IT was about a hundred years after the death of John de Wycliffe that William Tyndale was born. The precious manuscripts of Wycliffe's translation of the Bible were still passing from hand to hand, though they became more and more difficult to obtain, and were read in secret, and in fear. We think of Tyndale as the man through whose labors God gave to us our first printed New Testament— a Testament, too, which was not done into English from the Latin Vulgate—that, though faulty in many grave respects, being the translation from which Wycliffe was obliged to make his new one—but from the original Greek.
But before we speak of Tyndale and his translation, let us glance for a moment at what was taking place in Florence, which was perhaps the most learned city of Europe at that time. A passionate desire to study Greek, so as to be able to read the works of the olden time in the language in which they were written, had sprung up among the young Englishmen at its universities.
After the taking of Constantinople by the Turks, many exiled Greeks found refuge at Florence, and as its fine library was rich in manuscripts, that city became the favorite resort of learned men, and thither many scholars from England flocked, all anxious to learn this wonderful, unknown language. Among them was John Colet, an Oxford scholar, who went to Italy, filled with the desire to study the ancient learning, and to read the Greek poetry and philosophy. But he came back another man: he had found in the new language “the key by which he could unlock the Gospels and the New Testament," and henceforth the traditions of men were to him but as childish stories, about which scholars might dispute as they would.
By his bold speech from the pulpit of St, Paul's Church, Colet had brought upon himself the charge of heresy; but the changeable king took his part, saying, "This man is the doctor for me," and so he was unmolested. Colet continued to explain the Gospel by St. Matthew to the crowds who came to hear him. We read that when our Lord Himself spoke to the people, “they were astonished at His doctrine, for He taught them as one who had authority, and not as the Scribes." It was the authority and simplicity of the very words of Christ which the preacher himself so deeply felt, and which he chiefly dwelt upon in his preaching. Thus Colet from week to week broke the bread of life to the people, long accustomed to nothing but dry expositions of the texts prescribed by the Church. About the same time a friend of Dean Colet's, a learned Dutchman, came to Oxford. He was busily occupied in preparing the New Testament in Greek, with a Latin translation—and such a book had never been seen in England. "It is not from human reservoirs, fetid with stagnant waters," he said to those who questioned him about his work, "that we should draw the doctrine of salvation, but from the pure and abundant streams that flow from the heart of God."
Perhaps Erasmus was not aware of what a bold thing he was doing in thus discarding the Latin translation, which had been approved by the Church for so long, and in substituting a more correct one of his own, as well as venturing to publish the New Testament in a language, understood, indeed, by very few, but still the language in which it was at first written.
He seems to have been surprised when the first murmurs of the rising storm reached him, and being a man who was careful of his own gold name, and who loved to live in peace, he quietly left England and went to Basle, where he completed his Testament, copies of which were soon upon their way to London and the universities.
It was eagerly received and read by those of the people who could read Latin, but those who had raised an outcry at the mere thought of such a book being published now read it only to find “horrible heresies." They demanded loudly that the impious man who had dared to correct the Vulgate should be turned out of the Church, as one who had committed the unpardonable sin; and Erasmus, whose only thought had been to restore the pure text of the word of God, knew not what to think. "I call God to witness," he said,” that I thought I was doing a "work acceptable to the Lord, and necessary to the cause of Christ.... Were we to have seen Him with our own eyes we should not have so intimate a knowledge of Him as the gospels give us; speaking, healing, dying, rising again, as it were, in our very presence." Going further he earnestly maintained the right of the English people to have the Bible translated into their own common tongue.
In writing upon this subject he looked forward to the day—a day which, by the grace of God, came long since—when the " Holy Scriptures, translated into all languages, should be read, not only by the Scotch and Irish, but even by Turks and Saracens; when the husbandman should sing them as he held the handle of his plow, the weaver repeat them as he plies his shuttle, and the wearied traveler, halting on his journey, refresh him under some shady tree with these godly narratives."
One copy of Erasmus's Testament was the source of endless blessing to a young lawyer at Cambridge. He brought it home secretly, in fear and trembling, for the priests to whom he confessed the deep trouble of his soul had especially warned him against this heretical book. Shutting himself up in his room with the book which he had bought, moved by the hand of God, as he afterward said, he opened it; and his eye fell upon the words, " This is a faithful saying, and worthy of all acceptation, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am chief." Again, and again he read the words, for he could hardly believe them to be true, so blessed did they seem to his weary, unsatisfied spirit. “I also am like Paul," he said, "and more than Paul, the greatest of sinners. But Christ saves sinners. At last I have heard of Jesus. Yes, Jesus Christ saves. I see it all; my vigils, my fasts, my pilgrimages, my purchase of masses and indulgences, were destroying instead of saving me."
We shall hear more of Thomas Barley, this young lawyer, by-and-bye. Let us now trace the history of William Tyndale, for to him, and through him to us, the Greek Testament of Erasmus was a priceless boon.
We know little of his early life, save that he was born and brought up in Gloucestershire, beside the banks of the Severn. We next hear of him as a student at Oxford, where he first read the New Testament, about which all the learned world was talking. At first he looked at it only from curiosity, then he studied it as he would have studied any other learned book; but, as he read on he became subdued and solemnized. A deep need was awakened in his heart and conscience, and ere long he found in the same wonderful Book the answer to that need. Soon, gathering his fellow-students around him, Tyndale began to read the Gospels in Greek and Latin with them; but when this became known, he removed to Cambridge, where he met Bilney and a young mathematician, John Fryth, with whom he formed a lasting friendship, for they were men like-minded with himself.
Leaving Cambridge for his native county, he became tutor to the children of a knight, Sir John Walsh, at whose hospitable table, Fox tells us, abbots, deans, and other clergy often sat. The company, as was the manner of the times, discussed many points of theology, and especially spoke of the New Testament of Erasmus. By-and-bye they heard more of this New Testament than was welcome to them, for Tyndale kept it constantly near him, " and if they objected to his reasonings, would show them the book, and lay plainly before them the open and manifest places of the Scriptures, to confute their errors and confirm his sayings."
These abbots and deans brought forward the usual objection to the Scriptures being read by the people, that to permit the ignorant to read for themselves would only serve to make heretics of them. “We do not understand the word of God," they argued; "and how can the vulgar understand it?”
“Alas," replied Tyndale, “you read the Holy Scriptures without Jesus Christ; that is why they are an obscure book to you. Do you know who taught the eagles to find their prey? That same God teaches His hungry children to find their Father in His word." C. P.