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Tindale and the 1533 English Enchiridion of Erasmus

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 December 2020

John Archer Gee
John Archer Gee*
Affiliation:
Yale University
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Extract

During the latter half of Henry VIII's reign various English presses issued vernacular editions of many of Erasmus' writings. The most popular was a version, published first toward the end of 1533 and frequently thereafter, of the Enchiridion militis Christiani. This treatise had a large circulation throughout Europe. Appearing first in 1503 (or 1504), it received for a decade or so no great attention, but after 1515 edition followed edition in rapid succession. Between 1519 and 1542 it was issued in translation, usually in at least two versions, in eight different languages.

Type
Research Article
Information
PMLA , Volume 49 , Issue 2 , June 1934 , pp. 460 - 471
Copyright
Copyright © Modern Language Association of America, 1934

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References

1 See Opus epistolarum Erasmi (1906–), ed. P. S. and H. M. Allen, i, Ep. 164, introd.—Hereafter I refer to this edition simply as “Allen.”

2 Erasmus (1900), p. 110.

3 See a list in W. H. Woodward, Erasmus concerning Education (1904), p. 235 ff.

4 In different editions of the Acts and Monuments are two variant accounts of this period of Tindale's life. Arber prints them in parallel columns. See The First Printed English New Testament (1895), p. 8 ff.—“The earlier one [1563],” says Arber, “is a brief and graphic Memorandum,—probably more correct as to the sequence of events—written from memory by a confidential friend, who had his information from Tyndale's own lips. … The later account [1570] is written impersonally, and amplified after Fox's vehement manner.” Both accounts state that Tindale translated the Enchiridion when with Sir John Walsh (Foxe spells it “Welch” or “Welche”). Though one will probable agree with a writer in the Times Literary Supplement of June 4, 1925, p. 373, that the story of Tindale's activities in Gloucestershire “is in the nature of hagiography, and must be read with caution,” there is no reason to doubt Foxe's statement that Tindale translated the Enchiridion during these years. One may question the dramatic details, but not the essential fact.

5 First published in 1871. Revised in 1886, and later by Richard Lovett. I quote always from a fairly recent edition, n.d. [1922?], of the Religious Tract Society.

6 Op. cit., p. 63 f.—The writer in TLS mentioned above (n. 4) says that Tindale went to London about the end of 1522.

7 Op. cit., p. 76 f.

8 1733 edition, i, App. (dated 1721), no. 89, p. 245 ff.—The manuscript, Cat. of Harl. MSS, i (1808), no. 425 [5], p. 250, which is among Foxe's collections, is also reprinted by Arber, op. cit., p. 12 ff., who follows Strype except in minor details such as spelling, punctuation, etc. Demaus prints a part of it (op. cit., p. 103 f.), in a version which differs somewhat from that of Strype, and he comments on Strype's inaccuracy (104 n.). Actually, however, as a re-examination of the manuscript shows, Strype offers, in spite of his careless regard for strict accuracy, an essentially more trustworthy reading than Demaus does (see infra, nn. 12 and 15). I have therefore used Strype's version in my quotation here, having collated it with the manuscript and with Demaus's version. The few variants of any importance are mentioned in footnotes. I have reduced to lower-case some of the many capitals found in Strype and not in the manuscript.

9 See Letters and Papers … of Henry VIII, iv, pt. 2, nos. 2607, 2721, 2797, 2903 f., 3132, 3962 f., 3968, 4004, 4017, 4029 f., 4038 f., 4073, 4125, 4150, 4175, 4218, 4242, 4254. See also infra, n. 22.—Hereafter I refer to the Letters and Papers as “L.P.”

10 Monmouth states this in his petition.

11 See the “articles ministered against Monmouth,” L.P., iv, no. 4260 (May 14, 1528). 12 Demaus gives the reading “lent”; Strype's reading, “sent,” agrees with the manuscript.

13 Strype omits “other,” which is in the manuscript.—Demaus's shortened quotation does not contain the sentence in which this variant wording occurs.

14 This book and probably the “Pater Noster” were by Luther. See Strype, op. cit., i, 317, items 5 and 6; L.P., iv, nos. 1962 [4 and 5] and 2607.

15 MS.—Strype has “Stochouse”; Demaus, “Slockhouse.”

16 Tunstall probably preached this sermon in the latter part of 1526. See Demaus, p. 177.

17 Tindale.

18 Demaus says (103 n.) that “this book is mentioned in such a way as to suggest that it was printed, but of this there is no proof; nor, indeed, all things considered, does it seem probable.” A 1518 Basle edition in English is listed in Bibliotheca Erasmiana (1893), p. 79, and in the later Bibliotheca Belgica (Erasmus: Enchiridion), no. 129 in the summary list. In both these books the editors have inserted the query, “London, Wynkyn de Worde?” and in the latter the authority given is the catalogue of William Ridler, London, 1891, no. 260. Now it appears almost certain that Ridler had a copy of an edition later than that of 1533 (most probably, judging by his lettering of the title, the edition of 1548) and that this copy lacked the colophon, with the result that he was misled by the last words of the prefatory Epistle, where Erasmus states that he has finished this Epistle at Basle in 1518. E. G. Duff says there is no authority for any English edition of this year (see W. H. Woodward, op. cit., p. 237). We can, I think, be quite certain that there was no edition in English before the early 1530's. A printed book, to be sure, might have completely disappeared. But had there been an early edition in English we should in all probability have heard of it more than once in the various examinations of the books of suspected heretics. Yet no mention of an English Enchiridion, except the reference in Monmouth's letter, occurs in any of the many lists we have of English books belonging to different people. Note, also, the absence of any mention of an English Enchiridion in Erasmus' letters.

19 See Dugdale, Monasticon, vi (1849), pt. 3, p. 1549 ff.—The abbey of St. Mary and St. Clare, Denny (a few miles from Cambridge and about 1½ m. N.W. of Waterbeach), was a Franciscan house founded in 1341 (15 Edw. III). The nuns numbered about twenty-five at the time of the Dissolution. Elizabeth Throkmerton (ob. Jan. 13, 1547) was the last abbess. See L.P., xiv, pt 2, no. 435 [49].—She was not, however, the one to whom Monmouth sent the Enchiridion, for she was not made abbess until August, 1536 (see ibid., xi, no. 385 [35]). Erasmus wrote to the nuns of Denny about 1526 and again during the next two years, being induced to do so by Thomas Grey. See Allen, vii, Ep. 1925, introd. and n. to I. 60.

20 Note that Monmouth states that one of the manuscripts was not returned to him (“I think my Lord of Rochester hath it”). His failure to state that the other one was not returned would perhaps indicate that this one had been sent back to him. The evidence is, however, too indefinite to warrant more than a surmise.

21 “I think my Lord of Rochester hath it” can mean nothing other than that Monmouth, when he wrote, thought it was still in Fisher's possession. Quite clearly, also, the mention that this manuscript was probably still with Fisher would certainly be understood by the examiners to imply that Monmouth was not including it in his broad summary of what was burned.

22 For West's activities against Tindale and other English Lutherans, see L.P., nos. 4657, 4693 f., 4714, 4725, 4810 f., 4826 f., 5018, 5043, 5078 f., 5275, 5292, 5402, 5462, 5667.

23 See Demaus, p. 57 f.

24 See Arber's introd. to his edition of Roy and Barlow's Rede me and be nott wrothe (“English Reprints,” vol. xiv), p. 9 ff.

25 See e.g. Records of the English Bible (1911), ed. A. W. Pollard, p. 122 ff.

26 Note that Monmouth thought that Fisher still had it in his possession.

27 See “The Day-Book of John Dorne, 1520,” ed. F. Madan in Collectanea i (Oxf. Hist. Soc., 1885), p. 157. Note nos. 1367, 1377, 1389, and 1414, which appear to be copies of various editions given in Bibliotheca Belgica as containing the 1518 Epistle.

28 See lists of his English friends drawn up by Erasmus himself (Allen, vii, Epp. 1864.13 ff. and 1874.51 ff.).

29 Ibid., Ep. 1878.

30 Ibid., Ep. 1965. 20 ff.

31 Ibid., vi, Ep. 1726.—Warham and Longlond also made him presents of money (see ibid., vii, Ep. 1931.32 n.).

32 For More's high regard in 1526 for Erasmus' pious labors, see esp. ibid., vi, Ep. 1770. 10f.

33 See T. E. Bridgett, Life of Fisher (1902), p. 101.

34 Ibid., p. 103.

35 Works of Lupset (1928), ed. J. A. Gee, 257.2 ff.

36 Ibid., 245.21 f.

37 The extent of this lay disaffection with the Church is a matter of controversy. Cf. A. F. Pollard, Henry VIII (Goupil, 1902), pp. 186 ff., 201, 214, and J. Gairdner, Lollardy and the Reformation (1908–13), i, 388 et passim.

38 For the regulation of the printing and circulation of books during these years, see A. W. Reed, Early Tudor Drama (1926), chap. 7.

39 Times Literary Supplement (August 13, 1931), p. 621.

40 The Apologye of Syr Thomas More, Knyght, ed. A. I. Taft, in E.E.T.S., O.S. 180 (1930), p. 66. See also a passage in “The Debellation of Salem and Bizance” in Works (1557), p. 937C.

41 Strype, op. cit., i, App., no. 90, p. 249 ff.

42 Fisher's furniture and plate were confiscated in April, 1534, soon after his committal to the Tower. Partial inventories of his goods have come down (L.P., vii, no. 557; viii, no. 888), but there is no list of his books and manuscripts, which were also seized at this time. See Bridgett, op. cit., pp. 62 ff., 284 f.; Gairdner, op. cit., i, 468 f.

43 In the 1518 edition there occurs the following sequence of nouns: libido, ira, vindicta (Allen, iii, Ep. 858.317). But in subsequent printings of the Latin Enchiridion the word ira was omitted (ibid., n.). Since it appears in translation in the 1533 English version (b6r: “lechery/ yre/ vengeaunce”), we may be positive that the translator used this earliest edition of the complete work.

44 Life of Johnson (O.U.P., 1904), i, 58.

45 See H. Bradley, The Making of English (1904), p. 220.

46 Ibid., p. 222.

47 Cf. Wyclif: “i. or titil.” Lupset in 1529 uses the expression “euery iote, euery title, euery mote of vertu” (Works, 248.28).

48 The N.E.D. cites Barnes, 1540, as the first use of this word. But it occurs in Tindale's Obedience of a Christian Man. See Works [Parker Society], ed. H. Walter, i (1848), 184.6.

49 Coverdale wrote A Shorte Recapitulation or Abrigement of Erasmus Enchiridion which was published in 1545. It is reprinted in Writings and Translations of Coverdale [Parker Society], ed. G. Pearson (1844), p. 489 ff. The wording of this brief summary shows clearly that Coverdale was familiar with the translation first printed in 1533. Cf., e.g., ibid., p. 504 f. with Enchiridion, 1533, E6r ff.

50 Cf., for example, the following versions of Matthew 5.40. Wycliffite: “and to hym that wole stryue with thee in doom, and take awey thi coote, leeue thou to him also thi mantil” in The New Testament in English … by Wycliffe and Purvey, ed. J. Forshall and F. Madden (Oxford, 1879), p. 9; Enchiridion, 1533: “And who so euer wyll stryue with the in the lawe/ & take from the thy cote/ yelde up to hym also thy cloke or mantell” (N6v); Tindale, 1525: “And yf eny man wyll sue the at the lawe/ and take thi coote from the/ lett hym have thi clooke also” in The Beginning of the New Testament … by Tyndale, 1525, introd. by A. W. Pollard (Oxford, 1926).