Transcriber's Note:
The "Tindale" of this book is usually rendered as "Tyndale".
Entries in the Index to words and names mentioned in the Introduction (pp xvii-xxi)are mostly incorrect.
The Window of Thanksgiving in the Bible House, London
THE LIFE AND WORK
OF
WILLIAM TINDALE
BY
REV. W. B. COOPER, M.A., D.D.,
TORONTO
2nd Edition
LONGMANS, GREEN AND CO.
| 210 VICTORIA STREET, | TORONTO |
| 55 FIFTH AVENUE, | NEW YORK |
| 39 PATERNOSTER ROW, | LONDON |
1925
Copyright, Canada, 1924
By CANADIAN BIBLE SOCIETY
TORONTO
1st Edition, September, 1924.
2nd Edition, May, 1925.
PRINTED IN CANADA
T. H. BEST PRINTING CO. LIMITED. TORONTO
To
A. M. C.
and
C. C. C.
"A seed is sown in Britain and whether men waitfor a hundred or a thousand years they will findit flowering."
PREFACE TO SECOND EDITION
THE author is gratified at the cordialreception which the first edition of hiswork has met with. The issue of asecond edition has given the opportunity ofmaking some minor corrections, and of includingin the closing paragraphs an appreciativereference to the work of the AmericanBible Society.
Contemplation of the published work hassuggested to the author that greater significancemight have been attributed to the backgroundand environment of Tindale's earlymanhood. The breaking up of the social andreligious structure of his time, and the spreadof the New Learning over Western Europewere events profoundly affecting the characterand career of contemporary Englishyouth. Thus, the disintegration and dissolutionof the overawing authority of the Church,though she retained for decades sufficientpower to strike down her foes; the splinteredsocial unity which resulted from the decadenceof the Feudal Order, with class suspicionand hatred ensuing, combined to throwmen off their moral balance: and then intothis moral confusion came rumours of literatures,unknown and ancient, which openedto the startled minds of teachers and studentsknowledge that at once widened and mademore wondrous the world which men thoughtthey knew. The discovery of the Greek andLatin literatures excited the imaginations ofthe younger men. Oxford and Cambridgestudents in groups crossed the English Channeland enrolled themselves in the ContinentalUniversities that they might gain at firsthand the knowledge they desired. Grocyn,Linacre, and Colet came back eager to teachand guide. But most significant of all wasthis, that Erasmus landed in England.
Romantic stories were in the air of a NewWorld beyond the seas.
Now the reaction of all this on the nationat large was a disquietude and disturbancethat led confusion towards fear and panic.
Such was the atmosphere which as a youthTindale breathed. Not the least of his claimsto greatness are