The object of his mission once attained, Philips, fearing the indignation of the English merchants, escaped to Louvain. Sitting in taverns or at the tables of monks, professors, and prelates—sometimes even at the court of Brussels, he would boast of his exploit, and desiring to win the favor of the imperialists would call Henry VIII. a tyrant and a robber of the State.[80]
The English merchants of Antwerp, being reasonably offended, immediately called upon the governor of the English factory to take measures in favor of their countryman; but the governor refused. Tyndale, deprived of all hope, sought consolation in God. 'Oh! what a happy thing it is to suffer for righteousness' sake,' he said.[81] 'If I am afflicted on earth with Christ, I have joy in the hope that I shall be glorified with Him in heaven. Trials are a most wholesome medicine, and I will endure them with patience. My enemies destine me for the stake, but I am as innocent as a new-born child of the crimes of which they accuse me. My God will not forsake me. O Christ, thy blood saves me, as if it had been mine own that was shed upon the cross. God, as great as He is, is mine with all that He hath.'[82]
Tyndale in his prison at Vilvorde was happier than Philips at court. If we carefully study the history of the reformers, we recognize at once that they were not simply masters of a pure doctrine, but also men of lofty souls, Christians of great morality and exalted spirituality. We cannot say as much of their adversaries; what a contrast here between the traitor and his victim! The calumnies and insults of the enemies of protestantism will deceive nobody. If it is sufficient to read the Bible with a sincere heart in order to believe it; it is sufficient also to know the lives of the reformers in order to honor them.
[59] Tyndale, Treatises, pp. 18, 110. (Parker Society.)
[60] Tyndale, Treatises, p. lxi. (Parker Society.)
[61] 'Thus he spent his two days of pastime, as he called them.'—Ibid.
[62] 'Much like to the writings of St. John the Evangelist.'—Ibid.
[63] Anderson, Bible Ann. p. 397.
[64] 'Ut quamcunque loquatur, in ea natum putes.'—Schelhorn, Amœnitates Litterariæ, iv. p. 431.
[65] See History of the Reformation of the Sixteenth Century, vol. v. book xx. chap. iv.