Nor should the work of the Christian Humanists be forgotten. The double
tendency in their longings for a reformation of the abuses of
superstition, of pilgrimages, of relic-worship, etc., may be seen in the
lives of Sir Thomas More and of William Tyndale. When the former saw
that reform meant the breaking up of the mediæval Church, he became more
and more conservative. But More in 1520 (Feb. 28th) could write to Lea
that if the Pope (Leo X.) should withdraw his approval of Erasmus' Greek
New Testament, Luther's attacks on the Holy See were piety itself
compared with such a deed.[380] Tyndale, the favourite pupil of Dean
Colet, on the other hand, went forward and earned the martyr's crown.
These Christian Humanists had expected much from Henry VIII., whom they
looked on as imbued with the New Learning; and in the end perhaps they
were not altogether mistaken. If the _Bishops' Book_ and the _King's
Book_ be studied, it will be seen that in both what is insisted upon is
a reformation of conduct and a study of the Bible--quite in the spirit
of Colet and of Erasmus.
The writings of Luther found early entrance into England, and were read
by King[381] and people. A long list of them, including six copies of
his work _De potestate Papæ_, is to be found in the stock of the Oxford
bookseller, John Dorne[382] (1520). Erasmus, writing to Oecolampadius
(May 15th, 1521), declares that there are many of Luther's books in
England, and hints that but for his exertions they would have been
burnt.[383] That was before Luther's official condemnation. On May 28th,
Silvester, Bishop of Worcester, wrote to Wolsey from Rome announcing
that the Cardinals had agreed to declare Martin a heretic, and that a
Bull was being prepared on the subject.[384] The Bull itself appeared in
Rome on the 15th of June; and thereafter our information about Luther's
writings in England comes from evidence of endeavours to destroy them.
Warham, the Archbishop of Canterbury, wrote to Wolsey (March 8th, 1521)
that he had received letters from Oxford which declared that the
University was infected with Lutheranism, and that the forbidden books
were in circulation there.[385] Indeed, most of the canons appointed to
Wolsey's new foundation of the Cardinal College were suspect. Cambridge
was as bad, if not worse. Members of the University met at the White
Horse Tavern to read and discuss Luther's writings; the inn was called
"Germany," and those who frequented it "the Germans." Pope Leo urged
both the King and Wolsey to prevent the circulation of Lutheran
literature; and they did their best to obey. We read that on May 12th,
1521, Wolsey went in great state to St. Paul's, and after various
ceremonies mounted a scaffold, seated himself "under a cloth of estate,"
and listened to a sermon preached by Bishop Fisher against Lutheran
errors. At his feet on the right side sat the Pope's ambassadors and
the Archbishop of Canterbury, and on the left side the imperial
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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