History of England from the Fall of Wolsey to the Death of Elizabeth. Vol. II.Froude, James Anthony
History
History of England from the Fall of Wolsey to the Death of Elizabeth. Vol. II.
Froude, James Anthony
Great Britain -- History -- Tudors, 1485-1603
On Dec. 2d, 1525, Edward Lee, afterwards Archbishop of York, then king's
almoner, and on a mission into Spain, wrote from Bordeaux to warn Henry.
The letter is instructive:
"Please your Highness to understand that I am certainly informed as I
passed in this country, that an Englishman, your subject, at the
solicitation and instance of Luther, with whom he is, hath translated
the New Testament into English; and within few days intendeth to return
with the same imprinted into England. I need not to advertise your Grace
what infection and danger may ensue hereby if it be not withstanded.
This is the next way to fulfil your realm with Lutherians. For all
Luther's perverse opinions be grounded upon bare words of Scripture, not
well taken, ne understanded which your Grace hath opened in sundry
places of your royal book. All our forefathers, governors of the Church
of England, hath with all diligence forbid and eschewed publication of
English Bibles, as appeareth in constitutions provincial of the Church
of England. Nowe, sire, as God hath endued your Grace with Christian
courage to sett forth the standard against these Philistines and to
vanquish them, so I doubt not but that he will assist your Grace to
prosecute and perform the same--that is, to undertread them that they
shall not now lift up their heads; which they endeavour by means of
English Bibles. They know what hurt such books hath done in your realm
in times past."--Edward Lee to Henry VIII.: Ellis, third series, Vol.
II. p. 71.
[41] Answer of the Bishops: _Rolls House MS._ See cap. 3.
[42] Answer of the Bishops, Vol. I. cap. 3.
[43] See, particularly, _State Papers_, Vol. VII. p. 302.
[44] Proceedings of the Christian Brethren: _Rolls House MS._
[45] See the letter of Bishop Fox to Wolsey: Strype's _Memorials_, Vol.
I. Appendix.
[46] Particulars of Persons who had dispersed Anabaptist and Lutheran
Tracts: _Rolls House MS._
[47] Dr. Taylor to Wolsey: _Rolls House MS._ Clark to Wolsey: _State
Papers_, Vol. VII. pp. 80, 81.
[48] Ellis, third series, Vol. II. p. 189.
[49] Memoirs of Latimer prefixed to Sermons, pp. 3, 4; and see Strype's
_Memorials_, Vol. I.
[50] Foxe, Vol. V. p. 416.
[51] Tunstall, Bishop of London, has had the credit hitherto of this
ingenious folly, the effect of which, as Sir Thomas More warned him,
could only be to supply Tyndal with money.--Hall, 762, 763. The
following letter from the Bishop of Norwich to Warham shows that
Tunstall was only acting in canonical obedience to the resolution of his
metropolitan:--
"In right humble manner I commend me unto your good Lordship, doing the
same to understand that I lately received your letters, dated at your
manor of Lambeth, the 26th day of the month of May, by the which I do
perceive that your Grace hath lately gotten into your hands all the
books of the New Testament, translated into English, and printed beyond
the sea; as well those with the glosses joined unto them as those
without the glosses.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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