"the convocation house, to make all other afraid."" A search was then made in the rooms of certain persons for prohibited books. Those who were suspected of having them, were in number about thirty, and doubtless Coverdale, as the friend and pupil of Barnes, was one of them. However, matters were so well managed, that they had intimation of the intended search from Dr. Farman, of Queen's, and had time to convey away or conceal the whole of them, so that not a single one was seized.

Barnes was taken up to London. He was not deserted even in this great peril by his friend and pupil, Coverdale, who accompanied him, and remained with him, and wrote for him. When Barnes was brought before Wolsey, he showed himself so unbending, that, but for the intercession of Fox and Gardiner, he would have been committed to the Tower. On the next morning he was taken before the Chapter, sitting at Westminster, and without hearing, committed to the Fleet, and the warden strictly charged that no man should speak to him. On the Saturday following, he underwent a threatening and harassing examination before the Chapter, which ended in the ordinary alternative being offered to him, either to abjure or to burn. Whilst he was in a state of agony, determining himself to win the crown of martyrdom, "Fox and they persuaded him "rather to abjure than to burn, because (they said) "he should do more good in time to come, and with

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divers other persuasions which were mighty in the sight of reason and foolish flesh." He accordingly did abjure, and performed a degrading penance at St. Paul's, at which the Cardinal attended with great pomp. He was afterwards confined as a prisoner for some time, and would, for some fresh offence that he had given, have been burnt, had he not escaped abroad.'

Coverdale was naturally of an enthusiastic temperament, regulated however by piety and devotion; for we are told by one who was his contemporary, and who studied at the same time with Barnes at Cambridge," that whilst "others dedicated themselves in part only, " he gave himself wholly up to propagating the truth "of the gospel." He had here however in the example of his master and friend, a proof of the fate which, sooner or later, would befal him, if he still persisted in the course he was now pursuing. All the reward he could expect in this world would be persecution and suffering. But these severities, which would have cowed and terrified a more apprehensive and timid disposition, seemed but to arouse the native energy and loftiness of his mind; and, throwing aside as worthless all earthly interests and considerations, he resolved to seek only that which was most acceptable in the sight of his God and his conscience. He found now that no middle course was left him to follow.

? Fox's Acts and Monuments, vol. ii. p. 519. Dr. Barnes was afterwards condemned and burned for heresy in London, to which place he had returned from the continent, and where, for some time, Henry treated him with great favour. He was burned on the 20th of July, 1540.

He must either openly profess his reformed doctrines, or else at once renounce them. The former alternative was the only one that he felt he could follow, and he adopted it accordingly. He laid aside his habit of a monk, assumed that of a secular priest, and having abandoned his convent and order, went about preaching at different places, and arguing, with the view to convert those whom he met, from the Roman Catholic doctrines.

cure.

In the commencement of 1528, we find that he was at Bumsteed in Essex, of which Richard Fox had the One Thomas Topley, an Augustine friar of Stoke Clare, who was then doing duty for Fox at Bumsteed, was induced, partly by the perusal of certain books of the reformed doctrine, and partly by means of Coverdale and Richard Fox, to cast off both his order and his habit, and to go as a secular priest. He was however informed against, and taken before Cuthbert, Bishop of London, and under the usual threat of being burnt in case of refusal, compelled to abjure. He there stated that having read a book of Wicliff's, which he found at Fox's, he was much perplexed in mind "until he heard Sir Myles "Coverdale preach, and then his mind was sore with"drawn from that blessed sacrament, insomuch that " he took it then but for the remembrance of Christ his body." He further stated, "that in Lent last past, "as he was walking in the fields at Bumsteed, with "Sir Myles Coverdale, who had preached the fourth Sunday in Lent at Bumsteed, they did commune together of Erasmus's works, and also upon confes

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sion; the which Sir Myles Coverdale said and did hold, that it was sufficient for a man to be contrite "for his sins betwixt God and his conscience, without "confession made to a priest: which opinion the respondent thought to be true, and did affirm and "hold the same at that time. Also he stated that at the said sermon made by the said Myles Coverdale "at Bumsteed, he heard him preach against worshipping of images in the church, &c."

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From Coverdale's name being thus mentioned in so public a manner, it was clear that he could no longer remain in England. As the Bishop's attention had thus been so pointedly directed to him, as to one who was going about corrupting the weak and the credulous, and disseminating heretical and blasphemous doctrines, it did not require much foresight to see that if he once got into his hands, he could not escape except on the usual alternative of abjuring or burning. He therefore determined to make his escape from England; and as Germany and the Northern States were the only safe parts to which those of the reformed religion could betake themselves, he resolved on proceeding thither; particularly as through the means of Barnes, or his own reputation for learning and letters, he was favourably esteemed by Tyndal,' who was then abroad engaged in translating the Scriptures into English.

Fox's Acts and Monuments, vol. ii. p. 323.

Offor's Life of Tyndal, attached to the reprint of his New Testament.

CHAPTER II.

TYNDAL'S NEW TESTAMENT PUBLISHED. PROHIBITION OF IT BY THE BISHOP OF LONDON. WRITINGS OF SIR THOS. MORE

AGAINST IT. HALLE'S ACCOUNT OF THE BURNING OF THIS COVERDALE GOES TO ANTWERP AND ASSISTS

TRANSLATION.

PROCEEDINGS

TYNDAL IN TRANSLATING THE PENTATEUCH.
IN ENGLAND AGAINST TYNDAL'S NEW TESTAMENT AND THE
WRITINGS OF THE REFORMERS. SEVERE PROCLAMATION OF
THE KING AGAINST.-BISHOP OF NORWICH DESIRES FURTHER
AUTHORITY TO SUPPRESS HERESY IN HIS DIOCESE.

AND now to look back a short period. In the year 1526, the whole of the New Testament was published in English for the first time." William Tyndal translated it, and about 1500 copies of this impression were issued from the press." He dared not print it in England, but brought it out at Antwerp, from whence it was sent over into England.

Several writers who have engaged in the history of our early printers, have expressed much surprise

a

Copy in the Baptist Museum, Bristol. Imperfect one at St. Paul's. Mr. Bagster has published a reprint of this scarce and curious work. Fox's Acts and Monuments, quoted in Lewis's transl. Bible, p. 61, incorrectly numbered as p. 77.