No More Learning

28 (#50) ##############################################

28
Reformation Literature in England
begun; he recognised the pre-eminent claim of the Bible upon
theological students, and, when Wolsey (1527) formed his Cambridge
colony at Oxford, the new and active school of thought entered
upon a wider field. The English reformation began at Cambridge,
and the Cambridge movement began with Erasmus, although he
was not its sole author. For, both at Cambridge, and in the
country at large, the general movement towards reform and
the religious influence of the revival of learning formed a
sympathetic atmosphere in which his influence easily spread.
The new movement—a quickening of religion and theology,
upon the background of an awakened world—took many forms
and turned in many ways. It was not always revolutionary, and,
in one direction, it turned to older forms of devotion. Religion in
England had enriched the church with the Sarum use, akin to other
uses elsewhere and of wide importance, and with uses less popular
in England, like those of Hereford and York; it had, further,
formed the Primers, books of private devotion, translated in the
fourteenth century from Latin into English, and printed at early
dates and in many forms. Not only in England, but in other
countries, the reformation concerned itself largely with these
aids to devotion ; everywhere appeared much needed revisions of
liturgies and offices, everywhere attempts were made, more or less
successfully, at altering them to meet popular needs, or to avoid
abuses. In England, the great outcome was The Book of Common
Prayer, which was essentially conservative, although its history
showed much of revolution.
And, again, the reformation, owing both to the wishes of its
academic founders and to the popular tendencies underlying it,
concerned itself largely with popular preaching. It is a wide-
spread error to assume that there was little popular preaching in
the Middle Ages. It is true that there were many bishops and
parish priests who shirked their canonical duties in this respect,
but there was much popular instruction ; there was, especially
among the friars, much simple, at times even sensational, mission
preaching. But the deepening of religious life that preceded the
reformation led men to employ with greater diligence all means of
helping others, and popular preaching was thus more widely used.
Here again, both a conservative and a revolutionary tendency are
observable. On the one hand, we can trace the fuller but
continuous history of the older use of sermons. On the other
hand, we find the tendency, seen at its strongest in Zwinglianism,
to exalt the sermon above the sacraments, to put the pulpit in
>


## p. 29 (#51) ##############################################

Aspects of the Reformation
29
place of the altar. Both tendencies made the literature of
sermons more popular, and more significant. But, in the litera-
ture thus revived, the academic and popular elements were closely
mingled.
It would have been strange if, when interest in religion and
religious questions was thus rising, religious controversies had
not multiplied. The stir of newly felt needs and impulses to
fresh devotion stimulated differences of opinion no less than did
abuses calling loudly for reform. The English people had always
been religious, and there had always been religious controversies ;
but now these were both multiplied and intensified. Some were
of merely passing importance, although of much historic signifi-
cance; but others represented real and solid endeavours to form
public opinion. It is impossible to notice more than a few of
them; some were caused by political relations and by the breach
with Rome, and their existence has to be remembered, though
they must not be taken for the chief religious interests of the time.
But, from the literary point of view, the most striking feature
of the reformation is its connection with the English Bible, and
that Bible itself is its greatest monument. Here, again, we
might consider the production of the Bible as prepared by that
more conservative movement, associated with the revival of
learning and seen both in the Oxford reformers and in the
Cambridge scholars already mentioned. But it was also connected
with a more revolutionary school of thought, and was placed by
many as the sole rule of life in sharp opposition to the teaching
of the church. Thus, the history of the English Bible itself
becomes mingled, strangely and sadly, with the history of religious
strife. Beyond and above all that, however, its literary influence
shows itself as uniquely as its power in giving an inspiration
for life.
These general effects of the reformation upon the national
literature must be examined in detail, although, even then, there
will be many effects left unnoticed, and many results unaccounted
for.
The history of The Book of Common Prayer, like many other
parts of the English reformation, shows curious likenesses to
the course of affairs abroad, mingled with features peculiar to
itself. With the greater sharpness of national divisions and the
stronger coherence of national languages, the use of the vernacular
in the services of the church was more and more demanded. Not
only among Lutherans and among Calvinists in France or Germany,


## p. 30 (#52) ##############################################

30 Reformation Literature in England
but, also, among Catholics, the wish for it was felt. At the council
of Trent, this concession was urged both by the emperor and by
the king of France. Hymns, litanies and purely personal devo-
tions such as The Primer provided, were insufficient; a wide-
spread feeling existed that both the mass and the daily offices
would be more serviceable and better appreciated in the vulgar
tongue. This feeling gradually strengthened, and led to the
evolution of the prayer-book. A Venetian ambassador, visiting
England in 1500, was struck with the simple piety of the English
people, and by their frequent attendance at church : not only at
mass, but at the daily offices, they were very regular, and their
deep-rooted love of the parish church with its services had
marked effects upon the coming changes. In England, moreover,
the course of revolution left the parish churches standing, although
the monastic churches suffered ; and this peculiarity of the English
reformation made reform more conservative.
The changes were, at first, gradual. The wish for uniformity of
service throughout the realm-felt elsewhere, but a necessity of
he position of Henry VIII-was marked (1541) by a re-issue of
the Sarum breviary, ordered by convocation (1542) to be used by
the clergy throughout the province of Canterbury. There had
been many struggles as to liturgical use in medieval days, and these
were thus ended before the great struggle began. A chapter of
the Bible was ordered to be read in English upon Sundays and
holy days and (11 June 1544) the Litany was put forth in
English. When, under Edward VI, the administration of the
chalice to the people was adopted, again in sympathy with a
demand widely made abroad, further change followed; the old
Latin was retained but an English communion service for the
people was added (Easter, 1548).
Under Henry, and under Edward, revision had begun with
the Primers. Upon the side of purely popular and personal
devotion, Primers had appeared with fresh matter, some of it
revolutionary, some of it hortatory. Marshall's Primer, 1534
and 1535, was one of them; bishop Hilsey's (of Rochester) Primer
(1539) was another, and was authorised by Cromwell for the king
and by Cranmer as archbishop. King Henry's Primer (1545) was
the last of a long series, and was intended to check the diversity
which the printing press had intensified. The king had ordered
Cranmer to turn certain prayers into English and to see that
they were used in his province. This King's Primer embodied the
English Litany, which, alike in its changes and in its incomparable


## p. 31 (#53) ##############################################

Evolution of the Prayer-Book
31
prose, may be certainly ascribed to Cranmer. The same literary
genius was now to work upon a larger field and with greater
results. But it is necessary to note the popular tendencies that had
helped to form the Primers. These books lay to Cranmer's hand,
and, if much of the English prayer-book is to be ascribed to his
fine workmanship, something was also due to the general literary
excellence of the day. We have already seen how, in the case of
Rolle and other devotional writers, the literary instinct arose from
the union of popular feeling and intense personal devotion. The
same process was seen at the reformation. Turns of expression in
the Primers, due, sometimes, to unknown writers, rhythms in
Tindale's Bible due to him alone, the vigour and pathos to be found
in Frith and Latimer and other writers or sufferers-all these lead
us to ascribe much to the age itself rather than to individuals. The
reformation, like the Middle Ages, shows a fitting expression of
devotion and religious thought, reached, as we might expect, more
through schools and tendencies than through individual minds.
The English Litany, and the stately Bidding prayer in its many
forms, are good examples of this process of growth. And the same
was the case with the English Bible itself. Nevertheless, much
was also due to individual writers like Cranmer.
Together with this popular movement, shown in the Primers,
a revision, by authority, of service-books had begun and slowly
moved on. Under Henry, Cranmer had drafted the changes he
proposed and a commission (1540) had drawn up a rationale
which was more conservative than Cranmer's own scheme. Under
Edward VI, both these were brought forward, and discussion of
them went on. At Rome itself, cardinal Quignon had published
(1535) a new breviary which gained great popularity and reached
many editions. In its insertion of lessons and its omission of
versicles, it aimed, in the spirit of the time, at edification
rather than, as did the ancient offices, at devotion. But, as
the conservative party gained power in Rome, a new ideal was
formed, and the Roman breviary (1568), reformed in accordance
with the wish of the council of Trent, more closely resembled the
medieval form. On the other hand, in Germany, the Consultation
(1543) of Hermann of Wied, archbishop of Cologne, was an attempt
to combine the ancient type with the service-books of the Lutherans.
Cranmer, who was himself a capable liturgical scholar, had studied
both these liturgical schemes and was influenced by them.
This is not the place to deal with the difficult problems in the
preparation of the Edwardine prayer-books of 1549 and 1552, the


## p. 32 (#54) ##############################################

32 Reformation Literature in England
part played by convocation and the exact share of individual
minds in their composition; nor do the complicated questions of
theology or worship or rubrics belong to a literary history. It is
enough to say that, while the earlier book may be regarded as the
outcome of the influences already described, as a product of the
ancient offices, of the wish for conservative reform and more
popular instruction, of the need for unity in the realm and for
the use of the national tongue, the second book went further in
the way 'of change, doctrinal and ritual. Before its composition,
foreign influence had grown stronger, and many minds in England
had gone through phases which Cranmer illustrates in himself.
Born in Aslackton, Nottinghamshire (2 July 1489), he went
as a boy to Jesus College, Cambridge, passed through the ordinary
course of study and, when about twenty-two, turned to the study of
Erasmus. Like other scholars, he came under the influence of
the revived theological learning, and his library shows how deeply
he received it. He gained a fellowship at Jesus College, which was
soon lost by his marriage; a lectureship at Buckingham College
(now Magdalene) was held during his short married life, but, on
his wife's death, he was re-elected a Fellow of his old college. The
temptation of a canonry at Cardinal College, Oxford, was not strong
enough to remove him, as it did other Cambridge men, to the new
field of work. As a priest and as a theological lecturer, with some
fame as an examiner, he worked on in his old sphere, until the
advice he gave to Henry VIII in the matter of his divorce brought
him into royal favour and a larger world. He wrote a book
embodying his views; a sojourn with the earl of Wiltshire, Anne
Boleyn's father, was followed by a visit to Rome at the beginning
of 1530, as one of his suite; he became archdeacon of Taunton
(probably 1531); early in 1532 he was in Germany as ambassador
to Charles V; and he was recalled from Germany to succeed
Warham as archbishop of Canterbury (30 March 1533). In
Germany, he had married a niece of Osiander; a connection which
made his intercourse with German theologians easier, but which was
awkward in view of his promotion. The step he had then taken
marked a distinct breach with the ecclesiastical system of the day,
although, in England, under Henry VIII, this was not, of necessity,
a disqualification for office.
It is difficult to estimate fairly the character of Cranmer.
Called from a quiet position to great scenes, forced to act a part
beyond his strength, he showed weakness where it is rarely
forgiven. He was pitifully compliant with Henry's wishes in the


## p. 33 (#55) ##############################################

Thomas Cranmer
33
matter of his divorce; at the death of Edward, he let himself be
hurried into a policy he did not wholly approve; his martyr's
death lost something of its dignity, even if it gained in pathos, by
his recantations. His instincts were conservative enough, his mind
receptive enough, for the guidance of a great movement, but he
failed in decision and power. And yet, no one who reads his letters
and writings, or who traces his work upon the prayer-book, can
doubt that he represents faithfully much of the mind of the English
reformation. His feet stood upon the past, but his outlook was
towards the future. He was skilled in all the older ecclesiastical
learning, even in the canon law which many of his friends
despised ; and if, in some points, he would have changed beyond
the limits reached, in others he would gladly have kept even more
of the past. He had not only liturgical knowledge but also a litur-
a
gical interest which belonged rather to bygone times; he added to
it an exquisite ear for a language that was just learning its strength.
There is all the difference in the world between the crude bareness
of the Litany as he found it, and its majestic rhythm when it left
his pen. In other works, where he had no help from the past,
as, for instance, in his theological writings, his style falls somewhat
lower, but, even then, it is always nervous, simple and continuous.
His chief writings deal with the Holy Eucharist, and their historical,
as well as theological, interest is, therefore, great. His Defence of
,
the true and Catholic Doctrine of the Sacrament of the Body and
Blood of Christ (1550), to which he added while in prison and
which was afterwards reprinted, shows his ample learning, and yet,
even when dealing with intricate points, it is always simple in
phrase and striking in its expressions. Learning was now coming
down from its seclusion and addressing itself to a public anxious
for enlightenment. Quickly as Cranmer could compose in Latin-
his Reply to the Three Articles brought against him at his trial is
an instance of his readiness-English came more naturally to him,
and, in the continued debates of his trial, the disputants often
forsook Latin for English.
The publication of the Defence brought upon him much
controversy. Gardiner's Explication and Assertion of the true
Catholic Faith (published in France, 1550) was an able criticism
to which Cranmer replied in his Answer (October 1551). Richard
Smyth, formerly professor at Oxford but deprived in favour of
Vermigli (Peter Martyr), also attacked him in A Confutation of
the true and Catholic Doctrine (1550), and Cranmer included him,
too, in his reply to Gardiner:
3
B. L. 111.
CH. II.


## p. 34 (#56) ##############################################

34
Reformation Literature in England
Cranmer had the receptive mind which often goes with
practical weakness; and thus he illustrated in himself the religious
changes of his day, although he moved slowly to his final views.
At Cambridge, books from Germany had been eagerly read by a
little company that gathered at The White Horse,' and it was
through him that German theologians, some of them fugitives
because of the Augsburg Interim, were called to the English
universities. Peter Martyr came to Oxford (May, 1549) and the
more conservative Bucer (1549) with Fagius to Cambridge.
Foreign criticism had been exercised upon the prayer-book of
1549, and Cranmer's own mental changes worked along with the
politics of the time to make its alteration seem desirable. The second
prayer-book, therefore, while expressly sanctioning its predecessor
as containing nothing but what was agreeable to the word of God
and the primitive church, yet made many changes; some slight,
others more important, the latter class mainly involving Eucharistic
doctrine, upon which point, as upon that of vestments, controversy
was most intense. Under Elizabeth, the vestiarian controversy
reappeared, until it was swallowed up by the larger and more vital
discussion upon church government. But, before that came, the
Elizabethan prayer-book had been constructed (1559). The change
from the medieval to the modern type had been really completed
with the book of 1552, although under James I, as a result of the
Millenary petition (24 March 1603) and the Hampton Court con-
ference (14–18 January 1604), a few slight changes were made, but
not in the direction of puritan complaints. After the Restoration,
there was an attempt at closer agreement, but the Savoy conference
(15 April 1661) did little towards attaining it. Parties were too
clearly marked: between the puritan who claimed entire freedom
for the minister and the bishop who wished to retain ancient use
there could be little agreement. Nor, again, was it easy to satisfy
at the same time those who believed in episcopacy, and those
who maintained an exclusive presbyterianism. The formation of
the English prayer-book in itself was now complete formally, as,
practically, it had been complete long before. Its liturgical influence
has been nearly as widespread as its literary example; it has
become the parent of the Scots prayer-book, of the American and
of the Irish, all with features of their own, but forming one great
school after the English model.
It was the influence of Cranmer that restrained the English
reformation from following more closely the extremes of foreign
example. When Edward's reign was over, he regretted his com-


## p. 35 (#57) ##############################################

Cranmer's Influence
35
pliance with regard to the change in the royal succession, but he was
prepared to justify, with arguments that were forcible as well as
learned, the theological position which he finally reached and which
he had at least made possible under the second prayer-book. His
martyrdom was a great incident in the reformation, and it added to
his individual influence. To his friends and foes alike, the death-
scene was both pathetic and important; eye-witnesses of very
different sympathies have described it; and complicated questions,
legal and canonical, have been asked concerning it. But the
simple, self-distrusting mind of the scholar and writer wished to
make no pose, and sought after no display. The cruelty shown
him did little to check the movement. The leaders of the Eliza-
bethan church were men of much his mould, but with an added
touch of strength and effective purpose. They thankfully took as the
basis of their work the prayer-book that had translated the devotion
of the past into the language of the future. They followed
Cranmer in his wish to learn from the church, as he had strongly
expressed it in his Appeal to a Council; they followed him also
in his love of the Scriptures.
One new feature in the prayer-book had been its exhortations.
Edification and instruction were needed: not only, therefore, was
much Scripture introduced, but short discourses or exhorta-
tions, Scriptural, pointed and, withal, majestic, were also added ;
some of them date from the order of communion issued in 1548,
one, also in the communion service, was due to Peter Martyr.
But the wish to instruct shown by these compositions found a
larger field for itself in the Homilies. The first book of Homilies
was issued (1547) when the policy of licensing a few preachers and
silencing others was carried to an extreme. Cranmer, at an earlier
date (1539—43), had been preparing homilies meant both to set
the note of preaching and to provide sermons for those who
preached with difficulty or not at all : he himself wrote for the
first book the homilies of salvation, of faith and of good works,
and, doubtless, he edited the whole volume. A later second book,
issued under Elizabeth (before 1563), was lengthier, less interest-
ing and feebler in style than the first book, in which Cranmer's
own homilies have all the fine characteristics of his other works.
The Homilies were intended to make sure that instruction
should be given and that it should be of a kind agreeable to the
authorities; but they were not the only attempt in this direction :
The Institution of a Christian Man (1537) had been meant as a
guide for teaching, and in it, too, Cranmer had borne a large part.
3-2


## p. 36 (#58) ##############################################

36 Reformation Literature in England
But it was superseded by its free revision, The Necessary
Doctrine and Erudition of a Christian Man (1543)—-called The
King's Book in contrast to its predecessor's popular name The
Bishops' Book—made when the reaction of Henry's later years
was at its height. The age was one of confessions and formulae of
faith, and the English documents of this kind compare favourably
with those of other lands. The English reformation is perhaps
often judged exclusively by its political effects and not also by its
literary history: if this second test were applied, our estimate of
Cranmer and his influence might be even higher than it is at
present.
The increasing stress laid upon edification made itself felt
not only through the press, but even more through the pulpit
literature of the day, which showed a great facility of expression
and a command of genuine emotion not reached before. Medieval
oratory, at its best, did not, and could not, equal it, because it was
impossible, in the earlier days, to combine these two elements to
the degree possible at the reformation. Even just before the re-
.
formation, bishop Fisher's sermons-perhaps the best of their time
and delivered by a most saintly man—did not reach the same force
and directness of speech, the vivid personal appeal, the command
of an audience, to which many later sermons attained. In its
sudden rise to excellence, the sermon of the day may, indeed, be
compared with the drama : both were affected by the growth of
the language, and also by a movement of thought able to wield
that language with greater power; both suffered, at a later date,
from an excess of fancy, beginning to appear even in Latimer's
Sermons on the Card (December 1529). Among popular preachers,
John Longland, bishop of Lincoln (1521–38) and chancellor
of Oxford, had a great reputation; so, upon the other side, had
John Hooper, afterwards bishop of Gloucester, whose sermons upon
Jonah, before Edward VI, were vigorous in denunciation and fear-
less in reproof. But the reputation of all these capable preachers,
speaking, as they did, to a generation tolerant, or even avaricious,
of sermons, was overshadowed by the greater name of Hugh
Latimer.
Latimer, the exact year of whose birth is uncertain (1485—91),
took his bachelor's degree at Cambridge in 1510, and his bachelor-
ship of divinity in 1524. As crossbearer (1522) to the university and
as Fellow of Clare he had some academical position. Up to 1524,
he had opposed the new teaching, and, in his 'act' for B. D. , had
attacked Melanchthon. But, after that discourse, Thomas Bilney,


## p. 37 (#59) ##############################################

6
9
Hugh Latimer
37
desiring to influence him, chose him as confessor and, as a penitent,
gained him over to his own views. Together, they spent their
days in works of mercy ; in the evening, they, with Robert Barnes,
Stafford and others, met at The White Horse' for reading and
discussion. Little Germany,' as the place was called, became a
centre of influence in the university, and remained so until an
abusive sermon of Barnes, preached in St Edward's church on
Christmas Eve 1525, brought danger upon the ‘Germans. '
Hitherto, Wolsey had been very tolerant and, although urged by
the bishops to take steps against heresy at the universities, had
refused to do so. But Barnes, who, like Latimer, had come under
Bilney's spiritual influence, had not learnt reverence or discretion,
and in this sermon he had attacked Wolsey with violence. Taken
to London and examined before Wolsey, he agreed to recant;
after this he was imprisoned for three years and then escaped to
Germany. The incident scattered the band of Cambridge scholars
and was a crisis in their history. It not only brought them into
disrepute, but lent bitterness to their words and writings.
When Barnes preached this celebrated sermon, he had ex-
changed pulpits with Latimer, who, although he had just been
inhibited by the bishop (West) of Ely, could still preach in the
exempt chapel of the Augustinian priory. The trouble caused
Latimer, also, to be called before Wolsey, who appreciated his
good qualities and his sound old-fashioned learning, and allowed
him to return to Cambridge with a general licence to preach, signed
a
by the cardinal himself. The incident shows the attitude taken
by those in high authority towards reform; but the bitterness of
preachers like Barnes and the scurrility of some pamphleteers
made it hard to maintain this attitude. Up to this time, the move-
ment in England had been mainly based on learning and was
distinctly English. In spite of the names of Lutherans and
Germans loosely given to them, and of their sympathy for German
writers, these Englishmen, as yet, owed little to foreign influence.
But increasing intercourse gradually brought about a closer unity
of opinion : few English theologians became Lutherans, but some
became Zwinglians and others Calvinists. Latimer, however, may
be taken as representing the earlier and more characteristic stage
of the movement. He attacked specially those abuses which
Erasmus had satirised-indulgences, pilgrimages, veneration of
images ; upon the positive side, he laid stress upon the life and
example of Christ, and held up a high ideal of conduct. But he
did not move of his own accord to any revolutionary conception
a


## p. 38 (#60) ##############################################

38
Reformation Literature in England
of the church, to any assertion of individual liberty, or to an
attack upon the doctrine of the sacraments, although that was
the central topic of his examination at his trial (1555). Even
then, however, he leaned mainly upon Cranmer's book, and con-
fessed that he had only been of his final opinion for some seven
years.
His boldness during the trial, and his determination, both
for himself and in inspiring others, was a strange contrast to the
timidity of some of his earlier Cambridge friends. His arguments
were, however, less forceful than his example: he referred again
and again to 'my lord of Canterbury's book' for proof of his
assertions; and discussion of the one subject—that of the pope's
supremacy-upon which he would have liked to enlarge, was
refused him. The Conferences between him and Ridley (published
in 1556) give a pathetic picture of their imprisonment.
The number of the criers under the altar' must needs be fulfilled.
Pardon me and pray for me: pray for me, I say: pray for me, I say. For
I am sometimes so fearful, that I would creep into a mousehole; sometimes
God doth visit me again with His comfort. So He cometh and goeth, to teach
me to feel and to know mine infirmity, to the intent to give thanks to Him
that is worthy, lest I should rob Him of His duty, as many do. Fare
-
you well.
These were his words to Ridley. To another prisoner, wavering
in the peril of death, he wrote:
If any man perceive his faith not to abide the fire, let such an one with
weeping buy his liberty, until he hath obtained more strength, lest the gospel
by him sustain an offence of some shameful recantation. Let the dead bury
their dead. Let us that be of the lively faith follow the Lamb wheresoever
He goeth.
Clearly those were not mistaken who had seen in the great
preacher an underlying strength of manliness, inspired by piety,
as the foundation of his character.
The power of a preacher is hard to estimate, for much of it
vanishes with the day itself. But the characteristics that draw us,
even yet, to Latimer's sermons had their attraction then also. The
homely anecdotes, the touches illustrative of social manners and
habits, are valuable for us historically : at the time of their
delivery they gave the sermons vividness and special force.
Honesty and fearlessness, directness of appeal and allusions to
matters of the day, showed the preacher's contact with life.
They showed, moreover, how far he had departed from the previous
conventionalities of the pulpit; almost the only trace of them is
the frequent use (seen, also, in Longland's sermons) of Latin words


## p. 39 (#61) ##############################################

Sermons
39
that, to us, in no way deepen the impression. It was the nature of
the man that spoke through all these things, and, because he was
natural above all else, because he revealed himself to hearers
whose natures he laid hold of by instinct, he gained great power.
But minor points were not neglected : repetition, intolerable in
writings, but declared, by masters of preaching, to be necessary
in sermons meant for instruction, was a frequent feature. He
grasped the attention, sometimes by what have been called
'antics,' and then he searched the conscience and touched the
heart. It was an age that sought instruction, and he compelled
it to listen. It would be hard to find sermons anywhere that show
so plainly as do his the true relation between preacher and con-
gregation. There was nothing in them of art, but there was the
sense of a message driven home with sympathy and love. He
preached because he must: the sermon was his natural expression.
There had been nothing of the kind in English before ; and not
many years had passed before the technical scholastics of
puritanism, the search after conceits of imagination and ex-
pression, made sermons such as his impossible.
A commission to investigate heretical books, upon which Latimer
served, had been appointed (1530). Some restrictions were con-
sidered needful, but evasions of authoritative regulations were
common : church and state had a common interest in checking the
heresy and sedition which, often expressed with scurrility, was their
common enemy. The control or licensing of books was, as a rule,
assigned to the bishops; but the universities, not only in England
but, also, on the continent, had been often appealed to. Henry
(6 May 1530) summoned representatives of both universities to
meet and examine suspected books.
Their labours ended (24 May)
in the condemnation of many works; some old, such as the writings
of Wyclif and Hus, some new, such as those of Luther, Zwingli,
Fish, Joye and Tindale. The Parable of the Wicked Mammon,
The Obedience of a Christian Man, The Revelation of Anti-Christ
and The Sum of Scripture were writings of Tindale and his school
which produced great effect.
William Tindale is, to us, above all the translator of the
Scriptures, but, to his own age, he was probably at least as much
the theological pamphleteer. Of his early life, nothing is really
known. He was born, probably about 1484, in Gloucestershire, and
went to Oxford, where, under the name of Hichyns, he took his
MA. degree in 1515. He spent some time afterwards in Cambridge,
and, about 1520, went as private tutor to Little Sodbury, in his
>


## p. 40 (#62) ##############################################

40 Reformation Literature in England
native county. It was here that he formed his great design of
translating the Bible into English, and the need of such a work was
impressed upon him while preaching to the country people. His
preaching in the villages and in Bristol first brought him into
collision with the church authorities. He had to appear before
the diocesan chancellor; but of the result of his summons-pro-
bably unimportant-nothing is known with certainty. Before long,
Tindale went up to London with the special object of gaining pro-
tection for his work of translation (1523). From Tunstall, bishop of
London, he received little encouragement; but Humphry Mon-
mouth, an alderman and merchant, gave him shelter and friend-
ship. Gradually, Tindale came to think that there was no place
in England for his purpose, and he crossed over to Hamburg (1524).
It was possible to print books abroad and send them into England
by an evasion of the existing regulations; and the secret
association of the Christian Brethren, who existed for the spread
of this suspected literature, was specially active in East Anglia,
in London and in other seaports. In Germany, Tindale came into
contact with others who, for reasons as good as, or better than, his
own, had left England; among these were William Roy, George
Joye (with both of whom he afterwards quarrelled) and John Frith.
Pamphlets which troubled the government became more numerous
in England after Tindale's arrival on the continent; and yet, while
their seizure was ordered, the king was reading them with pleasure.
Tindale's theological opinions had, by this time, gone far beyond
those of his original master, Erasmus, and he put them forth with
confidence: he was now opposed to all ceremonies that were
not perfectly understood; he questioned confirmation and baptism
with arguments which were often expressed disrespectfully and some-
times irreverently; while his insistence upon the need of faith alone
was accompanied by a dangerous depreciation of all good works.
Some bitterness of expression may be allowed men who fear for
their lives or are chafing under abuses they cannot remove, but the
language of some pamphlets of the day passed all such allowance.
Joye was even more violent than Tindale, whom More styled 'the
captain of our English heretics'; but there were some who, like
John Frith, argued out great issues in a becoming way. Frith's
Disputation of Purgatory and The Supper of the Lord, which
presented the Zwinglian view, led to controversy with Rastell and
More. He first began the lengthy sacramental controversy, but the
characteristic of his teaching was the assertion that purgatory and
transubstantiation should be left open questions. This toleranco


## p. 41 (#63) ##############################################

William Tindale
41
was impressed upon him by Tindale, whose associations with Mar-
burg may have suggested to him the need of comprehensiveness.
His advice to Frith, that he should go on preaching ‘until the matter
might be reasoned in peace at leisure of both parties,' was based
upon expediency, but Frith soon raised the principle to a point of
conscience. The Articles whereof John Frith died show us a
writer and a martyr (1533) far above most theologians of the day in
dignity and breadth. But Tindale's orders to him, that he should
‘ever among thrust in that the Scripture may be in the mother-
tongue and learning set up in the universities,' taken together with
his letters to others, show the former as the leader of a wide-spread
movement, directed by him with energy and zeal, but not always
with knowledge or self-restraint. The typical misunderstanding
of Wolsey displayed in The Practice of Prelates marks Tindale's
limitations and defects. He was a scholar with something of a
scholar's self-seclusion and ignorance of the world, and he is not
the only scholar who, in writing upon theology or politics, has
failed to calculate the effect of his language upon others. Further-
more, the circumstances of his life were unfavourable to his
disposition. Publishers, like Froben at Basel, kept scholars, like
Erasmus and Beatus Rhenanus, at work upon profitable tasks ;
the element of commercial speculation entered into all literary
work; and thus, around Tindale with his great aim, were grouped
others less lofty in mind and chiefly intent upon gain. His asso-
ciates were often undesirable ; his own absorption in his task and
his curious love of self-assertion both tended to make him somewhat
peevish in his dealings; and thus, partly because of himself, partly
because of his friends, the story of his adventures abroad is a
depressing one. The violence of these writers, the deceitful and
underhand means by which they gained their influence, sometimes
their treachery to each other, were certain to bring disaster upon
themselves and others, and deprive them of much of the sympathy
which might otherwise be theirs. But the main effect of Tindale's
writings was to urge the private appeal to the sole authority of
Scripture, secured by the unlimited power of the king, with his full
power of reforming the church. Such teaching made him a useful
ally to Henry VIII, and led to his being secretly encouraged.
But his strong condemnation of Henry's divorce, creditable to him
as it was, lessened his usefulness in Henry's eyes.
It is a relief to turn from the pamphlets to Tindale's Biblical
translation. His scholarship was adequate and he was not de-
pendent upon the Vulyate alone; his exposition of his methods-


## p. 42 (#64) ##############################################

42 Reformation Literature in England
like his love of the Scriptures, possibly derived from Erasmus-
magnifies his conception of his task and its importance; he
followed previous translators worthily, but with better weapons ;
and the improved style of his revised edition is, in itself, a testimony
to his fitness for the work he undertook. It is impossible and
unnecessary to follow his enforced travels closely; from Hamburg
he passed (1525) to Cologne, and here the great scholar
Cochlaeus frustrated his work. Tindale just contrived to escape
to Worms, saving some sheets already printed. St Matthew
and St Mark had already appeared separately, and now two
editions of the New Testament in quarto and octavo, the former
with prologue and glosses, were sent to England. The authorities
were on the alert, and lists of prohibited books had been
issued; but, in spite of this, a change of opinion was slowly
coming.
Latimer joined his fellow commissioners (1530) in deprecating
the publication of an English version ; a letter to the king
(December 1530) urging it has been wrongly ascribed to him.
The scheme had been mooted long before, but archbishop Arundel's
measures had put it off, and there were, of course, difficulties in
the way. The king, in 1530, had hinted at the possibility of its
realisation in the future, and convocation, in 1534, asked the king
to appoint translators. But private enterprise, which did not
stop to weigh conflicting dangers, "prevented' the government
in the matter.
It was to the glosses in Tindale's Testament that most ob-
jection was raised. His own theological views were extreme;
convocation objected to his substitution of the words 'con-
gregation,' elder' and 'penitence' for 'church,' 'priest' and
penance’; and the glosses often conveyed extreme views in a
petty form. To this, exception was, not unnaturally, taken. Lee,
the old antagonist of Erasmus, urged the king to take steps against
the introduction of such translations, and it is curious to notice
that he assumes the English Bible itself to be prohibited. Tunstall
preached against it and Henry decided that it should be ‘brenned'
(1527). But, in spite of the measures that were taken and the
copies that were bought up, prohibition proved a failure. New
editions were multiplied; the majority of English theologians were
changing their views; an appeal to Scripture against their papal
antagonists was gaining force; and, lastly, the king, especially in
the days of Cromwell,' saw some advantage to be gained from the
forces he had tried to suppress. Bishop Nix of Norwich was not
6


## p. 43 (#65) ##############################################

The Bible in English
43
the only one who thought that the king favoured 'arroneous
boks' (1530).
Other editions of Tindale's New Testament--one, of a poor
character, pirated by his former helper George Joye-appeared,
and (November 1534) Tindale published a revised edition of his
own, to which he added not only slight marginal notes, but also those
epistles in the Sarum use which came from the Old Testament or
the Apocrypha. In the very year that Tindale was put to death
(1536), an edition was printed in England. After many wander-
ings, to Marburg, to Hamburg and, finally, to Antwerp, he was
treacherously seized (May 1535), not by English contrivance, and
put to death at Vilvorde (6 October 1536). But his work was
already done; copies of the New Testament, either his or founded
upon his, were common, and he had made more than a beginning
with the Old Testament; he had, moreover, fixed the character of
the English translations for evermore. Instinctively he, like many
writers or preachers of his day, had expressed himself in the
popular style, not in the larger phrase affected by scholars, and,
in that style, the Bible remained.
Miles Coverdale, afterwards bishop of Exeter, although in-
ferior to Tindale in scholarship, was at least as closely connected
with the English version. A Yorkshireman by birth, he became
an Augustinian friar at Cambridge, where he had formed one of the
band of reformers, and had been naturally influenced by his prior,
Barnes; he had also early connections with Sir Thomas More and
Thomas Cromwell. He soon left England, however, and probably
(1529) met Tindale abroad. Not only did he thus enter the
circle of translators, but he was urged by Cromwell to print an
edition of his own, about which much correspondence took place
between Cromwell and the editors and printers. The work, when
it appeared (1535), was said to be translated from the Dutch
(i. e. German) and Latin, and not to be for the maintenance of
any sect; Coverdale recognised the previous labours of others,
which he had, indeed, largely used, and he drew upon the Zurich
Bible as well as upon Tindale's editions. He dedicated his work to
Henry VIII, in the hope of receiving royal patronage, if not a royal
licence; but this was not formally given. Cromwell's injunction
(1536) that the Bible, in Latin and English, should be placed in
churches was, doubtless, meant to refer to this edition, but the
order was ineffective. Convocation, however, soon asked again
for a new translation, and the second edition of Coverdale's work
-published (1537) both in folio and quarto, and the first Bible


## p. 44 (#66) ##############################################

44 Reformation Literature in England
printed in England-was licensed by the king. The edition of
1535, printed, probably, by Froschover at Zurich, had also been the
first complete English Bible printed Tindale had translated the
Pentateuch, Jonah and some detached pieces, and may have left
more in MS, but Coverdale now translated the whole. He did
not claim any extensive scholarship, and his description of his
work is modest; but his pains, nevertheless, had been great, and
the prayer-book Psalter, still reminding us of his work, speaks of
its literary merits to all.
The history of the English Bible had thus moved quickly; but
the publicity, which Coverdale, perhaps even above Tindale, had
aimed at, was gained even more largely by another edition. Thomas
Matthew, or, rather, John Rogers, to give him his real name, formed
another Bible by a combination of Tindale's Old Testament so far
as it went and Coverdale's—the Apocrypha being included. This
was printed abroad by R. Grafton (who was a fellow-worker with
Coverdale) and T. Whitchurch (1537). It is usually thought that,
in parts up to 2 Chronicles, where this edition differs from
Coverdale's, it is indebted to remains left by Tindale, to which
Rogers, Tindale's former assistant, probably had access. It was
dedicated to Henry VIII, and Cranmer, who liked it better than
all previous translations, was able to befriend it. The king gave
leave for its sale, and thus it took a place not publicly gained
before ; its many notes, too, found it favour or disfavour according
to the reader's opinions.
Coverdale began to prepare a new edition, for which he went
abroad in the Lent of 1538; but, as the inquisition forbade its being
printed in Paris, it was partly printed (1539) in England, after it
(September 1538) had been ordered for use in churches. This
edition is known as the Great Bible. Again, Coverdale's labours
had turned more to other versions than to the text, and he had
availed himself of some new continental versions. A second edition
of it (April 1540) appeared with a preface by Cranmer, who saw,
in an English Bible formally approved, his own great hope ful-
filled; and this edition, therefore, became known as Cranmer's Bible,
although he had done nothing for it beyond writing the preface.
Then, at last, the English Bible was set up in churches (May 1540)
and was in general use both public and private.
One more edition of the New Testament, significant from the
place of its appearance, and destined from its doctrinal bias to be
widely popular, was the Genevan New Testament of William
Whittingham (1557), who had married a sister of Calvin's wife,


## p. 45 (#67) ##############################################

The Great Bible. Hymns 45
and succeeded John Knox as English pastor at Geneva. The
text was founded upon previous English versions, but Beza's Latin
version, the rival of the Vulgate, was also used. The whole Bible
appeared at Geneva (1560) with a dedication to queen Elizabeth
and with more apparatus than had hitherto been added, the text
being due to Whittingham, helped by Anthony Gilby and Thomas
Sampson. As they were, respectively, the first Testament and
Bible printed with verse-divisions and in roman type, they mark a
distinct stage.
Convocation, the authority of which had been sometimes
pushed aside, was not wholly satisfied with the Great Bible, and
(1542) sought a revision of it by the Vulgate, but, although parts
were assigned to various translators, nothing came of the proposal.
Under Elizabeth, and upon the initiative of archbishop Parker,
the Bishops' Bible was issued (1568); but, in the end, it was
superseded by the Authorised Version (1611) prepared after the
Hampton Court conference!
It should be noted that these Bibles varied in their treatment
of the Apocrypha: Coverdale's, Matthew's and the Genevan Bible,
following continental protestant usage, differentiated it from the
Old Testament, and, after 1629, when we have the first example,
editions of Bibles without the Apocrypha became common. Apart
from any critical or theological views supposed to be involved,
this omission was a serious literary loss, which is now being more
understood.
It may seem curious that, with this activity in producing
English versions, little was thought or said of the earliest English
versions. They seem to have had but little effect, although one
exception must be noted, in the Scots New Testament of Murdoch
Nisbet (c. 1520). This was based upon Purvey's version, although
the earlier Wyclifite version may, also, have been used: the
adaptation of Luther's preface to the New Testament (1522), and
the later addition of Tindale's prologue to Romans, indicate the
use of these editions after the work had been begun. Nisbet
belonged to Ayrshire, and had come under the influence of the
Lollards of that district. He had not only been a fugitive for his
religion, but, after his return home, had lived many years in hiding.
His translation had, doubtless, been made for a help in his own
ministry, but the importation into Scotland of Tindale's translation
1 The position of the Authorised Version in English literature is discussed in a later
chapter of the present work.
1


## p. 46 (#68) ##############################################

46
Reformation Literature in England
checked its use and so possibly prevented the publication of a
linguistically and historically interesting version.
One further result of the liturgical changes and the growing use
of the vulgar tongue calls for mention. The hymns in the daily
offices had always been popular, and the tendency to replace them
by English substitutes was natural and strong. The best example
of devotional poetry was to be found in the Psalms, and, when re-
ligious and poetic interests were warmly felt, a rendering of the
Psalms into English verse seemed a happy method of stirring up
religious zeal. Clément Marot had set French psalms to popular
tunes for the French court under Francis I; Calvin, whom many
generations of puritans followed, kept Marot's words, although he
rejected his tunes. An English courtier and poet attempted a
like task in England. Thomas Sternhold, a Hampshire gentleman
educated at Oxford, became groom of the robes to Henry VIII.
He was in trouble for his religious views (1543), but kept his favour
at court, and was there at a time when English was being largely
used in Edward VI's chapel royal. Thinking to turn the minds
of the nobles to higher things, he put some psalms into verse
and (1548), a year before his death, published nineteen of them
under the title of Certayne Psalms. A year later, John Hopkins,
a clergyman of Suffolk, published thirty-seven psalms by Stern-
hold, with seven of his own. In later editions, he increased the
number, and (1562) The Whole Booke of Psalmes by Sternhold,
Hopkins, Thos. Norton and others, appeared in verse, and was
added to the prayer-book. Not only was this done, but melodies,
some of which are still in popular use, were also printed. Suc-
cessive editions show traces of German influence, and a formidable
rival appeared in the Genevan Psalter, due to Whittingham,
Kethe and others. Its history is much like that of the older English
version, with which it has much in common: fifty-one psalms
were printed (1556) together with the form of prayer used by the
English exiles, and, in later editions, more were added. The
influence of Marot and Beza could be traced in it, and so re-
appears in its descendant, the Scots Psalter (1564). The growth
of Calvinism made these versions more popular than that of
Sternhold, but his compositions, which are marked by a concise
and natural simplicity, are easy to distinguish. Metrical psalmody
was in the air, and many writers, including archbishop Parker
(c. 1555), tried their hands at it. Its popularity grew, but the
growing separation between religion and all kinds of art, which
marked the seventeenth century, lowered the literary quality of


## p. 47 (#69) ##############################################

Summary
47
later editions. These earlier versions had been, however, deservedly
popular, and opened a new channel for religious fervour. Their
merits and their religious influence must not be judged by their
later successors. They belonged to a time when religious feeling
and literary taste were at a higher level, and they did something
to replace a favourite part of the older service-books.
A general survey of the field teaches us how varied the religious
impulses of the reformation were, and how vital they were for the
national welfare, both upon their positive and negative sides.
Party feeling and royal politics made the course of the move-
ment sometimes slower, sometimes tumultuous. One change may
be noted. In the lists of early printed books, a number of
medieval manuals of devotion and instruction precede the con-
troversial writings. At first, as in the Middle Ages, schools conceal
individuals, the same material is re-used and authorship is difficult
to settle. But, as in the cases of More and Tindale, the weight of
well known names begins to be felt, and the printing press, fixing
once for all the very words of a writer, put an end to processes which
had often hidden authorship. The needs of controversy hastened
the change, and individualism in literature began. An author was
now face to face with his public. It is trite to call the reformation
an age of transition, and its significance for creative thought is
sometimes over-estimated. But, at its outset, the problems of its
literature, its methods and its processes are medieval; at its end,
they are those which we know to-day. If, in Germany, the
revolution was heralded by medieval theses, in England, the
reformation controversies sprang out of a literature purely medie-
val. But, at the close of the period we have dealt with, the
translation of an English Bible, the formation of an English
prayer-book, stand out as great religious and literary results, and
each of them is due less to individual labourers than to the
continuous work of schools. There may have been many who
regretted much that had been lost; but to have preserved and
adapted so much was no mean gain. Many of the absorbing
controversies died away; but these results, which they had helped
to produce, remained.


## p. 48 (#70) ##############################################

CHAPTER III
THE DISSOLUTION OF THE RELIGIOUS HOUSES
THE general wave of new thought breaking upon England in
the first half of the sixteenth century swept away with it, among
other things, the almost countless religious houses with which
the country was covered. Their disappearance is more significant
considered as an effect than as a cause; yet it cannot be
doubted that, in its turn, it had an effect, both for good and for
evil, on the movement in which it was an incident. And first let
the losses to learning be estimated.
The destruction of books was almost incredibly enormous. Bale
describes the use of them by bookbinders and by grocers and
merchants for the packing of their goods. Maskell calculates the
loss of liturgical books alone to have approached the total of a
quarter of a million. An eye-witness describes the leaves of Duns
Scotus as blown about by the wind even in the courts of Oxford,
and their use for sporting and other purposes. Libraries that had
been collected through centuries, such as those of Christ Church and
St Albans, both classical and theological, vanished in a moment.
It was not only the studious orders that gathered books; the
friars, also, had libraries, though, as Leland relates of the Oxford
Franciscans, they did not always know how to look after them.
So late as 1535, a bequest was made by the bishop of St Asaph
of five marks to buy books for the Grey Friars of Oxford. Nor
can it be doubted that vast numbers of books less directly
theological must have perished.
A second destruction was that of the homes of study which the
religious houses, especially those of the Benedictines, provided for
all who leaned that way. The classical renascence had not yet
made sufficient way, except among the more advanced, to disturb
the old system by which it was natural for the studious to enter
the cloister and the rest to remain men of sport or war. The use
of the word 'clerk'as denoting a man of education, apart from the


## p. 49 (#71) ##############################################

Destruction of Opportunities for Study 49
question as to whether he were tonsured or not, indicates this
tendency. Even Erasmus, it must be remembered, was once an
Augustinian. Closely allied to the disappearance of this aid to
learning was that of the influence of tradition which, if it held
thinkers within narrow bounds, at the same time saved them the
waste of energy that is the inevitable accompaniment of all new
enterprise. There is abundant evidence to show that the religious
houses were so used; at Durham, Gloucester and Canterbury, for
example, there remain traces or records of the provision for
making books accessible and for accommodating their readers;
and the details of the life of Erasmus, as well as those of the
life of Thomas More, show that the most advanced scholars
of the age numbered among their equals and competent critics
the students of the cloister. Such a man was prior Charnock
of Oxford, Bere, abbot of Glastonbury, and Warham, archbishop
of Canterbury. Further, it must be remembered, not only were
monastic houses in themselves homes of study, but, from their
religious unity with the continent, they afforded means of com-
munication with scholars abroad. Not only were the great houses
the natural centres to which scholars came, but from them there
went out to the foreign universities of Bologna and Pisa such
religious as were in any sense specialists. This, of course, practi-
cally ceased, not only because of the religious change, but because
there were no longer rich corporations who could afford to send
their promising pupils abroad. The proverbial poverty of scholars
had, to a large extent, been mitigated by this provision. The
lives of such men as Richard Pace show that among the
religious were to be found generous patrons as well as professors
of learning.
Next must be reckoned the direct and indirect loss to the
education of children. To a vast number of religious houses, both
of monks and nuns, were attached schools in which the children
of both poor and rich received instruction. Richard Whiting, for
example, the last abbot of Glastonbury, numbered among his
'family' three hundred boys whom he educated, supporting, be-
sides, students at the university. Every great abbey, practically,
was the centre of education for all the country round; even the
Benedictine nuns kept schools attended by children of gentle birth,
and, except in those rare cases where scholarly parents themselves
supervised the education of their children, it may be said that, for
girls, these were the only available teachers of even the simplest
elements of learning. The grammar schools, which are popularly
4
E. L. III.
CU. III.


## p. 50 (#72) ##############################################

50 The Dissolution of the Religious Houses
supposed to have sprouted in such profusion under Edward VI,
may be held to have been, in nearly every case, remnants of the
old monastic foundations, and, even so, were not one tithe of those
which had previously existed. The rest fell with the monasteries,
and, even in places of considerable importance, as at Evesham,
practically no substitute was provided until nearly a century later.
Signs of this decay of learning may be found to some extent in the
records of the universities. The houses fell, for the most part,
about the year 1538, but they had been seriously threatened for
three or four years previously; and the effect may be seen in the
fact that, at Oxford, in 1535, one hundred and eight men graduated,
while, in 1536, only forty-four did so. Up to the end of Henry's
reign, the average was but fifty-seven, in Edward's, thirty-three,
while, during the revival of the old thought under Mary, it rose
again as high as seventy. The decrease of students at Cambridge
was not at first so formidable. This was natural, since that uni-
versity was far more in sympathy with the new ideas than was
her sister. But, ten years after the dissolution, a serious decrease
showed itself. Fuller reports 'a general decay of students, no
college having more scholars therein than hardly those of the
foundation, no volunteers at all and only persons pressed in a
manner by their places to reside. ' He traces this directly to the
fall of the religious houses. “Indeed, at the fall of the abbeys
fell the hearts of all scholars, fearing the ruin of learning. And
those their jealousies they humbly represented in a bemoaning
letter to king Henry VIII. ' The king, whose dislike of the old
canon law had abolished the degrees in that faculty, so that
Gratian fared no better. . . than his brother Peter Lombard,' took
steps to amend all this by the creation of Regius professors in
Divinity, Law, Hebrew and Greek; but it was not until Mary was
on the throne that the number of degrees taken yearly at Cam-
bridge rose, once more, to their former minimum of eighty. Other
details of the steps that Henry had taken to secure sound learning
at Cambridge, shortly before the fall of the houses, while the
university was yet very full of students,' will be found suggestive.
Thus, scholars are urged in his injunctions to the study of tongues,'
of Aristotle, Rodolphus Agricola, Melanchthon and Trapezuntius,
while Scotus, Burleus, Anthony Trombet, Bricot and Bruliferius
are forbidden.
Other causes, no doubt, contributed to the decrease of scholar-
ship; the unrest of the age was largely inimical to serious study;
but among these causes must be reckoned a further and more direct


## p. 51 (#73) ##############################################

New Methods of Thought 51
relation in which the monasteries stood towards the universities.
At both Oxford and Cambridge were large establishments to which
monks and friars came to finish their education; and, of these
scholars, the numbers were so large that, in the century previous
to the reformation, one in nine of all graduates seems to have
been a religious. At Oxford, the Benedictines alone had four
colleges, the Augustinians two and the Cistercians one. All this,
then, after the first rush of the disbanded religious to Oxford,
stopped with the dissolution, and the universities began to empty.