[315] Bigland's Glo'ster, p. 293. Annals of the English Bible, i. p. 19.
[316] From a child. Foxe, Acts and Mon. v. p. 115.
[317] Proceeding in degrees of the schools. Ibid.
Oxford, where Erasmus had so many friends, was the city in which his New Testament met with the warmest welcome. The young Gloucestershire student, inwardly impelled towards the study of sacred literature, read the celebrated book which was then attracting the attention of Christendom. At first he regarded it only as a work of learning, or at most as a manual of piety, whose beauties were calculated to excite religious feelings; but erelong he found it to be something more. The more he read it, the more was he struck by the truth and energy of the word. The strange book spoke to him of God, of Christ, and of regeneration, with a simplicity and authority which completely subdued him. William had found a master whom he had not sought at Oxford--this was God himself. The pages he held in his hand were the divine revelation so long mislaid. Possessing a noble soul, a bold spirit, and indefatigable activity, he did not keep this treasure to himself. He uttered that cry, more suited to a Christian than to Archimedes: eὕrêka, _I have found it_. It was not long before several of the younger members of the university, attracted by the purity of his life and the charms of his conversation,[318] gathered round him, and read with him the Greek and Latin gospels of Erasmus.[319] "A certain well-informed young man," wrote Erasmus in a letter wherein he speaks of the publication of his New Testament, "began to lecture with success on Greek literature at Oxford."[320] He was probably speaking of Tyndale.
[318] His manners and conversation being correspondent to the Scriptures. Ibid.
[319] Read privily to certain students and fellows, instructing them in the knowledge and truth of the Scriptures. Ibid.
[320] Oxoniæ cum juvenis quidam non vulgariter doctus. (Erasm. Ep. p. 346.) A certain youth at Oxford of uncommon learning.
The monks took the alarm. "_A barbarian_," continues Erasmus, "entered the pulpit and violently abused the Greek language."--"These folk," said Tyndale, "wished to extinguish the light which exposed their trickery, and they have been laying their plans these dozen years."[321] This observation was made in 1531, and refers therefore to the proceedings of 1517. Germany and England were beginning the struggle at nearly the same time, and Oxford perhaps before Wittemberg. Tyndale, bearing in mind the injunction: "When they persecute you in one city, flee ye into another," left Oxford and proceeded to Cambridge. It must needs be that souls whom God has brought to his knowledge should meet and enlighten one another: live coals, when separated, go out; when gathered together, they brighten up, so as even to purify silver and gold. The Romish hierarchy, not knowing what they did, were collecting the scattered brands of the Reformation.