[365] Neither had they the cheer and countenance when they came, as before they had. Foxe, Acts, v. p. 1.6. Unwilling to compromise themselves in this warfare, they sent forward some of those light troops which the church has always at her disposal. Mendicant friars and poor curates, who could hardly understand their missal, and the most learned of whom made _Albertus de secretis mulierum_ their habitual study, fell upon Tyndale like a pack of hungry hounds. They trooped to the alehouses,[366] and calling for a jug of beer, took their seats, one at one table, another at another. They invited the peasantry to drink with them, and entering into conversation with them, poured forth a thousand curses upon the daring reformer: "He's a hypocrite," said one; "he's a heretic," said another. The most skilful among them would mount upon a stool, and turning the tavern into a temple, deliver, for the first time in his life, an extemporaneous discourse. They reported words that Tyndale had never uttered, and actions that he had never committed.[367] Rushing upon the poor tutor (he himself informs us) "like unclean swine that follow their carnal lusts,"[368] they tore his good name to very tatters, and shared the spoil among them; while the audience, excited by their calumnies and heated by the beer, departed overflowing with rage and hatred against the heretic of Sodbury. [366] Come together to the alehouse, which is their preaching place. Tynd. Doct. Tr. 394 [367] They add too of their own heads what I never spake. Ibid. p. 395. [368] Ibid. Expositions, p. 10. [Sidenote: TYNDALE CITED BEFORE THE CHANCELLOR.] After the monks came the dignitaries. The deans and abbots, Sir John's former guests, accused Tyndale to the chancellor of the diocese,[369] and the storm which had begun in the tavern burst forth in the episcopal palace. [369] Tyndale, Doctr. Tr. 395. The titular bishop of Worcester (an appanage of the Italian prelates) was Giulio de' Medici, a learned man, great politician, and crafty priest, who already governed the popedom without being pope.[370] Wolsey, who administered the diocese for his absent colleague, had appointed Thomas Parker chancellor, a man devoted to the Roman church. It was to him the churchmen made their complaint. A judicial inquiry had its difficulties; the king's companion-at-arms was the patron of the pretended heretic, and Sir Anthony Poyntz, Lady Walsh's brother, was sheriff of the county. The chancellor was therefore content to convoke a general conference of the clergy. Tyndale obeyed the summons, but foreseeing what awaited him, he cried heartily to God, as he pursued his way up the banks of the Severn, "to give him strength to stand fast in the truth of his word."[371] [370] Governava il papato e havia piu zente a la sua audienzia che il papa. (He governed the popedom, and had more people at his audiences than the pope.) Relazione di Marco Foscari, 1526. [371] Foxe, Acts. v. p. 116.