one that was first discovered in England; though both seem to have reached this country about the same time, January 1526.

As we have before seen, Tyndale's friends supplied him with money for his expenses; and therefore, he most probably transmitted his works to these friends (who were chiefly English merchants), sending them by Antwerp, or up the Rhine, and so on to Holland. His agents in Antwerp were Simon Fysh, of Gray's Inn, London, and George Herman, an English merchant in that city. The quarto edition had appended to it a prologue and 'glosses,' that is, notes; but the octavo edition was issued without them, being intended by Tyndale to appear first of all. The simple and humble language of the prologue speaks for the high-minded and single objects which alone had persuaded this great man to undertake such a work. It was simply signed Y., standing in those days for T., for, in translating the Bible, he had only had God's glory' before his eyes; and he never sought, wished, or endeavoured, to found any sect. He says in his own language in the prologue :

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'I have here translated, brethren and sisters, most dear and tenderly beloved in Christ, the Bible for your spiritual edifying consolation and solace.' The prologue continues

'The causes that moved me to translate, I thought better that others should imagine, than I should rehearse them. Moreover, I supposed it superfluous; for who is so blind to ask why light should be shown to them that walk in darkness, where they cannot but stumble, and where to stumble is the danger of eternal damnation; either so despiteful that he would envy any man (I speak not, his brother) so necessary a thing;

or so bedlam mad as to affirm that good is the cause of evil, and darkness to proceed out of light, and that lying should be grounded in truth and verity; and not rather clean contrary that light destroyeth darkness, and verity reproveth all manner of lying.'

Simon Fysh had been compelled to leave England, having fallen under the Cardinal's displeasure, for taking part in a tragedy in which Wolsey thought himself deeply impugned.

This was in 1523; and the year following Fysh composed a tract, called the 'Supplication of Beggars,' levelled against Wolsey's oppressive and iniquitous taxation of the people of England, in order that he might get the necessary funds to build Cardinal College, and carry out his other ambitious schemes.

This tract accidentally fell into the King's hands; and Wolsey, alarmed at its being actively circulated abroad, obtained an order from Henry, allowing him to search in Oxford, Cambridge, and London for heretical books.

Thus did accident put the torch to the mine which had for some time been preparing for explosion. Among the people inspected and the places searched, was a narrow lane in Cheapside, nearly opposite Bow Church; and one of the persons the Cardinal wished to arrest was the Curate of All Hallows, Thomas Garret. For a long time a strong feeling, and a small party openly professing it, had existed in favour of the study of the Bible. Erasmus had been the means of this in a great measure, by introducing his Latin Testament to the notice of the Two Universities. Garret, who had for a long time traded in the sale of books, had gone down to Oxford in February 1526, with sundry Latin books, and Tyn

dale's first translation of the New Testament into English.' He was sought for some time in vain, but was at last taken in Oxford, and imprisoned. Cardinal College and Cambridge were also rigorously searched, whilst, dismayed by the persecutions, Tyndale's friend, John Fryth, fled abroad and joined him at Worms; in the meantime Wolsey sent over his emissaries to Antwerp, to discover, and, if possible, to frustrate, the importation of New Testaments, copies of which were publicly burnt in London by his orders on the 11th of February 1526. Then followed a long series of persecutions, and several subsequent but ineffectual endeavours to secure Tyndale personally, at Antwerp, and in the different places where he was supposed to be hiding.

During the interval between 1528 and 1531, when he was seen at Antwerp, by Vaughan (one of many sent over to induce him to return to England), he had translated a large portion of the Old Testament, including the Pentateuch and the book of Jonah.

Between the years 1526 to 1530, he published several books, and completed the translation of the entire Bible; though, owing to the obstacles and interruptions he had encountered, he was not able to commit the whole volume to press, nor was it freely circulated in England till after his death.

Towards the end of 1529, he was destined to a heavy trial. His friend, John Fryth, had joined him in 1526 to 1527, and had accompanied him in all his wanderings. Fryth left Antwerp in 1529, to go over to England to procure, if possible, more money for the great work. He was the son of an innkeeper at Westerham, in Kent, but had received a Cambridge education, and attained so much pro