This is vigorous writing, and is well calculated to answer its purpose; that is, of destroying the subtleties by means of which More and other Romish advocates endeavoured to deceive and to beguile the unwary. So keenly did the Papal party feel the importance of Tyndale’s book, that More was compelled, in spite of all his many employments, to attempt a rejoinder at once. This volume, upon which he lavished great pains, More had to confess to be a failure; men did not read it and one does not wonder at their reluctance. A specimen only will suffice of this vaunted defence of the Papacy upon the part of gentle Thomas More; in justice to Tyndale, this and similar passages should be remembered by all admirers of the Chancellor:-- “This devilish drunken soul (Tyndale!) doth abominably blaspheme, and calleth them (_i.e._, the schoolmen) liars and falsifiers of Scripture, and maketh them no better than draff. But this drowsy drudge hath drunken so deep in the devil’s dregs, that, unless he wake and repent himself, the sinner, he may hap ere long to fall into the mashing fat, and turn himself into draff, as of which the hogs of hell shall feed upon, and fill their bellies thereof.” Nothing can justify the employment of such language, and the offence appears to be the more heinous when we remember that Tyndale was at that time enduring poverty and exile, while More was enjoying the emoluments of office and the favour of the King and Bishops! To call such a man as Tyndale “a hell-hound, one of those that the devil hath in his kennel,” can never be defended by any impartial reader, and our sympathies must therefore be wholly given to Tyndale in the controversy, as our judgment must also award the palm of victory to him. To Tyndale the controversy was one not merely of life and death, for he viewed the question in its eternal issues. One would not wonder if he used somewhat strong language when he realised what the Papacy is in itself, and what its treatment of men, even of its adherents, means in degradation and defilement; but such scurrilous language as More employs at once stains his own character, and also shows his keen consciousness of having a bad case. CHAPTER VIII. _BRIBES AND BAIT; OR, THE FLY WHO WOULD NOT ENTER THE SPIDER’S WEB._ “The fairest action of our human life Is scorning to avenge an injury; For who forgives without a further strife, His adversary’s heart to him doth tie. And ’tis a fairer conquest, truly said, To win the heart than overthrow the head.” --LADY CAREW. “Hope is like the sun, which, as we journey towards it, casts the shadow of our burden behind us.”--DR. SMILES. “Scarcely can we fix our eyes upon a single passage in this wonderful Book which has not afforded comfort and instruction to thousands, and been met with tears of penitential sorrow, or grateful joy, drawn from eyes that will weep no more.”--DR. PAYSON.