chaplains, but without success, notwithstanding Sir Henry Guildford, master of the horse, and controller to King Henry VIII. who was the friend of Sir John Welch, and a great patron of learned men, used his influence with the bishop in behalf of Tyndall, who had presented to him an oration of Isocrates, translated from the Greek, as a proof of his learning at a time when Greek was understood by very few even of the learned in England. After this unsuccessful application to Bishop Tunstall, he resided for half a year in the house of Mr. HUMPHREY MONMOUTH, a wealthy citizen of London; * and then

*The account which Fox gives of this generous patron of Tyndall, is so interesting, notwithstanding its antiquated style, that the insertion of it will need no apology. "Master HUMFREY MUMMUTH was a right godly and sincere alderman of London, who, in the dayes of Cardinall Wolsey, was troubled and put in the tower, for the Gospell of Christ, and for maintaining them that favoured the same."

"Stockesley, then bishop of London, ministred articles unto him to the number of foure and twentie; as for adhering to Luther and his opinions; for having and reading hereticall bookes and treatises; for giving exhibition to William Tindall, Roy, and such other; for helping them over the sea to Luther; for ministring prime helpe to translate, as well the Testament, as other bookes into English; for eating flesh in Lent; for affirming faith onely to justifie; for derogating from men's constitutions; for not praying to saints, not allowing pilgrimage, auricular confession, the pope's pardons; briefely, for being an advancer of all Martin Luther's opinions, &c."

"Hee being of these articles examined, and cast into the tower, at last was compelled to make his sute or purgation, writing to the Cardinall, [Wolsey,] then lord chancellor, and the whole councell, out of the Tower. In the contents whereof he answered to the criminous accusation of them which charged him with certaine bookes received from beyond the sea; also for his acquaintance with master Tindall. Whereupon he said, that he denied not, but that foure yeares then past hee had heard the said Tindall preach two or three sermons at Saint Dunstan's in the West, and afterward meeting with the said Tindall, had certaine communication with him concerning his living: who then told him that he had none at all, but trusted to be in the bishop of London his service; for then hee laboured to be his chaplaine. But being refused of the bishop, hee came again to the said Mummuth this examinate, and besoughte him to helpe him. Who the same time tooke him into his house for halfe a yeare: where the said Tindall lived (as he said) like a good priest, studying both night and day. He would eat but sodden meat by his good will, nor drinke but small single beare. He was never seen in that house to weare linnen about him, all the space of his being there. Whereupon the VOL. II. 2 B

went abroad, in order to accomplish with more safety his great design of translating the NEW TESTAMENT into English. He first visited Saxony, where he held confer

said Mummuth had the better liking of him, so that he promised him ten pound, (as he then said,) for his father's and mother's soules, and all Christian soules; which money, afterward, he sent him over to Hamborow, according to his promise. And yet, not to him alone hee gave his exhibition, but to divers other moe likewise which were no heretikes: as, to Doctor Royston, the bishop of London's chaplaine, hee exhibited fortie or fiftie pounds; to Doctor Wodihall, provinciall of the frier Augustins, as much, or more; to Doctor Watson, the king's chaplaine; also to other schollers, and divers priests; besides other charges bestowed upon religious houses, as upon the nunnerie of Denney, above fiftie pounds sterling bestowed, &c."

"And as touching his bookes, as Enchiridion, the Pater Noster, De Libertate Christiana, an English Testament, of which, some William Tindall left with him, some hee sent unto him, some were brought into his house, by whom he could not tell; these bookes, hee said, did lie open in his house, the space of two yeares together, he suspecting no harme to be in them. And, moreover, the same bookes being desired of sundry persons, as of the abbesse of Denney, a frier of Greene wich, the father confessor of Sion, he let them have them, and yet he never heard frier, priest, or layman find any fault with the said books. Likewise to Doctor Watson, to Doctor Stockhouse, Master Martin, parson of Totingbecke, he committed the perusing of the bookes of Pater Noster, and De Libertate Christiana, which found no great fault in them, but only in the booke De Libertate Christiana, they said there were things somewhat hard, except the reader were wise."

"Thus he excusing himselfe, and moreover complaining of the losse of his credit by his imprisonment in the tower, and of the detriments of his occupying, who was wont yeerly to ship over five hundred clothes to strangers, and set many clothiers aworke in Suffolke, and in other places, of whom he bought all their clothes, which were now almost all undone; by this reason, at length, he was set at libertie, being forced to abjure, and after was made knight by the king, and sheriffe of London."

"Of this Humfrey Mummuth we read of a notable example of Christian patience, in the sermons of Mr. Latimer, which the said Latimer heard in Cambridge, of Master George Stafford, reader of the divinitie lecture in that universitie. Who, expounding the place of St. Paul to the Romans, that we shall overcome our enemie with well doing, and so heape hot coles upon his head, &c. brought in an example, saying, that he knew in London, a great rich merchant, (meaning this Humfrey Mummuth,) which had a very poore neighbour: yet, for all his povertie he loved him very well, and lent him money at his need, and let him come to his table whensoever he would, It was even at that time when Doctor Collet was in trouble, and should have beene burnt, if God had not turned the king's heart to the contrary. Now the rich man began to be a Scripture man, he began to smell the Gospel. The poore man

ences with Luther and other learned reformers, and then returned to the Netherlands, and settled at Antwerp, where there was a very considerable factory of English merchants, many of whom were very zealous adherents to Luther's doctrine. Here he engaged in his translation of the NEW TESTAMENT, and afterwards of the PENTATEUCH, and the prophecy of JONAH; and probably of other parts of the Old Testament. In 1503, he sailed for Hamburgh, intending there to print his translation of the Pentateuch; but the vessel being wrecked, he lost all his money, books, writings, and copies, and arriving at Hamburgh was obliged to begin the translation anew, which, with the assistance of Miles Coverdale, bishop of Exeter, who had escaped from the fury of persecution, he soon completed; and then returned to his former residence at Antwerp. Whilst at Hamburgh, he lodged in the house of Mrs. Margaret Van Emmerson, a respectable and liberal lady. At Antwerp he resided with

was a papist still. It chanced on a time, when the rich man talked of the Gospell, sitting at his table, where he reproved popery and such kinde of things; the poore man being there present, tooke a great displeasure against the rich man, insomuch that he would come no more to his house; he would borrow no more money of him as he was wont to doe before times, yea, and conceived such hatred and malice against him, that he went and accused him before the bishops. Now the rich man not knowing of any such displeasure, offered many times to talke with him, and to set him at quiet. It would not be. The poore man had such a stomacke, that he would not vouchsafe to speake with him. If hee met the rich man in the streete, he would go out of his way. One time it happened that hee met him so in a narrow street, that he could not avoyd but come neere him; yet, for all this, the poore man (I say,) had such a stomacke against the rich man, that hee was minded to go forward, and not to speake with him. The rich man perceiving that, caught him by the hand, and asked him, saying, Neighbour, what is come into your heart to take such displeasure with me? What have I done against you? Tell mee, and I will bee readie at all times to make you amends.' Finally, hee spake so gently, so charitably, so lovingly, and friendly, that it wrought so in the poore man's heart, that by and by, he fell downe upon his knees, and asked him forgiveness. The rich man forgave him, and so tooke him againe to his favour, and they loved as well as ever they did afore."-Fox's Actes and Monumentes, II. pp. 257, 258.

Thomas Pointz, an Englishman, who entertained a cordial friendship for him, and in the end suffered imprisonment on his account.

The English translations by Tyndall, as well as his defence of them in answer to Sir Thomas More's "Dyaloge," and his other works, being extensively circulated in England, Henry VIII. and his council, among whom Sir Thomas More appears to have borne a principal part, employed one Henry Philips to betray him. This base wretch went over to Antwerp, insinuated himself into his friendship, and then by an act of treachery decoyed him into the hands of the procurator-general of the emperor's court at Brussels, and other officers, by whom he was conveyed to the castle of Filford, or Villefort, and imprisoned, although the procurator declared that he was "homo doctus, pius, et bonus," a learned, pious, and good man. The English merchants addressed letters in favour of Tyndall to the court of Brussels, and others were obtained from Secretary Cromwell to the same court; but his release was prevented by the stratagems of Philips, who accused Pointz to the court, and thereby defeated the exertions of Tyndall's friends.

Pointz happily made his escape by night, but Tyndall was reserved for a more dreadful fate. Being brought to trial, he pleaded his own cause, but without effect, for he was condemned by virtue of the emperor's decree, made in the assembly at Augsburg; and being brought to the place of execution, he cried, "Lord! open the king of England's eyes." He was first strangled, and then burnt. This severe sentence was executed at the town of Filford, in 1536, after he had been in prison about a year and a half; during which time his exemplary life and conversation so far influenced the jailor and his daughter, and others of his family, that they are said to have embraced his opinions.

The traitor Philips is reported to have died a miserable

death, being worn out by the Phthiriasis, or pedicular distemper. 13

Tyndall's principal theological and controversial tracts were collected together, and printed with the works of John Fryth, and Barnes, in one volume, fol. by John Day, 1572.

The rigour with which Henry VIII. pursued the excellent Tyndall and his followers, served to mark the inconsistency of that monarch's character, who, through the whole of his reign, distinguished himself, sometimes by the zeal with which he promoted Oriental and Biblical literature, and at other times by the cruel policy which he exercised against those who read and studied the Oracles of Truth. Just before his opposition to Tyndall, he had instituted, in 1530, the first Hebrew professorship, at Oxford, and appointed as professor, his chaplain, ROBERT WAKEFIELD, one of the most eminent Orientalists of the age, and who had previously been professor at Louvain, and taught Hebrew at Tubingen after the death of Reuchlin.

In 1524, this learned divine published an inaugural discourse, on the utility of the Arabic, Chaldee, and Hebrew tongues, Oratio de laudibus et utilitate trium linguarum Arabicæ, Chaldaicæ, et Hebraicæ, &c. 4to. The printer was Wynkyn de Worde, and the author complains, that he was obliged to omit his whole third part, because the printer had no Hebrew types. Some few Hebrew and Arabic characters, however, are introduced; but extremely rude, and evidently cut in wood. They are the first of the sort made use of in England. This great Orientalist was instrumental in preserving, at the dissolution of the monasteries, the Hebrew MSS. belonging to Ramsay Abbey, collected by Holbech, or Holbeach, one of the monks, in the reign of Henry IV. (13) Fox's Actes and Monumentes, II. pp. 361-367.

Chalmers' Gen, Biog. Dict. XXX, pp. 128–132.