shall know how that the matters between me and the Lords of Antwerp shall be determined.

"I have begun the writing of this letter at Antwerp, and finished it here at Mechlin, the xiith day of Jenner 1526, (i. e. 12th Jan. 1527.) After this letter was written, I have spoken with my Lady Margaret touching these English books, and she promised me surely, that afore five days to amend, that there shall be such justice done of them, that I shall be pleased there as then.— 'p. yor hummyll Bedesman, John Hackett."" 50

In the abundance of his zeal, Hackett not only visited Antwerp, Barrow, Zealand, and other places, but made "privy inquisitions" at Ghent and Bruges, at Brussels, Louvaine, and elsewhere, after books, which was all in obedience to Wolsey's instructions; so that he thinks forty marks, which he had just received, should be allowed him for "expenses extraordinary."51 Yet, in the end, notwithstanding all this toil, it is gratifying to observe, that so far from Christopher Endhoven being banished, they could not even touch his goods. Thanks to his residence in the free city of Antwerp! The books, however, so far as detected there and at Barrow, were burned, though happily they had found out only a part. Of all this Hackett did not fail immediately to inform the King's Secretary; and in his second despatch to Wolsey, dated from Mechlin the 20th of February, he alludes to the subject again—

"Please your Grace to understand, that since my last writing to your Grace, I have received none of yours. I trust by this time your Grace has ample information of such execution and justice as has been done in the towns of Antwerp and Barrow, upon all such English books as we could find in these countries, similar to three such other books as your Grace sent unto me with my Lord the Bishop of London's signature."52

That no doubt whatever might remain as to the species of justice to which Hackett refers, he speaks afterwards, in the same letter, of having caused a good fire to be made of the Testaments. Even this much, however, had been accomplished, it is evident, with no small difficulty, and it was, in the end, only by a stretch of power. Our envoy, therefore, felt himself under the necessity of adding

50 MS. Cotton, Galba, B. ix., fol. 40, 41, 42.

51 Forty marks, or £26, 13s. 4d. Observe this. It was more than double the sum which Tyndale had from Munmouth. It was equal in value to £400 sterling of the present day, for travelling expenses, in hunting after English New Testaments, to burn them, as soon as they had been printed for our native land!

52 "Three such books" is an expression worth notice. Why three, if by this time they were not in possession of three distinct editions? viz. Tyndale's quarto, and small octavo of 1525, and the Antwerp edition of 1526.

"The Margrave of Antwerp, and the Drossard of Barghys, required, and pray you, if it were possible, to cause them to get out of England a translation of some particular articles of heresies contained in the said book, by the which notification, they may lawfully not only burn such books, but also to correct and punish the imprimurs, buyers, and sellers of them, both in body and in goods, for else, according to the laws of this (place,) they may not punish, nor make correction upon the foresaid men, neither upon their goods, as they say."53

In conveying this earnest request, Hackett did not foresee the consequences to himself afterwards, otherwise, perhaps, he would have been silent, for we are not done with him yet; though we have slightly trespassed on 1527, only that we might finish the account of this business, and bring to a conclusion the important transactions of the preceding year.

All this turmoil is entirely new to the English reader, and certainly it lends an additional and peculiar interest, not only to the two first editions of Tyndale, but to the first imitation of his book, or the third edition. No printer would have ventured on such a thing, without the prospect of a ready sale, even in the face of royal indignation. For could a copy of this first print at Antwerp now be identified, then might we say of it-Here is the volume, printed by Endhoven, which so agitated our authorities at home and abroad; and engrossed our ambassador as eagerly as if he had been intent on preventing the plague from entering into England. We have, however, yet to see whether this interference was to his honour or disgrace. Meanwhile, although we can by no means affirm that we have found out the book, since the following collation refers to one of the earliest editions, we give it entire

"A copy is in Bishop Cosin's Library at Durham, which may turn out to be some one very early and unknown. The title is in a small compartment of four parts, with top and bottom scriptural subjects. On the top, the creation and birth of the Saviour; at the bottom, Adam and Eve beguiled, and the crucifixion. The volume consists of 446 leaves, on the last of which is the Revelation of St. Judas, Jude. There are 26 lines in a full page. Matthew begins on folio 11; and the volume extends to R r in eights. The chapters are marked into portions by large letters on the margin; and there are a few marginal notes. It has ornamented capitals; the first T, two boys carrying on

53 MS. Cotton, Galba, B. vi. fol. 4. The entire impression of this book must have been from two to three thousand, as this edition and the next, we shall find, amounted in all to five thousand. Many may have been exported before Hackett seized the printer-and the delay was favourable to their being put out of the way-so that probably, after all, but a small proportion was actually burnt.

a stick a dead stag, with the head upwards." For this account, the editor is indebted to Dr. Bandinel of the Bodleian Library.54

Should this, however, prove to be one of the edition now under consideration, there is another copy, and of a more extraordinary character, in the collection at Norwood-hill. Not only is it in the original hog-skin binding, which would be curiosity enough, but, to this hour, many of the leaves remain not yet cut open!—a peculiarity not to be expected in a book nearly three hundred and twenty years old, and one which, it may be safely presumed, will stamp the volume as unique, amongst all these rare early editions.

The following pages will throw still farther light on this interesting period, but we have now done for the present with the memorable year 1526.

Instead of having to be satisfied with only one edition of the New Testament, and that of doubtful or hitherto disputed origin, we have had three distinctly before us, besides, as will be more fully proved, a separate impression of Matthew and Mark, circulating through the country. We have seen all the authorities, from the King downwards, roused in opposition, and the people, though in secret, were reading with avidity. It was the season of entrance to Britain's greatest earthly treasure; and one should have imagined that it would have been marked in our calendar, with a red letter, or fully understood, long ere now. Viewing these first printed volumes in their ultimate effects, the year may well be regarded by all British Christians, as by far the most important, in the long and varied history of their native land.

A fire was then kindled by the Almighty, through the in

54 Lowndes' Bib. Manual. Following the authority of Lewis, the editor has dated this book in 1527, which, if it turn out to be the first after Tyndale, is a year too late. George Joye has, in his own way, professedly given an account of these early editions; and it has been the only authority by which others have been guided. Adopted as being correct, by Lewis, he has inserted certain years, by his own conjecture, as the dates of printing. We need scarcely add, that these are incorrect, or that Joye's account is, at the best, confused. It must ever be remembered, too, that the testimony of Joye was given in a very lame vindication of his having altered another, and subsequent copy of Tyndale's Testament, with nothing more than the vulgate before him. But his words may be quoted-" Anon, after," says he, "the Dutchmen (Germans) got a copy, and printed it again in a small volume, adding the calendar in the beginning, concordances in the margin, and the table in the end. But yet for that they had no Englishman to correct the setting; they themselves having not the knowledge of our tongue, were compelled to make many more faults than there were in the copy; and so corrupted the book, that the simple reader might oftimes be tarried, and stick." It is still questionable whether this small volume be not as creditable to the printers as that which was corrected by Joye himself, seven years later.

strumentality of his servant, which, in the highest exercise of his loving-kindness, He has never suffered to be extinguished; light was then introduced, which He has never withdrawn; and a voice was then heard by the people, which has sounded in the ears of their posterity to the present hour. For whatever may be said of men, as men, it is to the word of truth in the vulgar tongue that we owe everything in this highly-favoured country!

Many of these volumes, it is true, were consigned to the flames; and the wonder is that any of them escaped detection. But every one knows with what avidity men will read an interdicted book, while the call for its deliverance up would only make certain minds grasp it harder still. Besides, though in part detected, in such places as London and Oxford-for in Cambridge they were not-copies had gone, far and near, into the hamlets and towns in the country, where, no doubt, they were enjoyed by stealth, and hid with anxious care.

The preceding statements are not hypothetical; the reader has been entertained neither with mere conjectures or probability only; and as subsequent events will both illustrate and confirm the preceding, we presume it will now be conceded, as not a little extraordinary, that more than three centuries should have been allowed to pass away, before a year so full of incident, nay, of peculiar favour to Britain, has been investigated. We have said Britain, because it will appear, in its proper place, that, at this very period, Scotland was mercifully visited with the same favour.

SECTION IV.

THE TRANSLATOR'S PROGRESS HIS EARLIEST COMPOSITIONS-AGITATION OF EUROPE-SACK OF ROME CONSEQUENCES-PERSECUTION IN ENGLAND -OPPOSITION TO THE NEW TESTAMENT-WARHAM AND THE BISHOPS BUYING IT UP-FRESH IMPORTATIONS-THE FOURTH EDITION-SCRIPTURES SINGULARLY INTRODUCED ONCE MORE.

IN returning to Tyndale, whom we left alone at Worms, after having completed his New Testaments, we do so with.

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abundant evidence, that he had not laboured in vain. Much has vaguely been ascribed to Latin works then imported from the Continent, and in consequence of even their effects, the spirituality” of the day no doubt dreaded almost every leaf; but the history already given clearly shows, that the New Testament in the vulgar tongue was the great object of apprehension. While yet in his native land, Tyndale "had perceived by experience how that it was impossible to stablish the lay people in any truth, except the Scriptures were plainly laid before their eyes in their mother tongue, that they might see the process, order, and meaning of the text:" and so now, as the Word of the Lord was enlightening the minds, “converting the soul, and making wise the simple,” it had proved also “like a fire or a hammer,” and was breaking the rocks in pieces.

Very soon, through whatever medium, Tyndale was made intimately acquainted with the storm that raged in England, and, amidst all its tumultuous howling, he had ample encouragement to proceed with his Old Testament from the Hebrew; but in the year 1526, he must have been also very busy in preparing for the press, as we shall find that the year 1527 was distinguished by the first appearance of two publications, namely, his exposition of "the Parable of the Wicked Mammon," and his "Obedience of a Christian man.”

Sometime, however, before the appearance of anything else in print, we may now safely assert, that Tyndale had been favoured by the company, consolation, and assistance of his devoted Christian friend, John Fryth, who had fled from Oxford to the Continent about September 1526, and no doubt fully reported progress. An affection subsisted between these two eminent men, akin to that between Paul and Timothy of old, though in one point the parallel fails—the youngest died first. Fryth was not only Tyndale's own son in the faith, but he had no man so dear to him; and as all parties, even his enemies, agreed in bearing testimony to the attainments of Fryth as a scholar, nothing could be more opportune than his arrival; but before saying more of him, some notice must be taken of William Roye, whom Tyndale had found it necessary to dismiss from his service in 1525.

In 1526, as already hinted, circumstances having suggested to our Translator, the necessity of encouraging those to whom