[362] Whatsoever truth is taught them, these enemies of all truth quench it again. Tynd. Doctr. Tr. p. 394.
[363] impossible to establish the lay people in any truth, except the Scripture were plainly laid before their eyes in their mother-tongue. Ibid.
[Sidenote: THE PRIESTS IN THE ALEHOUSES.]
Then a great idea sprang up in Tyndale's heart: "It was in the language of Israel," said he, "that the Psalms were sung in the temple of Jehovah; and shall not the Gospel speak the language of England among us?... Ought the church to have less light at noonday than at the dawn?... Christians must read the New Testament in their mother-tongue." Tyndale believed that this idea proceeded from God. The new sun would lead to the discovery of a new world, and the infallible rule would make all human diversities give way to a divine unity. "One holdeth this doctor, another that," said Tyndale, "one followeth Duns Scotus, another St. Thomas, another Bonaventure, Alexander Hales, Raymond of Penaford, Lyra, Gorram, Hugh de Sancto Victore, and so many others besides.... Now, each of these authors contradicts the other. How then can we distinguish him who says right from him who says wrong?... How?... Verily, by God's word."[364] Tyndale hesitated no longer.... While Wolsey sought to win the papal tiara, the humble tutor of Sodbury undertook to place the torch of heaven in the midst of his fellow-countrymen. The translation of the Bible shall be the work of his life.
The first triumph of the word was a revolution in the manor-house. In proportion as Sir John and Lady Walsh acquired a taste for the Gospel, they became disgusted with the priests. The clergy were not so often invited to Sodbury, nor did they meet with the same welcome.[365] They soon discontinued their visits, and thought of nothing but how they could drive Tyndale from the mansion and from the diocese.
[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.