Transcriber's Note: The "Tindale" of this book is usually rendered as "Tyndale". Entries in the Index to words and names mentioned in the Introduction (pp xvii-xxi) are mostly incorrect. [Illustration: The Window of Thanksgiving in the Bible House, London] THE LIFE AND WORK OF WILLIAM TINDALE BY REV. W. B. COOPER, M.A., D.D., TORONTO _2nd Edition_ [Printer's mark] LONGMANS, GREEN AND CO. 210 VICTORIA STREET, TORONTO 55 FIFTH AVENUE, NEW YORK 39 PATERNOSTER ROW, LONDON 1925 Copyright, Canada, 1924 By CANADIAN BIBLE SOCIETY TORONTO _1st Edition, September, 1924._ _2nd Edition, May, 1925._ PRINTED IN CANADA T. H. BEST PRINTING CO. LIMITED. TORONTO _To A. M. C. and C. C. C._ "A seed is sown in Britain and whether men wait for a hundred or a thousand years they will find it flowering." (King Arthur). PREFACE TO SECOND EDITION The author is gratified at the cordial reception which the first edition of his work has met with. The issue of a second edition has given the opportunity of making some minor corrections, and of including in the closing paragraphs an appreciative reference to the work of the American Bible Society. Contemplation of the published work has suggested to the author that greater significance might have been attributed to the background and environment of Tindale's early manhood. The breaking up of the social and religious structure of his time, and the spread of the New Learning over Western Europe were events profoundly affecting the character and career of contemporary English youth. Thus, the disintegration and dissolution of the overawing authority of the Church, though she retained for decades sufficient power to strike down her foes; the splintered social unity which resulted from the decadence of the Feudal Order, with class suspicion and hatred ensuing, combined to throw men off their moral balance: and then into this moral confusion came rumours of literatures, unknown and ancient, which opened to the startled minds of teachers and students knowledge that at once widened and made more wondrous the world which men thought they knew. The discovery of the Greek and Latin literatures excited the imaginations of the younger men. Oxford and Cambridge students in groups crossed the English Channel and enrolled themselves in the Continental Universities that they might gain at first hand the knowledge they desired. Grocyn, Linacre, and Colet came back eager to teach and guide. But most significant of all was this, that Erasmus landed in England. Romantic stories were in the air of a New World beyond the seas. Now the reaction of all this on the nation at large was a disquietude and disturbance that led confusion towards fear and panic.