In this valley, at the foot of Stinchcomb hill, to the south-west of Gloucester, there dwelt, during the latter half of the fifteenth century, a family which had taken refuge there during the wars of the Roses, and assumed the name of Hutchins. In the reign of Henry VII, the Lancasterian party having the upper hand, they resumed their name of Tyndale, which had been borne of yore by many noble barons.[315] In 1484, about a year after the birth of Luther, and about the time that Zwingle first saw light in the mountains of the Tockenburg, these partisans of the _red rose_ were blessed with a son, whom they called William. His youth was passed in the fields surrounding his native village of North Nibley, beneath the shadows of Berkeley Castle, or beside the rapid waters of the Severn, and in the midst of friars and pontifical collectors. He was sent very early to Oxford,[316] where he learnt grammar and philosophy in the school of St. Mary Magdalene, adjoining the college of that name. He made rapid progress, particularly in languages, under the first classical scholars in England--Grocyn, W. Latimer, and Linacre--and took his degrees.[317] A more excellent master than these doctors--the Holy Spirit speaking in Scripture--was soon to teach him a science which it is not in the power of man to impart. [315] Bigland's Glo'ster, p. 293. Annals of the English Bible, i. p. 19. [316] From a child. Foxe, Acts and Mon. v. p. 115. [317] Proceeding in degrees of the schools. Ibid.