side of the hills. In the sketch already given, one of these clumps may be seen on the left, but a nearer view will give a better idea of the house itself.

Inhabited by different families from the thirteenth century, it was now in possession of Sir John Walsh, Knight, as inherited from his father. Happening to have been Champion to Henry VIII. on certain occasions, and to please his royal master, the heir of Little Sodbury had been knighted, and received from him in addition, the Manor House of Old Sodbury, then in the gift of the Crown. Intimate as Walsh had been, both with the young king and the court, and now given to hospitality, his table was the resort, not only of the neighbouring gentry, but of the Abbots and other dignified ecclesiastics, swarming around him. Thus it was, that, whether in company, or alone with the family, where he was treated as a friend, Tyndale enjoyed one of the best opportunities for becoming intimately acquainted with the existing state of things, whether civil, or ecclesiastical so called. Sir John had married Anne Poyntz, the daughter of an ancient Gloucestershire family in the neighbourhood, a lady who took as warm an interest as her husband in the discussions at their table.22

22 Lady Walsh was the daughter of Sir Robert Poyntz of Iron Acton, by Margaret, dr. of Anthony Earl Rivers, after whom her brother was named. She was, therefore, the ancestor in a family which, in the male line, became extinct, only the other day, by the death of William

"This gentleman," says Foxe, "as he kept a good ordinary commonly at his table, there resorted to him many times, sundry Abbots, Deans, Archdeacons, with divers other doctors and great beneficed men; who there, together with Master Tyndale sitting at the same table, did use, many times, to enter into communication. Then Tyndale, as he was learned and well practised in God's matters, so he spared not to shew unto them simply and plainly his judgment; and when they at any time did vary from his opinions, he would shew them in the book, and lay before them the manifest places of the Scriptures, to confute their errors, and confirm his sayings." It was not long, however, before Sir John and his lady had been invited to a banquet given by these great Doctors. There they talked at will and pleasure, uttering their blindness and ignorance without any resistance or gainsaying. On returning home, both Sir John and his lady began to reason with Tyndale respecting those subjects of which the priests had talked at their banquet; one decided proof, that some considerable impression had been made. Tyndale firmly maintained the truth, and exposed their false opinions.

Well," said Lady Walsh, "there was such a doctor there as may dispend a hundred pounds, and another two hundred, and another three hundred pounds: and what! were it reason, think you, that we should believe you before them?"23 To this, Tyndale at the moment, gave no reply, and for some time after, said but little on such subjects.

He was at that moment busy with a translation from Erasmus of his "Enchiridion Militis Christiani," or Christian Soldier's Manual, the second edition of which, with a long and pungent preface, had appeared at Basil, in August 1518.24 Once finished, Tyndale presented the book to Sir John and his lady. "After they had read," says Foxe, "and well perused the same, the doctorly prelates were no more so often invited to the house, neither had they the cheer and counten

Stephen Poyntz, Esq., of Cowdray Park and Midgham. His daughters are married into the noble families of Clinton, Spencer, and Exeter.

23 The wages of a Haymaker, under Henry VII., were one penny a-day, and under Henry VIII. they had not risen above three-half-pence. The money referred to by Dame Walsh, was therefore equal to from £1500 to £4500 of our present money.

24 The first edition, printed in 1502, was composed by Frasmus "to correct the error of those who supposed religion to consist in mere ceremonies and bodily service, to the neglect of real piety." Written originally at the request of a lady, with a view to her husband, it was now translating into English for another couple, on whom it was to have no small effect. The preace will reward the perusal of any Oxford scholar in the present day.

ance when they came, which before they had." This they marked, and supposing the change to have arisen from Tyndale's influence, they refrained, and at last utterly withdrew. They had grown weary of our Translator's doctrine, and now bore a secret grudge in their hearts against him.

A crisis was evidently approaching. The priests of the country, clustering together, began to storm at ale-houses and other places; and all with one consent, against one man. Whether the existing Chancellor of the diocese of Worcester had ever feasted at Little Sodbury, does not appear; but it cannot be long before Tyndale will have to stand before him. Fortunately the tutor has left on record his own reflections. as to this period of his life.

“A thousand books,” says he, “had they lever (rather) to be put forth against their abominable doings and doctrine, than that the Scripture should come to light. For as long as they may keep that down, they will so darken the right way with the mist of their sophistry, and so tangle them that either rebuke or despise their abominations, with arguments of philosophy, and with worldly similitudes, and apparent reasons of natural wisdom; and with wresting the Scriptures unto their own purpose, clean contrary unto the process, order, and meaning of the text; and so delude them in descanting upon it with allegories; and amaze them, expounding it in many senses before the unlearned lay people, (when it hath but one simple literal sense, whose light the owls cannot abide), that though thou feel in thine heart, and art sure, how that all is false that they say, yet couldst thou not solve their subtile riddles.

"Which thing only mored me to translate the New Testament. Because I had perceived by experience, how that it was impossible to establish the lay people in any truth, except the Scripture were plainly laid before their eyes in their mother tongue, that they might see the process, order, and meaning of the text: for else, whatsoever truth is taught them, these enemies of all truth quench it again— partly with the smoke of their bottomless pit, (whereof thou readest in Apocalypse, chap. ix.) that is with apparent reasons of sophistry, and traditions of their own making; and partly in juggling with the text, expounding it in such a sense as is impossible to gather of the text itself."

Accordingly, “not long after this," says John Foxe, "there was a sitting of the (Italian) Bishop's Chancellor appointed, and warning was given to the Priests to appear, amongst whom Master Tyndale was also warned to be there. Whether he had any misdoubt by their threatenings, or knowledge given him that they would lay some things to his charge, is uncertain; but certain this is, as he himself declared, that he doubted their privy accusations; so that he, by the way, in going thitherward, cried in his mind heartily to God, to give him strength to stand fast in the truth of his word." But let us hear Tyndale's own expressions.

"When I was so turmoiled in the country where I was, that I could no longer dwell there, the process whereof were too long here to rehearse, I thiswise thought in myself, this I suffer, because the priests of the country be unlearned, as God knoweth, there are a full ignorant sort, which have seen no more Latin than that they read in their Portesses and Missals, which yet many of them can scarcely read. And therefore, because they are thus unlearned, thought I, when they come together to the ale-house, which is their preaching place, they affirm that my sayings are heresy. Besides they add to, of their own heads, that which I never spake, as the manner is, and accused me secretly to the Chancellor, and other the Bishop's Officers."

Here then was Tyndale, in the year 1522, brought to answer for himself; and having already had so many discussions with dignitaries on Sodbury Hill, as well as arguments with the priests in other places, one might have supposed that something decisive was on the eve of accomplishment; but it turned out an entire failure.

"When I came before the Chancellor, he threatened me grievously, and reviled me, and rated me as though I had been a dog; and laid to my charge whereof there could be none accuser brought forth, as their manner is not to bring forth the accuser; and yet, all the Priests of the country were there the same day.”

Tyndale's future footsteps will frequently discover him to have been a man, who, in the history of his country stood literally alone; and here, it should seem, this peculiar feature had already begun to discover itself. As standing before the Chancellor of any diocese, we read of no second individual, in whose appearance there were so many curious coincidences. The reader will now recollect the thoroughly Italianised character of the district, as formerly described, and the questions very naturally present themselves-Who was this Chancellor? Who the Cardinal that had recently appointed him? Who was the non-resident Italian Bishop? nay, and who the reigning Pontiff himself, the fountain of all this oppressive authority The Pontiff was Adrian VI., who, to appease Wolsey, had recently made him "Legate a latere" for life; the Bishop was Julio di Medici, the future Clement VII., and who, without even visiting England, had been made Bishop of Worcester by Leo X. The man who had lately appointed the Chancellor to the diocese was Wolsey himself, who farmed the whole district for his Italian brother; and the Chancellor, who had raised himself to this unenviable notoriety by so treating the man destined by Divine Providence to overcome all above him, as far as Rome itself was concerned; was a creature of the English Cardinal, a Dr. Thomas Parker, who

lived to know more of Tyndale's power and talents, than he then could comprehend. Had such men only known who was then within the Chancellor's grasp, with what eager joy would they have put an end to all his noble intentions ?25

Escaping, however, out of Parker's hands, the Tutor departed homeward, and once more entered the hospitable abode of Little Sodbury, but more than ever firmly resolved.

It is some alleviation to find that every man in the country was not of the same opinion with the reigning, if not furious Chancellor. "Not far off," continues Foxe, "there dwelt a certain doctor, that had been an old chancellor before to a bishop, who had been of old familiar acquaintance with Master Tyndale, and also favoured him well. To him Tyndale went and opened his mind on divers questions of the Scripture, for to him he durst be bold to disclose his heart. To whom the doctor said- Do you not know that the Pope is very Anti

25 Owing to the inaccuracy of several authors, there is some danger of this Chancellor being mistaken for Dr. Thomas Bell, the future Bishop of Worcester, as they have represented him to be Chancellor from 1518 to 1526. This is a mistake. Bell, who in 1518, had succeeded Haniball, now resident in Rome as Wolsey's correspondent, had been superseded by the appointment of Parker, to act for Julio di Medici, and he continued to act as Chancellor or Vicar-General from 1522 to 1535.-See Wood's Fasti, by Bliss, p. 70-80, and Green's Hist. of Worcester. No, Parker was evidently a man of great passion. He had commenced with Tyndale, and afterwards displayed his fury on another memorable occasion. This was actually the same man who dug up, and then burnt to ashes, the body of William Tracy, Esq. of Todington in Gloucestershire. This cost him a great sum, as will appear in our history under 1531; but he was not removed till 1535, when Hugh Latimer became Bishop. Parker died at Salisbury in 1538.