[Title in Day’s reprint.)
practise of papisticall prelates, made bp TWplliam Tyndale,
[In the yeare of our Lorde, 1530.]
[introductory Notice
The earliest known production of Tyndale, belonging to the class =. properly styled polemical, was The practice of prelates.” It issued from Hans Luft’s press at Marburg, in 15301; and the editor has collated a copy of that first edition? with the text of an edition pub- lished in the reign of Edward VI. by Scoloker and Seres?, and with that of Day’s folio reprint of Tyndale, edited for him by Foxe in the reign of Elizabeth. As the prelates whose conduct Tyndale intended m to expose were indisputably those of the church of Rome, it was E thought proper to mark this,in an edition issued after the establish- 2 ment of a protestant prelacy; especially when that prelacy had begun to be assailed by men who might be tempted to cite Tyndale’s words as meant to condemn any inequality of ranks, amongst the presbyters T! of a Christian church. Hence in Day’s reprint this treatise is called ‘The practise of papistical prelates, and its running title, at the head: of Day’s pages, is The practise of popishe prelates.’ But, besides this unimportant alteration, there are considerable suppressions in both of the old reprints. For when its author was ΙΒ composing this treatise, it was notorious that Henry VIII. was bent on having his marriage with Catharine of Aragon dissolved as unlawful; 1 and Tyndale, thinking that the king’s popish prelates had instilled z needless scruples into his breast for treacherous ends, announced in the original title-page, that the question of the lawfulness of put- ting her away was therein considered; and towards the close of the ) treatise he contended at some length, that it was neither necessary - B nor right to deny that Catharine was the king’s lawful wife. As the E English reformers were eventually well nigh unanimous in holding 3 the contrary opinion, Scoloker and Seres omitted every passage which bore upon this question, to make their edition more acceptable 2 to their protestant customers; and as Day and Foxe must have felt. that arguments tending to prove the validity of Catharine’s marriage, must also tend to prove that it was not lawful for Henry to marry τ Anne Boleyn, and consequently made the legitimacy of Elizabeth’s R birth a disputable point, their attachment to their protestant sove- ^ reign naturally led them to continue the like suppressions, though m they did not carry their caution to quite the same extent. The Parker Society cannot follow the example of these editors; for whilst it only 2 reproduees the works of such writers as appear to its council to have been faithful expositors of scriptural truths, it does not desire to have them regarded as infallible teachers. Its principle is to issue 4l
[[! See Biographical notice of Tyndale, pp. xxxix—xli.] E? F. 13, 40 in the Cambridge University Library.] fs In the possession of the Behr Society.]
3 honest reprints of such works as it selects for republication; leaving it to its readers to compare what is written with “the law and the tesuw timony;” that test which it was the glory of the reformers to have.. restored to its due authority. In the present instance, suppression Ei could not have consigned to oblivion what may be objectionable; for E. the Practice of Prelates’ was reprinted entire but a few years ago, in ae the Rev. T. Russell’s edition of Tyndale’s works: and respectable hisE torians would have been unjustly made liable to the suspicion of E. being either culpably heedless, or dishonest, if a treatise to which they have referred had been republished as correct, after the excision i of passages which they have quoted.]
I WILLIAM TYNDALE i TO THE i CHRISTIAN READER. s WHEN the old scribes and Pharisees had darkened the seripture with their traditions, and false interpretations, and wicked persuasions of fleshly wisdom; and shut up the king- ᾷ dom of heaven, which is God’s word, that the people could } not enter in unto the knowledge of the true way, as Christ Ἢ complaineth in the gospel (Matt. xxiii.); then they sat in the hearts of men with their false doctrine in the stead of God and his word, and slew the souls of the people to devour i their bodies, and to rob them of their worldly substance. 1 But when Christ and John the Baptist had restored the scripture again unto the true understanding, and had uttered their falsehood, and improved their traditions, and confounded — their false interpretations with the clear and evident texts, 1 and with power of the Holy Ghost, and had brought all; their juggling and hypocrisy to light; then they gat them: unto the elders of the people, and persuaded them, saying, This man is surely of the devil; and his miracles be of the devil, no doubt. And these good works which he doth in ] his healing the people, yea, and his preaching against our co- vetousness, are but a cloak to bring him unto his purpose; / that, when he hath gotten him disciples enough, he may rise ᾿ against the emperor and make himself king. And then shall: the Romans come, and take our land from us, and carry i away our people, and put other nations in our realm: and i so shall we lose all that we have, and the most part of us { our lives thereto. Take heed, therefore, betimes, while there is remedy, ere he go so far that ye be not able to resist him.’ pre. The elders of the people, which were rich and wealthy, though before they in a manner favoured Christ, or at the { [! The marginal notes belonging to the Marburg edition will be: marked W. T. The others were probably penned by Foxe for Day’s 3 edition.];
least way were indifferent, not greatly caring whether God or the devil reigned, so that they might bide in their authority, feared immediately (as Herod did of the loss of his kingdom, when the wise men asked where the newborn king of the Jews was), and conspired with the scribes and Pharisees against Christ, and took him and brought him unto Pilate, saying, “We have found this fellow perverting the people, and forbidding to pay tribute unto Cesar, and saying that he is a? king, and moving the people from Galilee unto this place.” Then Pilate, though he likewise was before indifferent, put now in fear of the loss of his office, through such persuasions, slew innocent Christ. And in very deed, as the scribes and Pharisees were all their lives before blind guides, unto the destruction of their souls; even so were they at their last end blind prophets, unto the destruction of their bodies. For after that they had slain Christ and divers of his apostles, and persecuted those poor wretches that believed on him, God, to avenge the poor innocent blood that bare witness unto his truth, poured his wrath among them, that they themselves rose against the emperor: and the Romans came (according.as they blindly prophesied), and slew the most part of them, and carried the rest captive into all nations, and put other nations in the realm. But whose fault was that insurrection against the emperor, and mischief that followed? Christ’s and his apostles, whom they falsely accused beforehand? Nay5, Christ taught that they should give Cesar that which pertained unto Cesar, and God that which belonged to God: even that they should give Camsar their lawful bodily service, and God the heart; and that they should love God’s law, and repent of their evil, and come and receive mercy, and let the wrath of God be taken from off them. And the apostles taught that all souls should obey the higher powers, or temporal rulers. But their obstinate malice, that so hardened their hearts that they could not repent, and their railing upon the open and manifest truth, which they could not improve, and resisting the Holy Ghost, and slaying of the preachers of righteousness, brought
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