TRAPPED AT LAST; OR, DYING FOR THE TRUTH
“He has outsoared the shadow of our night;
Envy and calumny and hate and pain
Can touch him not and torture not again;
He is secure, and now can never mourn.”
—SHELLEY
“He is strong that can bear another man's weakness.”
—TYNDALE
THE QUEENS BIBLE—THE TRAITOR—THE TRAP—THE WEARY YEAR OF IMPRISONMENT—THE TRIUMPH
Two years (1533-1535) were spent by Tyndale hi Antwerp, and while engaged in the manner that Foxe described in the paragraph which we quoted in the last chapter, he was also employed in revising his New Testament. The Bishop of Durham says of this second edition:—
“One of the few copies of this edition which have been preserved is of touching interest. Among the men who had suffered for aiding in the circulation of the earlier editions of the Testament was a merchant-adventurer of Antwerp, Mr. Harman, who seems to have applied to Queen Anne Boleyn for redress. The Queen listened to the plea which was urged in his favor, and by her intervention he was restored to the freedom and privileges of which he had been deprived. Tyndale could not fail to hear of her good offices, and he acknowledged them by a royal gift. He was at the time engaged in superintending the printing of his revised New Testament, and of this he caused one copy to be struck off on vellum and beautifully illuminated. No preface or dedication or name mars the simple integrity of this copy. Only on the gilded edges in faded red letters runs the simple title, Anna Regina Angliœ. The copy was bequeathed to the British Museum by the Rev. C. M. Cracherode in 1799.”
It was almost his last sacrifice for England, for in the year 1535 Tyndale was arrested. He had, during this last stay in Antwerp, resided with Thomas Poyntz, an English merchant who had settled in that town. This gave Tyndale protection against liability of arrest, so long as he kept within the house of his patron and friend. From Poyntz, Foxe obtained an account of Tyndale's capture, and we subjoin it here:— “William Tyndale, being in the town of Antwerp, had been lodged about one whole year in the house of Thomas Poyntz, an Englishman. About which time there came thither one out of England whose name was Henry Philips, a comely fellow, like as he had been a gentleman, having a servant with him; but wherefore he came, or for what purpose he was sent thither, no man could tell.”
This man basely ingratiated himself into Tyndale's favor, and although Poyntz distrusted him, even he did not suspect that Philips was capable of the baseness of betraying Tyndale to his death.
At length the time arrived when Philips' arrangements for the capture of Tyndale were completed, and when perhaps this Judas had received the price of blood. It happened that Poyntz “went forth to a town being eighteen miles from Antwerp, where he had business to do for the space of a month or six weeks. And in the time of his absence Henry Philips came again to Antwerp, to the house of Poyntz, and coming in spake with his wife, asking her for Master Tyndale, and whether he would dine there with him; saying, What good meat shall we have? ‘She answered, Such as the market will give.' Then went he forth again (as it is thought) to provide, and set the officers whom he brought with him from Brussels in the street and about the door. Then about noon he came again and went to Master Tyndale and desired him to lend him forty shillings; for,' said he, 'I lost my purse this morning, coming over at the passage between this and Mechlin.' So Tyndale took him forty shillings, which was easy to be had of him, if he had it; for in the wily subtleties of this world he was simple and inexpert. Then said Philips, Master Tyndale, you shall be my guest here this day. "No,' said Tyndale; I go forth this day to dinner, and you shall go with me, and be my guest, where you shall be welcome.' So when it was dinner-time Tyndale went forth with Philips, and at the going forth of Poyntz's house was a long narrow entry, so that two could not go in afront. Master Tyndale would have put Philips before him, but Philips would in no wise, but put Master Tyndale before, for that lie pretended to show great humility. So, Master Tyndale being a man of no great stature, went before, and Philips, a tall comely person, followed behind him; who had set officers on either side of the door upon two seats, who, being there, might see who came in at the entry; and coming through the same entry, Philips pointed with his finger over Master Tyndale's head down to him, that the officers who sat at the door might see that it was he whom they should take, as the officers that took Master Tyndale afterward told Poyntz, and said to Poyntz, when they had laid him in prison, that they pitied to see his simplicity when they took him. Then they took him and brought him to the Emperor's attorney, or Procuror-General, where he dined. Then came the Procuror-General to the house of Poyntz, and sent away all that was there of Master Tyndale's, as well his books as other things; and from thence Tyndale was had to the castle of Filford (Vilvorde), eighteen English miles from Antwerp, and there he remained until he was put to death.”
Demaus assigns the 23rd or the 24th of May 1535 as the probable date of Tyndale's arrest. For more than a year the exile lingered in confinement before he was put to death.
His friend Poyntz did not desert Tyndale in this calamity, but at imminent risk of his own life he busied himself in fruitless efforts to save the life of the man whom he had learned to love.
“Brother," he says, writing to John Poyntz, a gentleman at the English Court, "the knowledge that I have of this man causes me to write as my conscience binds me; for the King's Grace should have of him, at this day, as high a treasure as of honor: one man living there is not that has been of greater reputation.”
The efforts of Poyntz were alas useless, and he only brought himself into peril by his advocacy on behalf of Tyndale. Poyntz was arrested, and for four months he also was kept a prisoner. Indeed, had he not contrived to escape, he would probably have shared the fate of his friend.
The condemnation of Tyndale was already a foregone conclusion. The formality of a trial was indeed observed in his case, but he himself well knew that, with such enemies as his translation of the Scriptures had made for him, there was but one issue to his imprisonment.
One solitary letter, written during the winter of 1535, and addressed to the governor of the castle in which he was confined, has indeed been preserved. We subjoin Demaus' translation of it:— “I believe, right worshipful, that you are not ignorant of what has been determined concerning me (by the Council of Brabant); therefore I entreat your Lordship, and that by the Lord Jesus, that if I am to remain here (in Vilvorde) during the winter, you will request the Procureur to be kind enough to send me from my goods which he has in his possession a warmer cap, for I suffer extremely from cad in the head, being afflicted with a perpetual catarrh, which is considerably increased in the cell. A warmer coat also, for that which I have is very thin: also a piece of cloth to patch my leggings: my overcoat has been worn out; my shirts are also worn out. He has a woolen shirt of mine, if he will be kind enough to send it. I have also with him leggings of thicker cloth for putting on above; he also has warmer caps for wearing at night. I wish also his permission to have a candle in the evening, for it is wearisome to sit alone in the dark. But, above all, I entreat and beseech your clemency to be urgent with the Procureur that he may kindly permit me to have my Hebrew Bible, Hebrew Grammar, and Hebrew Dictionary, that I may spend my time with that study. And, in return, may you obtain your dearest wish, provided always it be consistent with the salvation of your soul. But if any other resolution has been come to concerning me, that I must remain during the whole winter, I shall be patient, abiding the will of God, to the glory of the Grace of my Lord Jesus Christ, whose Spirit, I pray, may ever direct your heart. Amen.
W. TYNDALE.”
Says Foxe: "At last, after much reasoning, where no reason would serve, although he deserved no death, he was condemned by virtue of the Emperor's decree, made in the Assembly at Augsburg, and, upon the same, brought forth to the place of execution, was there tied to the stake, and then strangled first by the hangman, and afterward with fire consumed in the morning, at the town of Filford, 25th of October A.D. 1536; crying thus at the stake with a fervent zeal and loud voice, ' Lord! open the King of England's eyes!'”
Concerning Tyndale himself Dr. Stoughton justly remarks: “Tyndale was eminently a great man, great in mind and heart and enterprise. His intellectual endowments were of an order to render him a match in controversy with no less a personage than the illustrious Sir Thomas More. The qualities of his heart were as remarkable as those of his head. He combined a calm and steady heroism with a childlike simplicity. No man was ever more free from duplicity, more full of meekness, and at the same time more elevated in soul by a manly courage. Ever as in his great Taskmaster's eye, he pursued his labors in obscurity and exile, reaping no earthly benefit whatever, and looking for no reward but the smile of his Heavenly Father.”
Nothing need be added to these generous and just sentences, except that Tyndale's full merit will only be known and confessed when the secrets of all hearts are opened. He professed himself to be ready to wait for his reward until the great day of God, and then it will be seen that William Tyndale has not been far behind the apostles of the Lamb:—
“How our hearts burnt within us at the scene!
Whence this brave bound o'er limits fixed to man?
His God sustains him in the final hour!
His final hour brings glory to his God!
Sweet peace, and heavenly hope, and humble joy,
Divinely beam in his exalted soul;
Destruction gilds, and crowns him for the skies
With incommunicable luster bright.”
—YOUNG
THE END