William Tyndale

by James J. Ellis

He even goes so far as to say: “If thy neighbour need, and thou help him not, being able, thou withholdest his duty from him, and art a thief before God.... Every Christian man to another is Christ Himself, and thy neighbour’s need hath as good right in thy goods as hath Christ Himself, which is heir and lord of all. And look what thou owest to Christ, that thou owest to thy neighbour’s need. To thy neighbour owest thou thine heart, thyself, and all that thou hast and canst do.... Thus is every man that needeth thine help thy father, mother, sister, and brother in Christ; even as every man that doeth the will of the Father is father, mother, sister, and brother unto Christ.”

Probably no Christian teacher in that age would have dared to have written such words as the following; for the spirit of national hostility was very strong, and the persecuting mania was terribly prevalent:—

“Moreover, if any be an infidel and a false Christian, and forsake his household, his wife, children, and such as cannot help themselves, then art thou bound, if thou have therewith, even as much as to thine own household. And they have as good right in thy goods as thou thyself; and if thou withdraw mercy from them, and hast wherewith to help them, then art thou a thief. If thou show mercy, so doest thou thy duty and art a faithful minister in the household of Christ; and of Christ shalt thou have thy reward and thanks.”

Such doctrine was far in advance of the age, but it is interesting to notice how thus, as in some other things, Tyndale was far ahead of his contemporaries.

Simultaneously with “The Wicked Mammon,” Tyndale issued another work, which was almost of as much importance to the Reformation as was his Bible. It is entitled “The Obedience of a Christian Man,” and is both a defence of the Reformers from the charge of sedition, and also a call to them to persist in the path of duty in spite of persecution. “Adversity I receive at the hand of God is a wholesome medicine, though it be somewhat bitter,” said Tyndale.

“O Peter, Peter!” he exclaims when speaking of the sins of the clergy, “thou wast too long a fisher; thou wast never brought up at the Arches, neither wast Master of the Rolls, nor yet Chancellor of England.... The parson sheareth, the vicar shaveth, the parish priest pilleth, the friar scrapeth, and the pardoner pareth; we lack but a butcher to pull the skin.”

He concludes with these noble words: “Remember that Christ is the end of all things. He only is our resting-place, He is our peace. For as there is no salvation in any other name, so there is no peace in any other name. Thou shalt never have rest in thy soul, neither shall the worm of conscience ever cease to gnaw thine heart, till thou come at Christ; till thou hear the glad tidings, how that God for His sake hath forgiven thee all freely. If thou trust in thy works, there is no rest. Thou shalt think, I have not done enough.... If thou trust in confession then shalt thou think, Have I told all?... Likewise in our holy pardons and pilgrimages gettest thou no rest. As pertaining to good deeds, therefore, do the best thou canst, and desire God to give strength to do better daily; but in Christ put thy trust, and in the pardon and promises that God hath made thee for His sake; and on that rock build thine house and there dwell.”

Such words were well calculated to stimulate and to comfort the persecuted, and it is, therefore, no wonder that they introduced an element into English religious life that was most important and unhappily infrequent before. Bilney, for example, had recanted, but after suffering long and acute distress of mind, “he came at length to some quiet of conscience, being fully resolved to give over his life for the confession of that truth which before he had denounced. He took his leave in Trinity Hall of certain of his friends, and said he would go up to Jerusalem.... And so, setting forth on his journey toward the celestial Jerusalem, he departed from thence to the anchoress in Norwich, and there gave her a New Testament of Tyndale’s translation and ‘The Obedience of a Christian Man,’ whereupon he was apprehended and carried to prison, there to remain till the blind Bishop Nixe sent up for a writ to burn him.”

Of Bainham, who was another who had abjured, Foxe says that he “was never quiet in mind or conscience until the time he had uttered his fall to all his acquaintance and asked God and all the world forgiveness. And the next Sunday after he came to St. Austin’s with the New Testament in his hand in English and ‘The Obedience of a Christian Man’ in his bosom, and stood up there before all the people in his pew, there declaring openly, with weeping tears, that he had denied God. After this he was strengthened above the cruel death by fire with remarkable courage.”

This book came into the hands of the King of England himself, and Strype thus relates the incident: “Upon the Lady Anne Boleyn waited a fair young gentlewoman named Mrs. Gaynsford; and in her service was also retained Mr. George Zouch, father to Sir John Zouch. This gentleman, of a comely, sweet person, was a suitor in way of marriage to the said young lady; and, among other love-tricks, once he plucked from her a book in English called Tyndale’s ‘Obedience,’ which the Lady Anne had lent her to read. About which time the Cardinal had given commandment to the prelates, and especially to Dr. Simpson, Dean of the King’s Chapel, that they should keep a vigilant eye over all people for such books that they come not abroad; that so, as much as might be, they might not come to the King’s reading. But this which he most feared fell out upon this occasion. For Mr. Zouch was so ravished with the Spirit of God, speaking now as well in the heart of the reader as first it did in the heart of the maker of the book, that he was never well but when he was reading of that book. Mrs. Gaynsford wept because she could not get the book from her wooer, and he was as ready to weep to deliver it. But see the providence of God; Mr. Zouch, standing in the chapel before Dr. Simpson, ever reading upon this book, and the Dean, never having his eye off the book in the gentleman’s hand, called to him, and then snatched the book out of his hand, asked his name, and whose man he was. And the book he delivered to the Cardinal. In the meantime the Lady Anne asketh her woman for the book. She on her knees told all the circumstances. The Lady Anne showed herself not sorry nor angry with either of the two. But said she, ‘Well, it shall be the dearest book that ever the Dean or Cardinal took away.’ The noble woman goes to the King, and upon her knees she desireth the King’s help for her book. Upon the King’s token the book was restored. And now bringing the book to him, she besought his Grace most tenderly to read it. The King did so, and delighted in the book; for saith he, ‘This book is for me and all Kings to read.’ And in a little time the King, by the help of this virtuous lady, had his eyes opened to the truth, to search the truth, to advance God’s religion and glory, to abhor the pope’s doctrine, his lies, his pomp and pride, to deliver his subjects out of the Egyptian darkness, the Babylonian bonds, that the pope had brought him and his subjects under.”