyndale’s great enemy,
The Yale Edition of the Complete Works
of St. Thomas More
(New Haven and London, 1963–) contains the attacks More made on him and his fellow evangelicals. The relevant volumes are:

Vol. 4,
Utopia
, ed. Edward Surtz S. J. and J. H. Hexter (1965)

Vol. 5, pts 1 and 2,
Responsio ad Lutherum
, ed. John M. Headley, trans. Sister Scholastica Manderville (1969)

Vol. 6, pts 1 and 2,
A Dialogue Concerning Heresies
, ed. Thomas M. C. Lawler, Germain Marc’hadour and Richard C. Marius (1981)

Vol. 7,
Letter to Bugenhagen
;
Supplication of Souls
;
Letter Against Frith
, ed. Frank Manley, Germain Marc’hadour, Richard C. Marius and Clarence H. Miller (1990)

Vol. 8, pts 1, 2 and 3.
The Confutation of Tyndale’s Answer
, ed. Louis A. Schuster, Richard C. Marius, James P. Lusardi and Richard J. Schoeck (1973)

Vol. 9,
The Apology,
ed. J. B. Trapp (1979)

Vol. 12,
A Dialogue of Comfort Against Tribulation
, ed. Louis L. Martz and Frank Manley (1976)

Vol. 14, pts 1 and 2,
De Tristitia Christi
, ed. and trans. Clarence H. Miller (1976).

More’s account of Thomas Hitton and his description of him as ‘the devil’s stinking martyr’ is vol. 8, pp. 16–17: More writes in p. 16, l. 32 to p. 17, l. 2, that Hitton was ‘delyuered in concluson for his obstinacye to the seculare handes, and burned uppe in his false fayth and heresyes, wherof he lerned the great parte of Tyndales holy bokes and nowe the spirit of errour and lyenge, hath taken his wretched soule with hym strayte from the shorte fyre to ye fyre euer lastyng. And this is lo syr Thomas Hytton the dyuyls stynkyng martyr of whose burnynge Tyndale maketh boste.’ More celebrates the death of John Tewkesbury in vol. 8, p. 21, ll. 32–5: ‘For which thynges and dyuers other horryble heresyes, he was delyuered at laste vnto the secular handes and burned, as there was neuer wretche I wene better worthy.’ He
mocks Tyndale for praising Tewkesbury’s courage, p. 20, l. 37 to p. 21, l. 5: ‘I here also that Tyndale hyghly reioyceth in the burnyng of Tewkesbery but I can se no very grete cause why but yf he reken it for a grete glory that the man dyd abyde styll by the stake when he was faste bounden to it. For as for the heresyes he wolde haue abiured thyem agayne wyth all hys harte, and haue accursed Tyndale to, yf all yt myghte haue saued hys lyfe.’

Richard Bayfield is also mentioned in the preface to the
Confutation of Tyndale’s Answer
, again with an accusation of cowardice and also of bigamy, in p. 17, l. 17 to p. 18, l. 3: ‘Then haue ye hadde here burned synnys at London of late Rycharde Bayfelde, late a monke and a preste, whyche fell to heresye and was aiured and after that lyke a dogge returnynge to his vomyte, and being fled ouer the sea, and sendynge from thense Tyndales heresyes hyther wyth many myscheuouse sortes of bokes … [H]e went about two wyues, one in Brabande [Brabant], a nother in Englande … Of Bayfeldes burnynge hath Tyndale no great cause to glory. For though Tyndales bokes brought hym to burnynge yet he was not so constante in his euangelycall doctryne, but that after he was taken, all the whyle that he was not in vtter dyspayre of perdon he was well contente to haue forsworen yt agayne …’ He expresses his satisfaction at the burnings, for which he blames Tyndale, in a passage in which he also rehearses the legal fig leaf by which the clergy did not condemn the heretics to death but instead tried them and then handed them to the civil power to impose the death sentence, in p. 589, l. 39 to p. 590, l. 7: ‘of whiche sorte there hathe of late some be burned in Smythfelde, as Bayfelde, Baynom and Teuxbery [Bayfield, Bainham and Tewkesbury]: the clergy maketh them nat hereytkes nor burneth them neyther. But Tyndales bokes and theyr owne malyce maketh them heretykes. And for heretikes as they be the clergy dothe denounce them. And as they be well worthy, the temporaltie dothe burne them. And after the fyre of Smythfelde, hell doth
receyue them where the wretches burne for euer.’ More rejoices in the prospect of Tyndale burning in hell with Thomas Bilney on p. 22, ll. 34–7: ‘For whych the pore wreche lyeth now in hell and cryeth out on hym,’ he writes of Bilney, and Tyndale ‘yf he do not amende in tyme, he is lyke to fynde hym when they come togyther, an hote fyrebronde burnynge at hys bakke, that all the water in the worlde wyll neuer be able to quenche.’ He claimed that Bilney was finally ‘conuerted vnto Cryste and hys trew catholyke fayth’ in a passage on p. 23, ll. 8–26 in which he wrote that God ‘of hys endles mercy brought [Bilney’s] hys body to deth, & gaue him yet ye grace to turne and saue hys soule’. A further section on ‘Bilnes returne to the catholik faith’ is on p. 518. More deals with his interrogation of George Constantine, and the way in which the prisoner confessed his knowledge of how Tyndale’s ‘deuelysshe bokes’ were smuggled, with ‘the shypmannes name that had them, and the markes of the ferdellys [packing crates]’, on pp. 19–20. More’s condemnation of women preachers is on p. 27. He thinks it right on p. 179, ll. 3–8, ‘to prohybyte the scrypture of god to be suffered in englyshe tonge amonge the peoples handes, lest euyll folke by false drawyng of euery good thynge they rede in to thye colour and mayntenauns of theyr own fone fantasyes, and turnynge all hony in to posyn, myght both dedly do hurte vnto theym selfe, and sprede also that infeccyone farther a brode’. More expresses his desire, on p. 338, ll. 25–6, that Tyndale and his like should ‘haue an hot iren thruste thorow thyr blasphemouse tonges’.

More denied harming any of the heretics he held in his Chelsea house in his
Apology
, vol. 9, p. 118, ll. 33–7: ‘And of all that euer came in my hande for heresy, as helpe me god, sauynge as I sayd the sure keeping of them and yet not so sure neyther but that George constantyne coulde stele awaye: ellys had neuer any of them any strype or stroke syuen them, so mych as a fylyppe on the forhead.’ However, he goes on to confirm that Constantine was
being held in the stocks with which More had equipped his Chelsea home when he broke free. Constantine, More says on p. 119, ll. 4–9, was ‘neyther so feble for lacke of meate but that he was stronge inough to breke the stockes, nor waxen so lame of hys leggys wyth lyenge but yet he was lyghte inough to lepe the wallys nor by any myssehandelyng of his hed so dulled or dased in hys brayn, but that he had wytte inough whan he was onys out, wysely to walke hys waye’. More went on to deny ill treatment of Segar Nicholson on p. 119, ll. 118–26: ‘But now tell the brethren many meruaylouse lyes, of myche cruell tormentynge that heretykes hadde in my house, so farforth that one Segar a boke seller of Cambrydge whyche was in myne house about foure or fyue days, and neuer hadde eyther bodely harme done hym, or fowle worde spoken hym … hath reported syns … that he was bounden to a tree in my gardeyn, and thereto pytuousely beten and yet besyde that bounden about the hed wyth a corde & wrongen, that hye fell downe dede in a swowne.’