teaching; was set in the stocks at Reading as a vagrant ; released himself by making an appeal in Greek to a passing schoolmaster; was hunted by his brother in learning, Sir Thomas More, the famous chancellor ; taken prisoner, confined in the Tower; had to contend before the Chancellor for dear life in defence of dearer truth; was arraigned and questioned before the Archbishop, again before the Bishop of Winchester, again before the whole episcopal court; would only defend, and would not recant; was condemned and cruelly burnt to death on the 20th of June, 1533. Fryth deserves eminent rank as a vigorous believer, as well as a ripe scholar and bold assertor of the truth. His career was short and bright. He found time to write and publish the most telling books of the day against the sacramentarian errors of the Romanists, which, more than any others, obstructed the career of evangelism.

To live "as ever in the great Taskmaster's eye" is a noble attainment; but to do so amidst the undeserved hate and contempt of the world, the penalties of voluntary poverty, the prospect of cruel martyrdom, is heroism of the highest order. We may learn the secret of their strength by stepping into the study of Anthony Delaber, one of the young men at St. Alban's Hall, who favoured the visits of the book-bearer Thomas Garrett from London. After narrating the escape of Garrett, he writes

"When he was gone down the stairs from my chamber, I straightway did shut my chamber door, and went into my study, and took the New Testament in my hands, kneeled down on my knees, and with many a deep sigh

and salt tear did I, with much deliberation, read over the tenth chapter of St. Matthew his Gospel: and when I had so done, with fervent prayer I did commit unto God that our dearly-beloved brother Garrett, earnestly beseeching Him in and for Jesus Christ's sake, His only begotten Son our Lord, that He would vouchsafe not only safely to conduct and keep our said dear brother from the hands of all his enemies, but also that he would endue his tender and lately-born little flock in Oxford with heavenly strength by his Holy Spirit, that they might be able thereby valiantly to withstand to His glory all their fierce enemies, and also might quietly, to their own salvation, with all godly patience, bear Christ's heavy cross; which I now saw was presently to be laid on their young and weak backs, unable to bear so huge a burden without the great help of His Holy Spirit. This done, I laid aside my book safe."*

The opposition made by the ecclesiastics to the spread of Tyndale's Version, appears to have called forth a spirited treatise in favour of the right of the people to God's Word, which is found at length in Foxe.+ The sympathy which the writer reckoned upon, is indicated in the closing sentence of this calm and able production : "Who that findeth or readeth this letter, put it forth in examination, and suffer it not to be hid or destroyed, but multiplied; for no man knoweth what profit may come thereof. For he that compiled it purposeth, with God's help, to maintain it unto the death if need be. And therefore, all Christian men and women! pray that the + Vol. iv., p. 671.

* Foxe.

Word of God may be unbound, and delivered from the power of Antichrist, and runne among his people."

It is impossible to attribute the English Reformation either exclusively to the resurrection of the Greek Testament at Cambridge, to the charms of Ann Boleyn at Hever, or to the pen of Luther at Wittenberg. All these things worked together for its good, but its origin was clearly antecedent to any of them; so that when the ripe Christianity of the scholars was promulgated, it was immediately supported by the foregone conclusions of multitudes of thoughtful though unlettered men. The doctrine of justification by the work of Christ alone, was the faith of people in English homes, long ere it was nailed to cathedral doors in Germany or publicly discussed at Cambridge.

We may well conceive the wonder and joy of the poor despised Lollards, when they received the astonishing news that the most learned men in the Universities, and most exalted men at Court, were converts to the faith. On the receipt of these glad tidings, they counted their own individual persecution but a light affliction, and anticipated for the nation a glorious future.

In the year 1531, vital personal religion was burning, with strong but sad-coloured flame, in the breast of "little Bilney," the pensive, strong-minded, faint-hearted Cambridge man. On the Friday before his execution, whilst in prison in the Guildhall at Norwich, talking with his friends about the fiery trial expected on the morrow, and after proving his courage by burning his finger in the candle, he took for his topic the text, "Fear not; for I

have redeemed thee, and called thee by thy name: thou art mine. When thou goest through the water, I will be with thee; and the strong floods shall not overflow thee; when thou walkest in the fire, it shall not burn thee, and the flame shall not kindle upon thee: for I am the Lord thy God, the Holy One of Israel, thy Saviour." Which, says old Foxe, "he did most comfortably intreat of, as well in respect of himself, as applying it to the particular use of his friends there present; of whom some took such sweet fruit therein, that they caused the whole said sentence to be fairly written in tables, and some in their books; the comfort whereof in divers of them was never taken from them to their dying day."

Bilney's Bible, still preserved at Cambridge, has this passage from the 43rd of Isaiah, strongly underscored in the handwriting of the martyr. A few words from Foxe will display the great activity of divine life amongst the scholars at this time, in the very teeth of bitter persecution, and show of what heroic quality was the faith of these good men:-"This godly man (speaking of Bilney), being a bachelor of law, was but of little stature, and very slender of body; and of a strait and temperate diet; and given to good letters; and very fervent and studious in the Scriptures-as appeared by his sermons, his converting of sinners, his preaching at the lazar cots, wrapping them in sheets, helping them of that they wanted, if they would convert to Christ; laborious and painful to the desperates; a preacher to the prisoners and comfortless, a great doer in Cambridge, and a great preacher in * Foxe, vol. iv., p. 653.

Suffolk and Norfolk; and at the last in London preached many notable sermons: and before his last preaching in London, he, with Master Arthur, Master Stafford, and Master Thistel, of Pembroke Hall, converted Dr. Barnes to the Gospel of Jesus Christ our Saviour, with the assistance of Master Fork, of Bennet College, and Master Send, master of the same college; to whom also were then associate Master Parker and Master Poury. Which Bilney with Master Arthur converted one Master Lainbert, being a mass priest in Norfolk, and afterwards a martyr in London.” *

The force of personal religion in Bilney is illustrated by his letters to his Romanist priest, and even to his parents; not exhorting them to forsake Romanism as a system, nor opposing their tenets by argument, but persuading them to acknowledge their need of Christ and to embrace him. He tells the Vicar of Dereham, that if he will live according to the Gospel, and speak but one sentence of it every Sunday, yet God would own this one sentence in the conversion of souls: and to his parents he writes, admonishing them to remember the sufferings of Christ, and "howe preciouse thynges He hath bequethed -his remission of our sinnes and everlasting lyffe."

The conversion of Latimer, the fierce young debater for ritualism, by means of the deep gentle voice of Bilney; the story of their subsequent friendship in the dangerous truths, and more dangerous labours, of evangelism; of their walks together to the "Heretics' Hill;" and of their protracted conferences on Holy Scripture, * Foxe, vol. iv., p. 620.