WILLIAM TYNDALE,

TRANSLATOR OF THE BIBLE.

A

BOUT fifteen miles south-west of Gloucester is a hill, called Stinchcombe. It is said, that any one standing on its summit can see seven counties and thirty parish churches; and that you may get forty prospects from Stinchcombe Hill, comprising the distant views of the Severn winding down into the Bristol Channel, and Berkeley Castle in the foreground.

This rich and varied view has besides another interest attached to it, from its being near that spot, assigned by tradition, as being the birthplace of William Tyndale.

The beholder of that lovely scene gazes beneath him, and sees a country village church-spire rising among trees, while he remembers that both Stinchcombe and Nibley (another village to the left) dispute for the distinction of having produced William Tyndale, the translator of the Bible.

His family, of gentle origin, for centuries resided in the hundred of Berkeley; and it is an established fact, that the boyish days of that great man were chiefly passed in this district of Gloucestershire.

There was no part of England, in the first quarter of the sixteenth century, so completely under the influence of the church as the west; and no county so rich in abbeys, cathedrals, and religious houses, as Gloucestershire. The whole county was in the diocese of Worcester, which diocese included that rich tract of land extending from Kidderminster, below Bristol, to the borders of Somersetshire. All that country was, at that time, finely cultivated, as may be well imagined from the fact, that the county of Gloucester alone could boast of no fewer than six mitred abbeys-Gloucester, Cirencester, Winchcombe, Tewkesbury, Hailes, and Flaxley; the abbots of the first three having a seat in Parliament as peers of the realm. The monks were always excellent judges of the pleasantest, as well as the most productive, spots; so that its number of churches gave rise to a profane saying in the sixteenth century, that a thing 6 were as certain, as that God was in Gloucestershire.'

It was in the very heart of this land, brought up in the sight of all its superstitions, and influenced by all the traditions of his faith, that there arose William Tyndale, at whose hand the church of Rome received a death-wound, from which it has never revived its power in England. The date of our earliest translator's birth is fixed at 1484 to 1486. His father was one Thomas Tyndale (sometimes called Hitchens) who married an Alicia Hunt. Their family lineage was an ancient one; and, as Tyndale used to boast that he never had a patron,' it is to be concluded that their means were also sufficiently ample to maintain him comfortably at St. Mary Magdalen Hall, Oxford, to which he was sent at an

early age. This was a hall attached to the college of that name, and, as Tyndale, in later life, never failed to seize every opportunity of acquiring knowledge, he, doubtless, laid at Oxford, by his perseverance and patience, the foundation of his great learning. When the studies of the day were ended, he, then a slight lad, might be seen surrounded by a small cluster of chosen associates, loitering with him along the meadows by the side of the Cherwell, or seated in a group under the shade of some fine old tree in the park of their college; Tyndale, with a Bible in his hand, reading out, from time to time, different passages. It was secretly done, for this favourite study of the young student was, in those days, a strictly prohibited one; nor was it until Henry VIII. had refused to sanction Sir Thomas More's edict, as Chancellor of Oxford, which forbade their study in the original tongue, that Tyndale ventured openly to expound or read the Scriptures.

In those days, their study was rigorously forbidden, and the Oxford and Cambridge bigots used to preach against it in most violent language, exclaiming, 'Beware of Greek, lest you become a heretic;' or, Fly from Hebrew, lest ye grow Jews.'

However, before Tyndale left Oxford, Erasmus, who maintained that the study of the Scriptures was for 'the benefit and instruction of the common people,' had, in a great measure, removed the risk Tyndale ran in expounding the Scriptures to his young companions.

Therefore, during the latter part of his Oxford career, Tyndale openly held classes, to whom he explained portions of the Bible. He found, however, that the dons soon became jealous of his influence;

and that discovery may have been one of the reasons that induced him to leave Oxford for Cambridge.

From the latter University he repaired to Little Sodbury, a hamlet in his native county, and became a tutor in Sir John Walsh's family, who resided there. At that time he had already acquired distinction for learning. Indeed, on leaving college, he was a profound and erudite scholar. The Bible that he translated has been handed down, but little altered, to our own time, and in that realm on which the sun never sets,' remains a lasting monument of our obligations to him for his translation of a book, now as widely disseminated as it was formerly widely forbidden. Tyndale thus returned into Gloucestershire. Sodbury is eight miles from Stinchcombe, and is one of three hamlets bearing the same name, but distinguished from each other as, Old Sodbury, Chipping or Market Sodbury, and Little Sodbury. Sir John Walsh and his wife (a lady of the ancient house of Poyntz), lived at Little Sodbury Manorhouse, which is still standing. The manor-house is on the south-west side of the hill, on the top of which is an oblong square, the remains of a strong Roman camp, where it is said Queen Margaret first, and then King Edward, rested, before the battle of Tewkesbury. In front of the house is a little parish church, dedicated to St. Adeline, and with two old yew trees before its entrance. The manor-house is built with pointed gables, and from its windows the eye ranges over a fine view of the valley, extending to the Bristol Channel. On Sundays, Sir John and Lady Walsh, followed by their tenants and servants, used to walk to church, in which edifice Tyndale officiated as curate. He had a fine, sweet