The Testament of William Tracy Expounded
[introductory Notice
WiLniam TRAcY, EsqQ., whose last will and testament gave occasion for the following commentary upon it, and had previously been the subject of ἃ similar commentary by Frith, was the head of a family which had long been seated at Todington,in Glocestershire. Camden assumes without offering any proof, that the William Tracy whose name appears among the brutal murderers of Thomas ἃ Becket was of the same stock!. Tyndale’s paternal home was not far from Todington; and we shall find him bearing testimony, that in the days of his youth Mr Tracy was already a learned man, and more conversant with the writings of Augustine than any doctor in England known to our reformer, notwithstanding Tyndale’s long sojourn in the universities. The fruits of this course of reading appear in his will; and especially in his declaring that he would not employ any part of his property to procure any man’s help for his soul after his death. The Romish ecclesiastics had succeeded in establishing it for a rule, that if any person, possessing disposable property, should die without bequeathing part of it to the church, he should be considered as dying without confessing himself a sinner, and consequently as excommunicated, and unworthy to receive christian burial2. This rule had received a check from the lay-courts in France as early as 14093, when that country lay buried in popish darkness; and in the year previous to Mr Tracy’s making his will, the English parliament had been allowed to put a check upon the kindred exaction of mortuaries. Hence, on the one hand, Mr Tracy’s executors appear not to have shrunk from giving publicity to the testimony he had left in their hands, of his regarding masses for the dead as worthless; and on the other the clergy were not slow in manifesting that they regarded the dissemination of that testimony as a mischief which must be vigorously resisted. We shall see that Mr Tracy put his signature to his will in October, 1530; and in Foxe’s extracts from the bishop of London’s registers for that same year, which would extend in ecclesiastical reckoning to March 25th, 1531, we find that Thomas Philip was delivered by Sir Thomas More to bishop Stokesley by indenture,” when it was objected to him that he, being searched in the Tower, had found about him Tracy’s testament; and in his chamber was found cheese and butter in Lent time. Neither
[[ Camden’s Britannia, Glocestershire, p. 239, ed. 1695.] [2 Montesq. de l’Esprit des Loix. 1. 28, ch. 41.] [? 1d. and Blackstone’s Com. Vol. 11. p. 425.]]
could there anything be proved clearly against him, but only Tracy’s testament, and his butter in Lent. And presently afterwards Foxe copies another entry of a similar character, dated 1531, relating to one William Smith, a tailor Foxe, Vol. v. pp. 29. and 38.
Irritated by these discoveries of the extensive circulation of his will, the clergy presently sat in judgment on the deceased testator, and pronounced him excommunicated; for that he had left no part of his property to procure prayers for his soul. Now it was peremptorily enjoined in their law (Decret. Greg. Lib. 1. Tit. xxvrm. c. 12.), that if an excommunicated person should, by any accident, have been buried in any ecclesiastical cemetery, his bones, if still distinguishable, should be dug up and cast away. Dr Parker, the official of the Italian absentee bishop of Worcester, accordingly, dug up and burnt the mouldering corpse of Mr Tracy (Biograph. not. of Tyndale, p. xviii.); and this without waiting, as the statute law required, for the issuing of a writ in the king’s name, de heeretico comburendo. For this illegal proceeding Mr Richard Tracy, two years after, instituted a suit against Parker, and obtained a verdict against him. The penalties consequent on such verdicts were regarded, in those days, as an important source of revenue; and the king’s eourts were consequently wont to impose them with no sparing hand. Dr Parker was fined £300, according to Hall, which would be not less than a fine of £4500 at the present time.]
Ἐπ ge - - [Title and Introduction composed by Foxe, for the reprint in Day’s Jd edition.]
The Testament of Master William Tracy, EsQUIRE, Expounded by “william Tyndale; Wherein Thou Shalt Perceive with What Charity the Chancellor of Worcester Burned, When He Took Up the Dead Carcass, and Made Ashes of It After It Was Buried. 1535. To the Reader
Thou shalt understand, most dear reader, that after William Tyndale was so Judasly betrayed by an Englishman, a scholar of Louvain, whose name is Philips, there were certain things of his doing found, which he had intended to have put forth to the furtherance of God’s word; among which was this testament of M. Tracy, expounded by himself, whereunto was annexed the exposition of the same, of John Frith’s doing and own hand-writing, which I have caused to be put in print, to the intent that all the world should see how earnestly the eanonists and spiritual lawyers (which be the chief rulers under bishops in every diocese, insomuch that in every cathedral church the dean, chancellor, and archdeacon, are commonly doctors or bachelors of law) do endeavour themselves justly to judge, and spiritually to give sentence according to charity, upon all the acts and deeds done of their diocesans, after the example of the chancellor of Worcester, which, after M. Tracy was buried, (of pure zeal and love hardly) took up the dead carcass and burnt it. Wherefore he did it, it shall evidently appear to the reader in this little treatise: read it therefore, I beseech thee, and judge the spirits of our spiritualty, and pray that the Spirit of him that raised up Christ may once inhabit them, and mollify their hearts, and so illumine them, that they may both see and shew true light, and no longer to resist God nor his truth. Amen.
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