appears to have foreseen, that the cultivation of the original languages would inevitably lead to a translation of the Sacred Volume into the vulgar tongue. Wolsey himself, only two years after Fox, had begun to encourage classical learning, by founding at Oxford, in 1519, not only a chair for Rhetoric and Latin, but one for Greek, with ample salaries; while his royal Master was also favourable to the progress of letters. Thus, in this very year, we know from the epistles of Erasmus, that a preacher having harangued at Oxford, with great violence, against the opinions inculcated by the new Professors; and his arguments having been keenly canvassed by the students, a just detail was laid before His Majesty, then residing at Woodstock, by Sir Thomas More, and Pace of Fox's College, when Henry interposed his authority, and transmitted to the University a royal mandate, commanding," that the study of the Scriptures, in the original languages, should not only be permitted for the future, but received as a branch of the academical institution."

We have, now, however, gone over the precise period in which our first and future translator of the Scriptures resided, both at Oxford and Cambridge. Such a combination of advantages fully explain the source of those attainments in learning, which he was afterwards to turn to such powerful account.

Tyndale was brought up, from his earliest years, at Oxford, and as a scholar, where, after a lengthened residence, he proceeded in "degrees of the schools;"17 or, as Foxe has said"By long continuance, he grew up and increased as well in the knowledge of tongues, and other liberal arts, as especially in the knowledge of the Scriptures; insomuch, that he read privily to certain students and fellows in Magdalen College some parcel of divinity, instructing them in the knowledge and truth of the Scriptures." His education "in grammar, logic, and philosophy, he received," says Wood, "for the most part, in St. Mary Magdalen's Hall," immediately adjoining the College of that name. At this Hall, first called Grammar Hall, from the attention paid to classical learning, and where Grocyn, as well as W. Latimer and Linacre, had lectured, the members stood, as they do now, on the same footing with those of the other Colleges; their course of study, tuition, length of residence, examination, and degrees, being precisely the same as the rest of the University. In those early days,

174 Whether he took a degree," says Wood, "doth not appear in our Registers," and for the best of all reasons-the Registers do not go so far back, as he himself has told us clsewhere.

however, these Halls, having no exhibitions nor endowments for scholarships, many of the students lived at their own charge; and since no man has ever once been mentioned as patronising Tyndale, throughout his whole life, the presumption is, that his expenses while at College must have been defrayed by his parents.18 Tyndale's zeal, however, had at last exceeded the endurance of his contemporaries, and exposed him to some danger. There is no ground for supposing that he was expelled; "but," says Foxe, "spying his time, he removed from Oxford to the University of Cambridge, where he likewise made his abode a certain space," and, it has been vaguely conjectured, took a degree. At all events, his residence in that city had terminated by the year 1519.

Possessed of such an education as he must have then acquired, as well as of such an ardour to improve, we cannot here disturb the narrative by any discussion as to its merits or extent. Sufficient evidence of both will occur in the following pages. We only remark here, that the incontrovertible proof of Tyndale's erudition, whether as a Greek or Hebrew scholar, is to be found in the present version of our Bible, as read by millions. "The circumstance of its being a recision five times derived, is an advantage altogether peculiar to itself, and doubly valuable from that circumstance." 19 While, notwithstanding this five-fold recension of the Greek and Hebrew original, large portions remain untouched, or verbally as the Translator first gave them to his country. It is, indeed, extraordinary that so many of Tyndale's correct and happy renderings should have been left to adorn our version, while the terms substituted, in other instances, still leave to him the palm of scholarship. When the incorrect, not to say injurious, sense, in which certain terms had been long employed, is duly considered, the substitution of charity for love, as Tyndale translated, of grace for favour, and church for congregation, certainly cannot be adduced as proofs of superior attainment in the original Greek.

In a historical point of view, however, and independently of his merits as a translator, it would be of some importance

18 From inattention to dates, and in the absence of authentic information, many wild assertions have been hazarded as to the early years of Tyndale. Among others, it has been said that he was chosen by Cardinal Wolsey one of those early Canons, selected to grace the opening of Cardinal College! By the time of this selection, Tyndale was beyond seas, in possession of that learning which he had acquired during the auspicious period at which we have glanced. It is a distinguishing feature of our Translator's history, that he never had a patron. 19 Whitaker.

if we could ascertain what had been the state of his mind, even before leaving the University, in reference to that great system of impiety and oppression, which, single handed, he was afterwards to assail with such decisive effect. Had he already seen through its character? Was he even already engaged in marking it, as he never after ceased to do? If he was, this would go a great way in proving him to have been an instrument raised up by God, as independently of Luther, as were Lefevre and Zuinglius. His lectures at Oxford, which must have been about 1517, if not earlier, and his being obliged to desist, certainly say as much as that he was in advance of the age, but how far, from this source, we have no intimation. If Tyndale himself would afterwards give us but one hint, we could not desire better evidence. By those, however, who are familiar with his writings, it must have been observed that he very seldom has introduced his own personal feelings, with any precision as to dates, not caring to establish himself, in point of priority, to any man: and yet there is one passage, with which he casually concludes his Exposition of the Epistle of John, which seems to glance as far back as the year 1518, if not to some time before it. He had been exposing the policy of the hierarchy, in raising the cry of sedition or insurrection, in the days of Wickliffe,— "And so," he adds, "the hypocrites say now likewise, that God's Word causeth insurrection; but ye shall see shortly that these hypocrites themselves, after their old wont and ensamples, in quenching the truth that uttereth their juggling, shall cause all realms Christian to rise one against another, and some against themselves. Ye shall see, then, run out, before the year come about, that which they have been in brewing, as I have marked, above this DOZEN years. This much have I said, because of them that deceive you, to give you an occasion to judge the spirits.”

Now, this language was published in September 1531; but "above a dozen of years," brings us back to 1518, if not to an earlier period. We leave the reader to form his own conclusion; but, at all events, such a state of mind was in perfect consonance with the course which Tyndale so immediately pursued, with all his characteristic vigour.2

20

20 Let it here, however, be observed, by the way, that in August 1518, Martin Luther was quietly awaiting the good effects which he imagined his submissive letter to the Roman Pontiff was calculated to produce. He had not seen Melancthon till the 25th of that month; and

Returning to his native county, Tyndale was soon actively engaged, and so continued to be, from Stinchcombe-hill down to Bristol, to the close of 1522. As the place where he lived, only eight miles south from that of his birth, is well known; nay, and the house under whose roof he spent his best and zealous exertions, in discussing aud defending the Word of God, is happily still in existence, to all such as may take an interest in the following history, there is not a more heartstirring spot in all England. The Halls of our Colleges, wherever they stand, have never given birth to a design, so vitally important in its origin, so fraught with untold benefit to millions, and now so extensive in its range, as that which ripened into a fixed and invincible purpose, in the Dining Hall of Little Sodbury Manor House.

It was in this house that Tyndale resided for about two years, as a tutor; and adjoining to it behind, there still stands, with its two ancient yew trees before the door, the little Church of St. Adeline, where of course the family and tenants attended. Foxe has said of Tyndale, while at Antwerp, that when he "read the Scriptures, he proceeded so fruitfully, sweetly,

it was on the 31st that he wrote in admiration of him to Spalatin-"I can wish for no better Greek master." Of course, nothing from the pen of Luther had yet reached England; but Tyndale has been giving lectures, some time before, to the students and fellows of Magdalen College, Oxford; and having quitted Cambridge also is now on his way to Gloucestershire.

and gently, much like unto the writing of John the Evangelist, that it was a heavenly comfort to the audience to hear him;" and so it may have been, under some of his earliest efforts, within the walls of this diminutive and unpretending place of worship. At all events, let it be observed, when his voice was first heard, Luther had not yet been denounced even by Leo X. at Rome, much less by Cardinal Wolsey in England. "About A.D. 1520," we are informed, that "William Tyndale used often to preach in Bristol." This he did on the great Green, sometimes called the Sanctuary, or St. Austin's Green. "He was at that time resident with Sir John Walsh at Little Sodbury, as tutor to his children, and on Sundays he preached at the towns and parishes in the neighbourhood, and frequently he had debates with the Abbots and other clergy who frequented the house."21

This small parish, with its manor house and inmates, thus become objects of no little interest, and for the sake not of Tyndale only, but especially of the design there formed, as well as of the circumstances that led to it, we must not refrain from giving some farther particulars.

In this part of Gloucestershire there are three contiguous parishes of the same name-Old Sodbury, Chipping, i. e. Market Sodbury, and the third, named Little Sodbury, by way of distinction. This last, consisting of about 900 acres, chiefly in pasture, lies on the side of Sodbury hill, and extends to its summit. On the edge of this hill is a strong Roman camp of an oblong square, where first Queen Margaret, and then Edward IV. in pursuit, had rested before the battle of Tewkesbury. Immediately below this camp, on the side of the hill fronting south-westward, stands the Manor House, an ancient building, from which there is a beautiful and extensive prospect over the vale, as far as the Bristol Channel. Four clumps of large trees growing above, objects very observable, are taken notice of through a large extent of country on that

21 Memoirs of Bristol, from old authorities, by Seyer, vol. ii., p. 215. This House, under Edward II. and III., had been inhabited by the Despencers; by the Stanshaws under Ed. IV., and in the year of Henry the Seventh's accession, or 1485, it came to the family of John Walshe of Olveston, by his marriage to Elizabeth Forster, daughter and heir of the previous proprietor. Henry VII., with an eagle eye to property, as well as the crown, had prevailed upon Ann, the old unfortunate Countess of Warwick, to settle the greater part of her large inheritance on him and his heirs. Hence it was that Henry VIII., through the Berkeley family, as already explained, and now through that of Warwick, had no small stake in the county of Gloucester. Among other property, the manor house of Old Sodbury was now in his gift, and hence, along with his knighthood, we shall find it given to Sir John. It may be added, that this explanation accounts for the many repeated gifts of property in Gloucestershire afterwards, both by Henry VIII. and his son Edward, more especially to Sir Ralph Sadler.