was urged to confess the truth, he said-“ That he had had the New Testament translated into the English tongue by Tyndale,' (till) within this month, and thought he offended not God, in using and keeping the same, notwithstanding that he knew the King's proclamation to the contrary, and that it was prohibited in name of the Church, at Paul's cross; but for all that, he thought the Word of God had not forbid it. Confessing, moreover, that he had in his keeping, (till) within this month, these books—The Wicked Mammon, the obedience of a Christian Man,-the Practice of Prelates,-the Answer of Tyndale to Thomas More's Dialogue,-the Book of Fryth against Purgatory, the Epistle of George Gee, alias Clerke.13-Adding, that in all these books he never saw any errors; and if there were any such in them, then, if they were corrected, it were good that the people had the said books. And as concerning the New Testament in English, he thought it utterly good, and that the people should have it, as it is."

Notwithstanding all this, it is to be lamented that Bainham began to waver in a state of doubtful perplexity, between life and death; so that, after two months' confinement, he read his abjuration, was fined twenty pounds (equal to £300 now) to the King, and being released on the 17th of February, was dismissed home. He was, however, scarcely a month at large before he lamented his conduct most bitterly; and the terms in which his penitence are recorded, deserve special notice.

"He was," says Foxe, "never quiet in mind and conscience, until the time he had uttered his fall to all his acquaintance, and asked God and all the world forgiveness, before THE Congregation in those days, in a warehouse in Bow Lane. The next Sunday after, he came to St. Austin's, with the New Testament in English' in his hand, and the Obedience of a Christian Man' in his bosom, and stood up there before the people in his pew, there declaring openly, with tears, that he had denied God; and prayed all the people to forgive him, to beware of his weakness, and not to do as he had done,-'for,' said he, "if I should not return again to the truth (having the New Testament in his hand,) this Word of God would damn me, both body and soul, at the day of Judgment. And then he prayed every one rather to die, by and bye, than to do as he had done; for he would not feel such a hell again as he did feel, for all the world's goods.' He wrote a letter also to the Bishop of London, so that shortly after, he was apprehended, and again committed to the Tower. On the 19th of April he was examined, and again on the 20th, in the Church of AllSaints, Barking, Tower Street, after which he was condemned. On being brought to the stake on the 1st of May, he addressed all present, in the following words :

"I come hither, good people! accused and condemned for an heretic; Sir Thomas More being my accuser and my judge. And these be the articles that I die for, which be a very truth, and grounded on God's Word, and no heresy. They be these: First, I say it is lawful for every man and woman, to hare God's book in their mother tongue. The second article is,--that the Bishop of Rome is Antichrist, and that I know no other keys of heaven-gates but only the preaching

13 These were two names assumed by George Joye, of whom afterwards.

of the Law and the Gospel; and that there is no other purgatory, but the purgatory of Christ's blood; and the purgatory of the cross of Christ, which is all persecutions and afflictions; and no such purgatory as they feign of their own imagination: for our souls immediately go to heaven, and rest with Jesus Christ for ever, &c."

The City clerk, Pave, having spoken cruelly to him." Thou heretic," said he, "set fire to him and burn him." "God forgive thee," cried Bainham," and shew thee more mercy than thou shewest to me ;14 the Lord forgive Sir Thomas More and pray for me all good people." He died, and according to his own statement, even when half consumed in the flames, without any pain.

In this account, painful so far as the enemies of Bainham were concerned, there is, however, one expression, which should not escape notice;" THE Congregation, in those days, meeting in Bow Lane." What was this? That it was the assembly to which Bainham first resorted to bewail his conduct, and ask forgiveness, is evident; but why did he there resort first, except it was that against that Congregation he thought he had more especially offended? It may never have been observed, or if so, accounted worthy of notice before; and yet, if the proper definition of a Church is allowed to be-" a Congregation of faithful men,"-in such a connexion as the present, there seems to be no slight evidence, that upon this spot, there assembled "in those days," perhaps the earliest resemblance of a Christian Church, upon English ground, in the sixteenth century. That there was such a congregated body of people, in London, by this time, will be rendered more interesting, if, before the close of this year, we find its character for Christianity described, by the man, who, of all then in England, was best qualified to judge.

In the early part of this year, however, there was another instance of cruelty, too notable to pass unnoticed, although it did not terminate fatally. This referred to no other than Hugh Latimer, and Stokesly was the prime mover. He had summoned Latimer to appear before him, but he contemned the message, referring to the Bishop of Salisbury as his ordinary. Stokesly then applied to Warham, and Latimer was summoned to appear before him on the 29th of January. According to Latimer's own statement, the case was remitted to five or six Bishops, and he appeared before them thrice every week. Firm and resolute for some time, he refused to

14 Pave died the week following, by his own hands.

subscribe the articles they presented. For this he was declared contumacious, and afterwards excommunicated. In order, however, to bring him to some submission, it was resolved, to take off the sentence, if he would sign two of the articles, namely, one respecting the observation of Lent, and another concerning the crucifix and the lawfulness and profit of images in Churches, for the worship of Jesus Christ and his Saints Foxe is in doubt whether Latimer submitted; and Gilpin in his Memoir roundly asserts that he did not recant; but the fact is put beyond all question, by the minutes of the Convocation in March and April 1532. His words were "My Lords, I do confess, that I have misordered myself very far, in that I have so presumptuously and boldly preached, reproving certain things, by which the people that were infirm have taken occasion of ill. Wherefore I ask forgiveness of my misbehaviour. I will be glad to make amends. And I have spoken indiscreetly in vehemence of speaking, and have erred in some things, and in manner have been in a wrong way, lacking discretion in many things."

After this confession, which it may be said, did not amount to a retractation of opinions, he desired absolution. This, however, was deferred to the 10th of April, when he subscribed the two articles already mentioned, and a further hearing was appointed. Unwilling to let him go, when the day arrived a new complaint was produced, respecting a letter he had written to one Greenwood of Cambridge, upon which Latimer appealed to the King as head of the Church of England, and was ultimately restored to his functions.15

Alas! that Latimer should have so far identified himself with the train of those who had gone before him, from Barnes to the present hour-for there was none like him in all England! It was at the last Convocation that Warham attended, before his death in August; and Latimer, it is true, will not forget all this; but another day, in St. Paul's itself, Stokesly will have to sit still, and listen to certain awful truths, by way of reminiscence, to which his ears had never been accustomed. John Foxe, in his narrative, tries to palliate this whole affair by saying "whether he subscribed, no

15 See the Convocation Journal and the Bishop's Register. Or Foxe, compared with the Life of Latimer, by Watkins, prefixed to "The Sermons of Latimer." 1824.

great matter or marvel, considering the iniquity of the times :" but this is far from the manner of sacred writ, in the biography of its highest characters. No, however painful, besides too many others, we have seen Barnes, and Bilney, and now even Latimer at the first onset, blench and falter through fear of death; so that at this special period, to the impartial writer, there seems to be nothing left for him, but to look out for John Fryth. He will revive the spirit of any reader, and give a new tone to the cause of God and his truth. He was just about arriving in England, but, as a controversialist, Sir Thomas More first stands in our way.

If the laborious Lord Chancellor had been busy in persecuting his fellow subjects at home, he had been no less so with his pen, in opposition to Tyndale abroad. His friend, Sir Thomas Elyot, might be "doing his best endeavour" to seize the man, but More was determined to overwhelm and expose him as a writer and translator. His huge publication being now, in part, ready, must be put forth. The first three books of it, with a long preface, printed by the son of his brother-in-law, Rastell, appeared with this title, "the confutation of Tyndale's answer, made by Sir Thomas More, knight, Lord Chancellor of England,cum privilegio." He had six books more to come, although the present folio extended to 363 pages, thirtyseven of which filled his preface! This, it will be observed, was printed before he had resigned the seals, in May; so that between cross examinations of worthy men, on the one hand, and proof sheets against Tyndale on the other, he must have been engrossed indeed. In his preface he took care to shield himself under the authority of his royal Master.

"Now seeing the King's gracious purpose in this point, I reckon that being his unworthy Chancellor, it appertaineth unto my part and duty, to follow the ensample of his noble Grace, and after my poor wit and learning, with opening to his people, the malice and poison of those pernicious books, to help as much as in me is. Toward the help whereof, am I, by mine office in virtue of mine oath, and every officer of justice through the realm for his rate, right specially bounden, not in reason only, and good congruence, but also by plain ordinance and statute."16

In the outset, evidently vain of his powers, he very unadvisedly, boasted great things. He was only putting on his

16 Alluding to the proceedings of 1530, no doubt of his own framing.

harness, and so afterwards had to publish his apology when putting it off. At present, however, he is full of triumph.

"And for because the matter is long, and my leisure short, I cannot, as I fain would, send out all at once,-I send out now, therefore, of this present work, these three books. And now, shall I, God willing, at my next leisure go farther in his (Tyndale's) book, and come to the very breast of all this battle, that is to wit, the question,-which is the Church,-for that is the point that all these heretics labour to make so dark, that, by their wiles, no man shall wit what they mean. But I trust to draw the serpent out of his dark den; and as the poets feign that Hercules drew up Cerberus, the mastiff of hell, into the light, where his eyes dased; so shall I, with the grace of that light which illumineth every man that cometh into this world, make you that matter so lightsome and so clear to every man, that I shall leare Tyndale never a dark corner to creep into, able to hide his head in."

Even in this first part, however, Sir Thomas thought it was time to admit the talents of his opponent; and, therefore, though jesting, as usual, he affirms, that he had “ an eagle's eye," that he was "cunning enough, and can, I assure you, make as much poetry upon any part of Scripture, as any poet can in England, upon any part of Virgil.""7 But then Tyndale's views and wishes were the subject of his professed apprehension.

“As evil as I like the man, in such things as he saith nought, that is almost in all, yet would I find no fault with him in that he said well. But now he saith not that some things be misordered somewhere, but that there is none other. For Tyndale can be pleased with no fashion; neither Cathedral church, nor Parish church, nor Chapel, nor Monks, nor Friars, nor Nuns, neither Greenwich, Zion, nor Charter-House. So that I see well no fashion can please Tyndale but his own as he neither crieth out, nor halloweth, nor baiteth, nor buzzeth in any service-saying; for as they say, that know him, he saith none at all, neither matins, eren-song, nor mass.”

The rest of this Confutation, falsely so called, as well as More's apology, will come before us next year, so that we refrain from farther remark till he has done. In the meanwhile, another opponent had started up, and fretted him not a little. Fryth's publication had arrived, and was now greedily read in England, and the Chancellor must tell us, beforehand also, how he meant to dispose of him. Like Goliath of old, he looked round, and disdained him, for he was but a young man, of fine person, and of a fair countenance; but certainly

17 Tyndale appears to have either known or suspected that Sir Thomas was rather vain of his poetry, and hence he had twitted him with it repeatedly. This is More's retort.